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Bad Ammo???

Buff Studly

Buff Studly

.410
For give me if this has been covered, but I received some 308 ammo, most of which was good clean ammo so far as visually inspection goes. Now for the bad. I have some that has the brass greening up and some has blackness to it. This ammo is bulk surplus military ammo. Now this guy from what I am told had a fire some years ago, and this is caused by the fire department putting out the fire, he has past away and I can not ask him directly if this is in fact true. Now could I or should I even fire this ammo to maybe zero a rifle or at least use it to get a scope on paper.
Thank You
Jeff
 
This is one of those times where I will say that if you have to question the quality of the ammo, it's probably better to not use it.

Powder acts strangely when exposed to extremely high temperatures.
 
If you DO use it, fire one round at a time and be on the lookout for squib loads! This would be practice and plinking ammo only...
 
squib it a weak round that doesn't make it out of the bore, bad for follow up shots

I would shoot that old ammo, wouldn't reload the brass

I have shot ammo like that and usually the brass will crack down the neck , the black and green is just age causes the brass to lose elasticity. If they were in a fire long enough to damage the ammo they would have gone off in the fire
 
Brass will corrode over time...barring the fire/water damage you cite. Humidity in the air will do it over time too.

I've fired WWII ammo that had some green to it and it functioned just fine...calibers were .45 ACP and .30-06 Springfield...manufactured at the Frankford Aresenal in 1943...not one misfire...squib...problem.

Most of the bulk military M1 Garand ammo ( .30-06 ) I have now is from 1970's South Korea...some green spots on the brass...still hits bulleyes if I do my part.

You can take a "damp" rag right to it before loading the en bloc or mag to clean it off if it really bothers you.

Otherwise...enjoy the $$ saved.
 
You can clean the green off with some 0000 steel wool. If there is no deep pitting in the brass case, I would probably shoot it.
 
I found a 20 round box of old 223 that had been outside for about 20 years under a tarp. the brass was black, I happened to have an AR on me so I loaded and shot all 20 and hit what I was aiming at.
I started to recover the brass and they were all cracked from the mouth to the middle of the case , all had 4 cracks all opposing perfectly.
I have shot all kinds of ammo in floods, storms, old .....as long as it is factory. I never shoot mystery reloads.
I cant ever recall seeing or hearing of ammo gaining power by just sitting around, or really from any other condition, but I haven't seen everything. It will either ignite, half ignite with an audible weak "sqwib" sound or not ignite at all.
with all that you have to get pretty crazy to damage a good firearm, like adding way to much powder in the reloading process.....the squib is what to LISTEN for.....22lr and shotgun shells are the most notorious for squibs
 
I tossed some 30-06 ammo several years ago that was old and corroded. The brass was starting to split around the bases and was blowing back into my face.

I would definitely discard anything you feel is questionable. You can also get a bullet puller and at least reuse the projectiles if you reload.
 
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