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Thread: Fun fact about ultrasonically cleaning live ammo!!!

  1. #1
    Boolit Master


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    Fun fact about ultrasonically cleaning live ammo!!!

    Wasn't sure exactly where to put this one.

    Anyhow, in case anybody was wondering, ammo that goes through an ultrasonic cleaner apparently is NOT killed by wetness. At least not my .38 wadcutter loads. Cleaned a batch of brass yesterday and found 1 live round had somehow gone unfired, and went into the cleaner with the brass. Well, I shot it today and it went off just fine. I purposely shot it last, just in case it squibbed or stuck the bullet in the bore, but was not an issue. It was 10th round of a 10 round string, and landed right in center of group near as I can tell. Not something I would advocate doing on purpose, but things happen.

    That's the 1 downside to wadcutters. It's just not obvious like a SWC or RN bullet would be. I've tumbled them too!

  2. #2
    Boolit Master bruce381's Avatar
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    cool thanks for that how long was it in the bath?

  3. #3
    Boolit Master elmacgyver0's Avatar
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    I made a pocket holster for my mini-NAA .22 LR revolver that holds a spare 5 rounds.
    It went through the wash along with the derringer inside of it.
    After everything was dried out only a couple rounds would not fire.

  4. #4
    Boolit Master 15meter's Avatar
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    Ammo is a lot tougher than people give it credit.

    I was given an old toolbox that had been filled with ammo, 12 gauge and 243, it had sat in a basement that was flooded. From the amount of rust that was in the box I would guess it was there for quite awhile. Touched off a couple of the 12 gauges, with no problems. Disassembled a bunch more. Powder burned nicely. Lead went into the lead pot.

    The 243's, I pulled down and recycled the primers into plinking ammo. Worked well, 1-2 duds out of ~80 rounds. Reused the brass and bullets for play loads also. Some of the powder had to be dug out of the case with a nut pick. Don't remember if I did a burn test. It went on the lawn.

    Tough stuff.

  5. #5
    Boolit Master


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    Bruce it's still a learning curve, but that particular batch did 12 minutes at 60 degrees Celsius.

  6. #6
    Boolit Mold
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    A friend of mine was trout fishing in the upper Pecos River during the high spring river run off and fell in (and nearly drowned) while carrying a S&W Mod 19 which came out of his holster. It was five weeks before the water went down enough before we could retrieve his gun using a large magnet. At the time he was using some reloads of mine (Lyman 358477 bullets over 14 grains of #2400) which we later tried firing. I was stunned when 5 of the 6 loads in the gun fired in an absolutely normal fashion after being submerged for over a month.

  7. #7
    Boolit Grand Master fredj338's Avatar
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    Not sure I would bet on that but I have had a round washed in my pants pocket go bang.
    EVERY GOOD SHOOTER NEEDS TO BE A HANDLOADER.
    NRA Cert. Inst. Met. Reloading & Basic Pistol

  8. #8
    Boolit Master

    Rattlesnake Charlie's Avatar
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    I ran a full magazine of factory Winchester .380 ACP RNFP for my KelTek P3AT through washer and then dryer. All went bang just like they were supposed to.

  9. #9
    Boolit Master

    Electrod47's Avatar
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    Scott at Kentucky Ballistics on Youtube just showed a 100 day test where he submerged 4 glocks with loaded magazines in Salt Water, Pond water, Dirt, and frozen in a block of ice. All 4 for 100 days he basically shook them off and fired them off.....only the frozen gun had some mechanical hiccups from the expansion of the magazine etc.
    “You should tell someone what you know. There should be a history, so that men can learn from it.

    He smiled. “Men do not learn from history. Each generation believes itself brighter than the last, each believes it can survive the mistakes of the older ones. Each discovers each old thing and they throw up their hands and say ‘See! Look what I have found! Look upon what I know!’ And each believes it is something new.

    Louis L’Amour

    The Californios

  10. #10
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    Texas by God's Avatar
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    I found some submerged 12 gauge shells in the lake water once. They were two tone from the sun baking them on one side.
    I took them home, steel wooled the metal heads and shot all of them from my Topper.
    They all went off but the steel shot must have rusted a bit because they had a dusty muzzle blast.


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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check