Ammo pull down from Houston flood question.

[TheDoctor]

Friend brought over a whole cooler full of ammo that was submerged in river water for over a week. 38, 357, 40, 223, 243, 257 Roberts, all manner of 12 guage and 410, thousands of 22's. All of it factory ammo. Is there any feasable way to break down shotshells, or just cut the hulls to reclaim the shot? Anyone ever find copper plated 22 bullets worth smelting, or just scrap them? This project is going to probably take me weeks, if not months. Any time saving tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[aarolar]

I bet he 22s still shoot I would certainly give them a try, I've washed many in the clothes and they always went bang. Matter of fact I bet most of the metallic cartridges still go boom.

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[XDROB]

I agree. It certainly wouldn't hurt to try and shoot some and find out.

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[Iron Whittler]

I would give them a try before scraping. Factory ammo is usually pretty water tight. Shot shells are too, just not to the extent that brass cases are. Clean up a few with 0000 steel wool and see what happens. Be careful of squib rounds. Do not rapid fire in semi autos. If it don't sound right or feel right, check barrel for obstruction before you fire another round. Be safe, Have fun.

[JWT]

I would expect most all of the ammo will still be fine. The shotgun rounds may be questionable.

[lightman]

I'll second trying to shoot it. Like the others said, use caution and watch for squib loads. If you do pull it down this may be a good time to invest in a collet type bullet puller. They work well with rifle ammo and even with jacketed pistol bullets. Not so well with lead bullets though. Pulled 22 bullets dumped into your next smelting pot and mixed with your other alloy will work fine. I pick up the stray 22 bullet that you find on the ground and twist the bullet off with a set of pliers. With the shotgun shells I guess a box cutter type knife would work about as well as anything, but be careful.

[aarolar]

This would work well for cutting down the shotgun shells.

https://www.amazon.com/RIDGID-23488-.../dp/B0019MLSLS

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[Sasquatch-1]

I pick up unfired 22's at the range and save them until I get 70 or 80. I then take them to the range with my old Remington 514 single shot. Some have been on the range for quite a while and still go bang.

If you do have a sizable amount of the rimfire you pull you may want to smelt them separately. From what I have seen 22's are fairly soft lead. Lead is lead where ever you find it.

I would think the shotgun shells would have the biggest chance of being ruined.

[GhostHawk]

Shoot the .22lr for sure.

On the shotgun shells, if you take a fairly narrow rounded tip point. Like a pair of small forceps. Go into the center then lift one side, work your way around. Tip out the shot, save the wad, check the powder. If it is damp I would dump that powder. Most likely that is going to be what you find. Some may stay sealed, some may have wet shot but dry powder.

Hulls I would rack and set in the sun. After a day or 2 of baking I think I would test 10 random hulls. See how many pop, how many don't. Primers can be pretty tough.

Any steel shot you are going to want to dry the shot, once dry a touch of oil to lube and swirl it to mix. See if you can keep it from rusting.

Centerfire pistol and rifle should shoot. It should be sealed. Might see some case corrosion.

Sounds like a big job but could pay off nicely in lead if nothing else.

[TheDoctor]

Started rinsing off and drying the 22's. Some were fairly clean, some were REAL dirty. Unfortunately, river water has silt! The shotgun hulls are starting to rust, guess they're not all made of brass anymore. I think the rifle hunting ammo, I'll pull down, clean the brass and bullets, and reload those. Same with some of the handgun. Cut open a random selection of shotshells, it's a coin toss with wet powder or not. Guess I'll just reclaim the lead shot. The steel is already rusting, and I do not reload steel anyway. The plinking handgun ammo, will wash and dry it, and see how it goes. Thanks for all the input. I had written everything off except the lead and some of the brass.

[runfiverun]

to get the shot out of the shells.
take some channel lock pliers and squeeze the hull right near the crimp it will pop them open enough to just pour the shot out.

spin the loaded ammo through your tumbler with some polish in it.
that should clean off the corrosion and add a coating to stop more from forming.

[TheDoctor]

Observations made on the 22's. Rinsed and dried them at low temp in a dehydrator. Tried firing small batches of 10 of each major type/manufacturer. Federal, 0% fired, all dead. Remington, 20% fired, mostly all dead, and all will be pulled. CCI, 10 for 10 fired! Keeping all the CCI, but will use with caution. They have always been my prefered mfg of 22's anyway, now I have proof (if you want to call it that) that my preference was a good one.

[TheDoctor]

1 box of 147 grain 9mm Black Talon that got wet. Wish I KNEW it was good, some still want thise rounds, though the PDX1 bonded is a superior projectile. Decent quantity of 40 cal and 9mm sxt's, will need to find load data for those, somewhere....
Even had a dozen 22 LR dummy rounds! Finding some interesting stuff in this box.