The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

Soo I bought a few old boxes of silver tipped cartridges and a box of PPU hunting loads from an old timer who wanted $3 a box for them (not for sale btw). One of the old boxes had apparently gotten damp on the bottom corner because 6 of the rds look like this. My question is, is there anything that can be done to salvage these rounds or if there is any green on it, trash it??

I had an old box of .303 British ammo that looked like that and I cleaned them up with G96 and the look like new.

I haven't shot them yet but I'm sure they would be safe to shoot. Or get a buddy to shoot them.

Yep, clean it up and shoot it, unless it was POF, then it might not bang is all.

I wouldn't shoot that ammo in any rifle I own. It is just in too bad of a condition.

Personally I would pitch them. Maybe pull the bullets, dump the powder and see if the primer fires but really, do you need to take the chance? Just reload the good cases or buy factory ammo.

Look, it's like this... New penny verses old penny.

Clean up the old penny and it will look like a new penny.

Clean up the old penny and your investment goes into the shitter because coin collectors hate that like we hate what Bubba does to milsurps. That round would end up in my ammo collection, a shoebox I keep full of oddball marked or strangely damaged rounds. I would pay full retail for commercial loads before I put that round in anything I own. You have no way of telling how much corrosion could be on the inside, how thin that brass is in spots. End of the world, wolves are at the door, that green piece of shit is the last round...I would toss it and attach the bayonet. If the rifle blows up the wolves win by default, can't be having that.

Silver tip, I'm hearing milsurp. Milsurp is steel cased and I'm with JYD, you don't know what the condition of the inside of those cases is. Not worth the possible damage to my gun or me/others. If they're brass I still would be skeptical about the condition. Don't know your location but here I can get PPU boxer primed brass factory rounds for $14, shoot, reload, wash rinse repeat. You can also get new reloading brass from Grafs for 50 cents a case when they have it in stock. Just checked, you can get once fired right now for 44 cents per case at Diamond K Brass.

If my life depended on it and I had to shoot, maybe, if I didn't have anything else.

But I wouldn't shoot ordnance that looked like that, you have no idea if the primer or powder is good.

I had a box of 7mm and much of it looked like this but not quite so bad. Only about 40% of them fired. Finally, I just pulled all the bullets which were in pretty good shape and salvaged what powder I could that wasn't clumped together. Actually ended up with quite a bit. Reloaded them in to new cases and, so far, they have shot just fine. What happens to these rounds, like the ones you have is that the primer seal fails which renders the primer inert. This also allows enough moisture into the case to pretty much trash your powder. If you're a reloader, I'd pull the projectiles and salvage what powder I can. But, for only 1/2 dozen rounds it might not be worth it other than salvaging a couple projectiles, pull them apart, try to set off the primers and discard them. Pour the powder in the garden.

Dig a hole a foot deep and bury the six rounds. You lost $3. OMG. I've got 250 rounds of 7.62x54 dated '45 that I won't shoot, but I'm saving it, because it will go off. Thats if I run out of good ammo, very doubtful.