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WW2 History Bullets

Hi again
I have been using military ammo for over 30 years, the oldest would have been some 1930's 7.92 Mauser which worked fine.
Just recently I tried some .303 British military (FMJ) made by Winchester in the 1950's and had a lot of misfires, probably because it hadn't been stored properly and moisture had affected the primers.

You can always tell if you flinch when firing if you have a misfire or hangfire (a delayed firing when there could be pause of a second or so before the round goes off :pop4:)

Alan
 
Alan ...... Have you ever had a case to separate? I fired some back in the mid 60's and blew the back of the case off. I really don't recommend this at all. After 2 cases separated I buried the rest about a foot in the ground.
I was a gunsmith for about 12 to 15 years about that time.
 
Surplus Ammo

We shoot surplus ammo (some from the 40s) all the time in our Mausers, Mosin Nagants, Springfields and Lee Enfields. I've often shot US Government issued ammo in DCM/CMP rifle matches that dated back to the early 50s and when I was growing up, it was not unusual to see pre-WWII ammo in the hardware store and at the range.

Most military ammo was stored properly while in the custody of the military and many of the components used in manufacturing the ammo were selected for their stability for long term storage. That is why military ammo of the 50s and even into the 60s still have corrosive primers. The corrosive primers were more stable over time than the newly developed non-corrosive types available back then.

The brass cases, if not annealed properly at the neck will often age harden. You can often see stress induced split necks in old ammo, and like JoeW notes, case head separation is also possible from too hard brass. The brass case needs to be pliable enough to obturate (expand) to fit the chamber walls to prevent the gas (often over 50,000 lbs per square inch) from blowing back past the case into the action.

While I've never seen any injuries from this, wearing safety glasses while shooting is a good idea in the event a case head separates and you get gas blow back through the rifle's action and into your face. Some rifles, like the Model 98 Mauser, handle the high pressure gas better than others. In fact, Peter and Paul Mauser designed their opus magnum that way because components used in the new fangled-smokeles-high-pressure ammo of the 1890s was prone to failures such as JoeW notes.

The biggest issue with old surplus ammo is the corrosive priming salts left in the barrel after firing. It is always a good idea to clean the bore as soon as possible with hot water and detergent or Windex with viniger to wash the salts out. Clean a couple of times over the course of a week and use a good rust preventative greese like "Rig" when done. Use the same cleaning regime as for black powder weapons and your rifle will last a long time with a good bore. Neglect this, and your bore may rust to the point of looking like a hundred miles of bad road. Soldiers were required to clean their weapons thoroughly after firing; but many civilians buying the surplus weapons, many used to non-corrosive civilian ammo, failed to do so and that's why you often see very nice surplus rifles at gun shows with horrible bores.
 
JoeW said:
Alan ...... Have you ever had a case to separate? I fired some back in the mid 60's and blew the back of the case off. I really don't recommend this at all. After 2 cases separated I buried the rest about a foot in the ground.
I was a gunsmith for about 12 to 15 years about that time.
Click to expand...

Hi
I haven't had a case separate yet although I've had a few times where the case has split at the shoulder.
I once saw someone in our military club shooting an SAFN (FN49) in a comp when the firing pin broke and protruded from the bolt face and caused the round to go off before it was fully chambered. The head must have separated and the stock was blown apart around the receiver although the shooter was OK.
--The FN 49 had a two piece pin and the back of the front section used to snap off.
I've also seen a Swedish AG42B that was completely destroyed when someone used a handload that was a bit too powerfull.

Alan
 
The cases that separated on me were at the base about 1/8" above the extractor ring. They separated from pressure. I bought the rounds, about 100 from a store simular to Wal-Mart. It took me the better part of an hour each time to remove the upper part of the case from the chamber. I was using s 1917 enfield from WW1. That rifle was very strong. The separation did no damage to the rifle.
 
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