22LR old ammo
Sam06
Member Posts: 21,244 ✭✭✭✭
I have a coffee can full of Federal 22lr standard velocity lead round nose ammo. There was no top on the can and its been in my garage for 15 years, way in the back. Hot humid summers, wet humid fall, freezing cold winter and wet humid spring.
Some had some small corrosion spots other looked OK and others were all grey with corrosion. None of them looked good or even close to it.
Well I just put a 10/22 together from parts I had around. I needed a stock and I got one for 15 bucks, its a cheapo Ruger plastic molded stock. I put a PIC rail on the receiver and mounted a very old, 1st addition EoTech 552 I have. I don't really like it and its kind of fuzzy but it works.
I took both the old can of old nasty ammo and the rifle to the back yard. I loaded up 4x 10rd mags, put up a shoot and see target at 25 meters and sighted in the rifle. It took me about 12 rounds to get it right but it was hitting dead nutz with the last 8 rounds in the 2nd mag.
Then I started shooting small steel tgts I have from 25 to 75 meters the gun ran flawlessly and I was hitting with no problem.
Now I did pick out the really bad looking ammo but the other old tired and nasty ammo ran just fine.
Oh yea the ammo was in my work shop where I cut wood so there is saw dust everywhere. I clean up as best as I can but on the high shelves, where the ammo was it was dirty from dust and saw dust.
The only reason I found it was I was looking for my Kreg jig to lend to a friend who is making a bar in his house.
Needless to say I was amazed the ammo shot as well as it did. I am not sure how much ammo is in the can but its has to be over 1200 rounds. I plan on shooting it up for practice this spring and maybe shooting some varmints with it when I walk the woods behind my house.
Anyone else found old ammo and shot it?
Comments
found a small cardboard box in back gun cabinet, it was addressed to my dad from zippo lighters, guess he sent one in for repairs and they returned it in this little box, had to be 50+years old, it had 5 22mag shells in it, only thing is I don't ever remember dad having a 22 mag and I have all his guns, makes a fellow wonder........
I inherited my Grandpaws shooting vest. Well I was in the Army and did't get home to often. My Dad left the vest in the basement. about 10 years later I got the vest and it had paper 12 ga shotgun shells in it. I shot them and they worked fine.
BTW I am going to continue to shoot the old nasty ammo in the 10/22 without cleaning the gun other than run a boresnake down the barrel after every session. I will let ya'll know how it does. When I am down to nothing but badly corroded ammo I will shoot it last with gun dirty.
Opps
If you want, Sam, I can send you a factory wood stock I have laying around. It's for a standard size barrel, not bull. I've got no use for it and I'd like to see someone get some good use out of it.
I shot some WW2 steel case 45 ACP a few years ago and it shot fine.
I bought a 10/22 video from Clark Custom guns over 20 years ago. Jim Clark Jr. did the video, showing how to disassemble, reassemble the 10/22 as I was putting in a bunch of aftermarket parts. The guy shooting the video asked Jim Clark how often he cleaned the 10/22 other than wiping down the outside after shooting it.
Jim said "Every 5,000 rounds or so." After I heard that I haven't been real zealous about cleaning the barrel or the inside of my 10/22. This was back when Jim Clark Jr. was winning lots of three Gun Shoots.
I figured good enough for Jim, good enough for me!! 😁
I have lots of old ammo like that. I've run into very few problems shooting it.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
From a functioning standpoint, the 10/22 is probably the best gun of all that I shoot. It shoots everything I feed it and rarely gets more than a blowing out with the air hose.
Federal 22LR sux
And here I thought that you didn't like the 10/22.
Maybe I'm thinking of someone else.
I've found that they will shoot most anything.
If I have a miss fire with one, I'll try it in my Single Six.
If no go there, in the river it goes.
Almost all of the 5" projectiles we fired off the coast of Vietnam were made in the early 40's. Spotters said they were going bang.
Thanks so much but I have a stock now. I like the black molded stock and I think I am going to paint it in a camo pattern. If I do i will put a photo of it on here.
You are correct. I am not a great fan of them but its not because they are not great guns.
I have had several(six or seven) and have wound up with lots of parts. I wanted a SA 22 rifle and when it was all said and done the 10/22 is what happened.
They are good little rifle and in shooting this one I am starting to like them more.
Just before our winter set in last fall, a good friend that was in the process of moving gave me 3 large coffee CANS (metal) all full to the brim with lead shot. He told me that they had been on a shelf in his old leaky shed since his dad passed away back in the early 80's. The cans had plastic lids but they were all cracked and had holes in them so the shot was covered in dust and dirt and looked like a lot of work to make useful.
I'm not quite sure of the shot sizes except one can was marked #8 and I could still read it. One other is very fine stuff and the last is sized in between the two. After dumping each into a heavy duty plastic bucket separately of coarse, I slowly recovered the lead which still looks new!
I currently do not own a smoothbore muzzle loader but do have all the parts and barrel to make a nice 24 gage (58 caliber) fowler. This gift sure gives me incentive to get busy for all this shot should last a short lifetime for this old fella!
The rounds out of a pocket gun, maybe.
It's all fine and good until you have a squib and stick a bullet in the barrel. I have about 1/2 a case of old Remington SV target ammo that going to be relegated to use in the "beater 10-22" knowing that sooner or later I'll have a bullet stuck and will simply replace the barrel. When you can hear the difference in report and see bullets hitting low now and then, there's a reason.
I've also never been a fan of the 10-22. That said they generally run fine and I even bought one for my oldest son. They are magazine feed and 25 rounds mags are handy, that's a plus.
I've got a lot of old shotgun shells in a old lard can about 5 gallon size full of old shotgun shells, 12 ga and several are paper hulls and most won't ignite, some spit and can dump the shot out of the barrel. Found the can full of shells in Dad's old garage.
The plastic hulls seems ok.
I shot 20 rds this morning. I have an old frying pan hanging at 75 yards from my back deck. The el-cheapo 10/22 and the old nasty ammo were ringing that thing like a bell.
@Mobuck I will bet a dollar I don't have one squib load from that batch. If I do I will knock the bullet out with a steel rod and some Kroil and keep shooting. I have had one before in a single shot 22 and was easy to get out. I didn'y shoot another bullet down the barrel after the squib.
I shot 40 more rounds today on the back yard range. No hangups and all the rounds were kind of corroded.
Looking forward to how they all shoot.
I have shot ammo from old storage units. From house fires too salvage dumps. As long as they were wiped off of grit an dirt. With no cracks or dents. They usually fired. Anytime they were damaged i used them for the components.
"If no go there, in the river it goes."
I am no tree hugger, and i KNOW its a small amount, but please dont throw more lead into the river.