Found some old ammo, is it safe?

[HARVEYtheDAMNED]

I was digging around in my girlfriends parents garage looking for some plywood, when I found an old bucket.

Upon closer inspection, this bucket contained 1100 rounds of .22lr ammo!

1000 of it is Remington 40 grain, and another 100 is Winchester 40 grain.

My question; is it safe to use?

The ammo itself looks fine. It was stored in plastic containers, which do look pretty old. I opened the plastic and the ammo looks brand new, not a spec of dirt to be found anywhere. Is it safe to fire out of my .22? I have a Marlin model 60. It's not picky about ammo, I've tried a few kinds and it shoots basically anything. If you need pictures, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

 

[indykid]

Shouldn't be any problem. I have been using ammo that is date marked 1952 and it shoots just like "new" stuff.

I have a Marlin 60 too, and it is an excellent bullet disposal. One of the few semi-autos I have seen that is not at all ammo sensitive. I wouldn't have any problem using the ammo you found.

 

[03A3]

I bet it's just fine from your description. You need to run thru a bunch of it and see what it does.

I wish one of these "Found Ammo" posts would be about something like some 20mm HEIT chaingun ammo or similar. But then that might land someone in the pen.

 

[repeter1977]

I was digging around in my girlfriends parents garage looking for some plywood, when I found an old bucket.

Upon closer inspection, this bucket contained 1100 rounds of .22lr ammo!

1000 of it is Remington 40 grain, and another 100 is Winchester 40 grain.

My question; is it safe to use?

The ammo itself looks fine. It was stored in plastic containers, which do look pretty old. I opened the plastic and the ammo looks brand new, not a spec of dirt to be found anywhere. Is it safe to fire out of my .22? I have a Marlin model 60. It's not picky about ammo, I've tried a few kinds and it shoots basically anything. If you need pictures, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Should be fine, I know the Army recently was using ammo left from WWII in the .50 cals and I know I had gotten some of that ammo and it functioned just fine. If you already have a rifle that fires most everything, should be all good to go.

 

[darend505]

If you worried about it, just send ti to me or I can set up a time to remove this hazardous stuff from the area!

 

[camcdonnel]

Just picked up some bullets that were originally purchased in 1992. Shot them with zero issues on Sunday.

 

[Mgderf]

Just keep an ear out for squib loads. Anything that sounds or feels under-powered should be a call to check the bore for obstructions!

 

[jLr]

To my knowledge, it wouldn't be necessarily dangerous to fire old ammunition, right? Only issue I know of is it maybe collecting too much moisture and not firing at all.

 

[finn]

I had some .22 rounds that were at least 35 years old and didn't have a bit of trouble out of them. They were stored in my parents garage in a cardboard box. I think that since yours were in a pail you should be safe. My question is why in the world were you looking in pails for plywood?

 

[Skywired]

I just started running some .22's from my Boy Scout days. Uh, I think that was about 40-50 years ago. (I can't remember) But I do know this: ammo is A-OK.

 

[paperboy]

Just keep an ear out for squib loads. Anything that sounds or feels under-powered should be a call to check the bore for obstructions!

Agreed......Other than that, shoot 'em up my good man. I have shot Mini -Mags that were marked $2.99 per 100 (if that tells you how old they were) and they all shot great.

 

[swamptick]

No worries, the worst that could happen is it wont fire.