Dud ammo?

[stubbicatt]

Took the SKS out of the closet for the first time in a couple years and shot it Sunday. I had several Wolf poly coated ammo I bought a couple of years ago fail to go off. Primer indentations were robust, so it isn't a weak firing pin or ignition system.

Simply duds?

The ammo was surefire when I bought it maybe 2 years ago or so, but now? Nothing?

What gives here?

Also, I noticed that shooting off a bench the rifle tended to go high as compared to shooting from kneeling. Interesting.

 

[Mark_from_Iowa]

How was the ammo stored? Excessive heat, humidity, or chemical exposure may have inactivated some primers.

 

[gunnerh]

Heat kills non-corrosive primers very quickly. 8 hours at 125 F. will reduce primer effeciveness by 5%. The longer ammo is store hot the worse it gets. My teacher at US Coast Guard gunnery school in the mid 60's showed us the test reports from Dow Chemical and Herc Co, US primers are over-built(by 200%) they can take a lot of heat. The Russies have not been loading non-corr' long and Wolf ammo is built for a low price. Maybe thats whats happening.

 

[stubbicatt]

nah. stored in the house for last few years under climate control.

 

[Mark_from_Iowa]

What proportion were duds? My totally unscientific guess would be that any more than 5% duds would indicate a post-purchase (storage) problem.

I'm not familiar with batch-to-batch variability of Wolf ammo QC, but I do shoot quite a lot of 40+ year-old ammo in my Mosins without issue.