What to do with old .22lr rounds?

[Javelin Dan]

First, let me apologize if I posted in the wrong place - I'm a newbie here. We are cleaning out my in-laws estate and I came across something like 50 old .22lr rounds, and I mean OLD! Could be 60 years old or more! How can I safely dispose of them? Would it be safe to try to remove these rimfire bullets in an impact type bullet puller? If so, is there a way to make the powder harmless once removed? Didn't seem like a good idea to just toss 'em in the burn barrel...:bigsmyl2:

[baogongmeo]

Why not just fire them or give them to somebody to use?

[Tom W.]

I don't think impact puller will work, not to mention that they are rimfire.... If they can't be fired, you may just be able to pry the bullets out with a pair if pliers or vise grips. The powder can be scattered on the lawn for fertilizer...

[bowenrd]

I have some 22LR ammo my Grandfather bought prior to 1969 and they shoot fine.

If your ammo is not corroded shoot it.

[lobowolf761]

Just pull the bullets with pliers and dump the powder where it is safe.

[Minerat]

When I was a kid we pulled the bullets with pliers and then crimped 3 book matches in them and lit them. I still have all my finger but some times wonder why. [smilie=s: They come out pretty easy with a set of pliers and holding the case in hand. Then just dump the powder on the lawn and spray a shot of WD 40 (or any oil) into the case to make the primer inert.

[Mk42gunner]

Why not just fire them or give them to somebody to use?

I gotta agree with this.

I found an old yellow box of Winchester Super X .22 Shorts in the barn that were probably from the sixties or so. About the only good thing I can say is they weren't rained on, I did have a couple of misfires, but the rest went off okay.

Robert

[PbHurler]

List them on GB or EB as "Historical" or "Vintage", price them at $100.00 each, They'd probably sell to someone :veryconfu
:kidding:

[Avery Arms]

Pulling .22's is not worth your time either give them away or throw them away. I wouldn't put them in a household burn barrel but any other trash can is fine it's not like a few rounds of ammo are any more of a hazard than an old can of hair spray or paint etc.

I have cooked off .22's while smelting range scrap, you should by all means avoid doing so and/or shield yourself from possible lead/debri splatter but they aren't capable of actually "shooting" the bullets out they just pop and that's about it.

[Seeker]

The easiest way to pull those boolits is to put em' in your gun and shoot em'.

[44man]

If clean, shoot them. They seem to last forever.

[Petrol & Powder]

Shoot them ! The worst that can happen is a dud. As long as each bullet exits the barrel you're good to go for the next.

[bedbugbilly]

Shoot 'em or I've them to someone who will. The worst that can happen is some may not fire. I have about 8 or 9 boxes of Remington shoes that I bought in 1963 or so . . . every once in while I might shoot some out of a revolver I have - they all go bang just fine. And the price back them was $5.00 a case of 500 - 10 boxes. Guess I should have bought more? :-)

[Hardcast416taylor]

Although this is not a 100% sure method to try, put the rounds in a jar that has a lid. Next pour in enough liquid wrench or some other penetrating fluid to completely cover the rounds. Let them sit for a month then discard the entire jar in trash to be hauled away. Or just bury the rounds DEEP in the ground by themselves. I believe though you might just `gift` them to another shooter to use.Robert

[Petrol & Powder]

Although this is not a 100% sure method to try, put the rounds in a jar that has a lid. Next pour in enough liquid wrench or some other penetrating fluid to completely cover the rounds. Let them sit for a month then discard the entire jar in trash to be hauled away. Or just bury the rounds DEEP in the ground by themselves. I believe though you might just `gift` them to another shooter to use.Robert

/\ WHY ????

They don't become dangerous just because they're old.

[thegatman]

Find a deep river and throw them in there.....or ......shoot em up.

[MT Gianni]

If the noses have oxidized, wipe them off with an oily paper towel and dispose of it. Then shoot them as if they were only 25 years old. There are cartridge collectors out there, I would check before I through out the bunch.

[Bigslug]

Shoot them at something reactive so you know the bullet actually came out - don't want to bulge any barrels - then clean your gun thoroughly to address the possibility of corrosive priming. People are still getting blown up by buried ordnance from WWI and earlier. As long as it's been clean and dry, it should work fine. Worth noting - if the cases are copper instead of brass, they're REALLY old and may contain black powder. At that point, you might seek out the cartridge collectors for fun and profit.

[Petrol & Powder]

How about some photographs? I'll bet they're not as old as you think.

[guncheese]

shoot them!
or mail them to me and ill shoot them!

[Geezer in NH]

Shoot them at the worst they do not fire.

[Javelin Dan]

OK guys, you convinced me. Gonna borrow my wife's .22 LCR and blow the **** out of sumpthin'! FYI, the cases are all brass. They are pretty tarnished, and the bullets are, well, the color of old lead, but not real nasty or crusty or anything. They've been laying around in a pretty damp basement for as long as I can remember, and I thought I'd read somewhere that old ordinance can become unstable and dangerous. But beating the hell out of an old can or something seems like a better way to go. Thanks for the input!

[Eddie2002]

Just took a couple hundred mixed .22 rounds to the range. Most were from the '50s and '60s and were stored out in the garage for quite a few years. No misfires but could only get a pie plate spread of impact at 100 yds. Still had fun and it beat just tossing them.

[Echo]

/\ WHY ????

They don't become dangerous just because they're old.
Some of us actually become less dangerous the older we get... Just sayin'...

[Javelin Dan]

This thread is dead by now, but I just thought I'd submit a postscript to it. We took these old rounds to the range and tried to shoot as many as we could. By the way, they WERE as old as I thought - some had gangreen. Many fired, some didn't. the ones that didn't were turned into the rangemaster to be put in his bucket-o-duds. End of story.

[44man]

Some old stuff is worth a lot of money. I think a few collect moldy peanuts so check around.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Shoot 'em or I've them to someone who will. The worst that can happen is some may not fire. I have about 8 or 9 boxes of Remington shoes that I bought in 1963 or so . . . every once in while I might shoot some out of a revolver I have - they all go bang just fine. And the price back them was $5.00 a case of 500 - 10 boxes. Guess I should have bought more? :-)

No, the worst that can happen is that they halfway fire. If one gives a silent click, first try recocking and firing again, but if that doesn't work, make sure you see the case which comes out, and verify that it has a bullet in it. If your next bullet hits one lodged partway down the barrel, it is very unlikely to cause an explosion with a .22, but almost certain to make a ring-bulge. Also remember that really old rounds may be corrosive, and as they have a higher proportion of primer composition to powder, very corrosive. Run water, preferably near-boiling, though the bore unless the package actually says it is non-corrosive, and matches up with the headstamps found in it.

Back in the 70s I used rimfire rounds in boxes with the British military issue marks, almost certainly Second World War, with reliable results and good accuracy. But if you just want rid of them, pliers and dumping the powder is safe.

[Blackwater]

BinS gives good advice above.

BTW, .22 RF's bullets do not have a "sealer" to keep water or other stuff from creeping past the bullet down into the powder chamber. This is the reason that the .22 WMR is a superior "survival" round, because its bullets DO have a sealer between bullet and case. This, along with being a RF round, makes the .22 mag's very superior survival rounds. In some survival scenarios, one's ammo might be exposed to any number of things that might make it go dud. The relatively complete seal of the .22 WMR's make them a really unique little survival ctg., assuming of course that big, dangerous game isn't on the menu. Just a FWIW.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Yes, the change so many have made to dry copperclad rimfire bullets makes them more pleasant to handle and less liable to pick up dirt, but it has let us in for more of this problem. I always think it is a pity the Winchester Rim Fire, a sort of shorter Magnum with inside lubed lead bullet, didn't become the standard .22 Rimfire instead of the Long Rifle. It never had quite the accuracy of the Long Rifle, but I think it could have exceeded it, with a comparable amount of development work. Most of the animal kingdom is either too big or too small for the Magnum to be the perfect cartridge.

[bangerjim]

Pulling is a total waste of time and good ammo! You cannot use that powder for anything except fireworks anyway!

They will probably shoot. I have many boxes of 22's that are from the early 50's and I have tried samples from each box and all shoot perfectly. Brass is dark, but not corroded. Was stored indoors in the house.

Just make sure they FiRE and push the slug out of the end of the barrel. Rimfire is one of my most UNFAVORITE things to shoot due to total unreliability..... box to box, maker to maker.

People still love the stupid things and buy guns that shoot them. Cannot figure that out. All of my lite loaded standard cal's are cheaper, better, more accurate than 22's.

Shoot them.

[mdi]

FWIW, I've seen photos of a sectioned barrel with six or seven, 22 lr slugs stuck in it, end to end. For some reason a bullet got stuck in the barrel and the shooter fired it five or six more times :veryconfu. No Kaboom. I'd just wipe them off to make sure there ain't no green fuzzy on the case and no white growth on the bullets and shoot 'em!

[blackthorn]

Last fall (2014) I picked up 27 LR that had been dropped into the snow the previous winter. They had laid there for at least 8 or 9 months buried in snow, frozen, thawed, rained on and were exposed to hot sunlight during that time. Every one of them fired! I did get one that sounded weak but it cleared the barrel and hit the target.

[labradigger1]

Choot em

[tmc-okc]

Are you going to tell me those 4 bricks of Sears & Roebuck 22 LR's sitting on my shelf since about 1966 aren't any good ?
The brick sitting next to them that I bought the year before are still shooting OK !! LOL

Ron H

[flint45]

I clean em re lube em and shoot em.

[Brotherbadger]

I agree, shoot em.

[Kent Fowler]

If it's a box of Robin Hood or Peters Wimbledon Match, send'em to me. I'll dispose of it properly.

[williamwaco]

OK guys, you convinced me. Gonna borrow my wife's .22 LCR and blow the **** out of sumpthin'! FYI, the cases are all brass. They are pretty tarnished, and the bullets are, well, the color of old lead, but not real nasty or crusty or anything. They've been laying around in a pretty damp basement for as long as I can remember, and I thought I'd read somewhere that old ordinance can become unstable and dangerous. But beating the hell out of an old can or something seems like a better way to go. Thanks for the input!

That sounds like good ammo to me.

[MtGun44]

Good grief! You shoot them!

[lightman]

It sounds like Javelin Dan has solved his problem and shot them. Thats what I would have done! Being cautious about squibs, of course.

I pick up the live 22 rounds that I find on the ground and twist the bullets out of them with a set of pliers. The powder gets dumped, a drop of oil goes into the case, and the case goes into the trash. Yeah, I know that pulling 22 bullets will not add much to the lead stash, but it only takes a few seconds and I still do it.

[dudel]

With the relative scarcity and cost of 22lr, I'm surprised by how many unfired rounds I find at the range. Almost none of them even have the sign of a strike on the rim. I pick them up along with my brass. When I get home I put them in a box of mixed 22lr. I'll take them with me when I take a 22lr to the range. I've only had about 1 or 2 (out of 100) fail to fire. I won't do the same with centerfire rounds I find. They get pulled for the bullet and brass. The primer and powder get dumped.

I may be cheap; but I'm not foolish.

[kawasakifreak77]

If they still have the old box just set them on the shelf & appreciate them.

[Bayou52]

I've got some 22s that are 50 or more years old. They go bang every time......

[JWFilips]

Shoot them! You may never be able to do that again!