Are manufactured bullets/primers sealed?

[Reloadron]

So is it ok to store my ammo out in the garage? Remember im in the heat and humidity of Alabama summers...

The two main enemies of stored ammunition are heat and moisture (humidity) depending on the type of ammunition. Military surplus ammunition is designed and built to fare better in adverse conditions than commercial ammunition.

That said for a hot and humid location I like using good quality GI Ammunition cans with a good air tight seal. Toss in some desiccant and or Silica Gel packets with the ammunition. Making sure the desiccant is dry.

In your location heat is something hard to beat, especially in a garage but at least you can overcome the humidity problems.

Rotate your stock as I mentioned above.

That would be my suggestion based on your location and situation.

Ron

 

[WardenWolf]

Never seen heat alone do anything bad to good-quality ammunition. My father used to store all his ammo in the garage in Arizona. The temperature inside the garage regularly exceeds 120 degrees in summer, and a lot of that ammunition was from the 1970s and was well over 30 years old when it got shot. Always went bang.

It's the humidity that's the real killer, not the heat. Buy quality ammo, and put them in well-sealed ammo cans with desiccant. Sellier & Bellot seals their bullets and primers, so if you're really concerned, their stuff is a good choice.

 

[jamesbeat]

A few years ago, I fired a couple boxes of .45ACP GI ball that were older than me, and I was 33 at the time.
The ammo functioned flawlessly.

Recently, I tried to pull the bullet from a round of 7.62x54r.
I had just bought a Mosin Nagant, and I wanted a dummy round for function checks.
Rather than buy startlingly expensive dummy rounds or snap caps, I thought I'd just pull a bullet, pour out the powder, pop the primer and reinsert the bullet.
Well, I just couldn't get that bullet out!
If I had wiggled it from side to side with pliers I guess I could have got it loose, but I was trying not to damage the case because I still needed it to be able to fit in the chamber.
Trying to pull it straight out using pliers got me nowhere.
I still have that round, and apart from a couple of scratches on the bullet, it looks no different to how it did before I attacked it.
The scratches are so superficial that I have no qualms about firing it next time I go to the range.
There is no way that (under normal circumstances) water vapor will get inside a round of ammo that is sealed that tight.

The ammo in question is not steel cased milsurp with sealant, it is commercial brass cased stuff with no visible sealant around the primer or the bullet.

In short, even commercial ammo is pretty well-sealed and durable, and will last a long time as long as it is stored sensibly.

 

[brickeyee]

WWI-surplus .45ACP ammo (about 5000 rounds), dated ca. 1918.

We shot it up using several 1911's. No FTF's, FTE's. Our only concern was the primer compound. When we finished shooting, we would remove the grips, and soak the guns in kerosene overnight, clean them good the next day, and go about our business.

Kerosene is not a good solvent for chloride from old corrosive primers.

Plain old water is what you need, maybe with a little detergent to get into small areas(lowers surface tension).

 

[bigdaa]

I shoot a pair of CZ52's in 7.62x25.

At the time I bought them in 1997, I also ordered more than a few thousand rounds in: 1952 Bulgarian military, corrosive and:Chinese "China Sports" new manufacture non-corrosive.


The Bulgarian turned out to be very hot ammo indeed from both the report and time to target. It also proved to have not been stored properly with cardboard decaying and surrounding treated sealing bond on the package broke.

Out of a 40 round box I may get (to this day) a couple of FTF and a couple DELAYED FIRES.
This ammunition is relegated to MY USE ONLY.

The Chinese ammo???????? Not a problem whatsoever to this day.


Out of my Garand I shoot Austrian Military ammunition made in 1961. This ammo has never been trouble in any way shape or form. Occasional rounds will have a bit of corrosion. I bought 2100+ rounds (all the supplier had) at $3.50 a box and never looked back. It is still in my arsenal now, is not corrosive and is a dream to shoot.

So, it depends on the ammo you get and who took care of it before.

We have the opportunity (or did at least) to buy certain ammo in military cans. Though there is no accounting for the heat these rounds may have seen, this stuff is reliable in terms of moisture, so you got that going for you.

 

[xfyrfiter]

I used to buy .303 Brit. for $.05 a round at the Army- Navy store, I know that some of it was WWI issue but out of several hundred rounds I don't ever remember a misfire or hangfire. All of it was corrosive primed surplus, and was good ammo. Wish I could still get the same stuff lol.

 

[brickeyee]

Ammunition is pretty well sealed from the methods used to assemble it.

The primer is a press fit (a few then thousandths of interference fit) in the primer pocket, and the bullet is an even larger interference fit (by a few thousandths of an inch) to ensure adequate neck tension.

Military ammunition is designed to survive accidental immersion (sometimes for a long time).

With no further sealing handloads will be good a long time.

Moderate temperatures extend powder life.

Heat (especially) causes powder to slowly break down.

 

[owlhoot]

Back in the 1960's I purchased a few thousand rounds of 30-06 surplus that was produced in 1928. I shot up most of it in the 60's, but had an ammo can of perhaps 750 rounds that was still in the garage. I hadn't shot it because I sold my military bolt guns decades ago, and because the primers are corrosive, I didn't want to run it through my remaining high dollar commercial rifles.

A good friend who had recently acquired a Garand came by for coffee and a chat and remarked that he had not been able to find any 30-06 ammo, nor bullets so he could reload a quantity for his new Garand. I remembered the can of ammo that had been in my garage for over fifty years, and advised him to clean his rifle after use because of the primers. He was tickled to death to get the ammo and reported that he had one failure out of the hundred rounds that he put through his Garand. That's not too bad for ammo that is over 80 years old.

I have a fair supply of ammo in various calibers that is over 50 years old. The only stuff that gives me problems is the .22lr. I'll average 6 or 7 failures out of a box of 50. I'd guess the problem is in the priming. Back then a brick of HV .22lr ran around $3.50.

Any ammo that is a mere 20 years old is considered as new stuff at my house.