Thread: reliability of surplus WW2 era 303 ammo

I've got a bunch of CAC and other random rounds made in Australia and the UK WW2 period.
I had to sight in my rifle, so grabbed the worst looking stuff to fire first, not all corroded badly, but I expect that most of the corrosion may have been inside the casings?
Some of these things were blowing up in the rifle and my hand got a bit of soot from the gas port.
I also had a number of hangfires, but some of it shot rather well.

I've had the odd bit of hxp Greek ammo split down the side too, but not like this.
The good stuff from greece is getting hard to find now, but many say to me is all they shoot is the CAC stuff at the range.
Yes I know about flushing out the barrel with hot water afterwards.

Should I just pull them all out and reload? I don't pay anymore than $1 per round for this stuff.
I do have more mint looking rounds that I have not shot yet, but its the first time I've used this ammo.
Interestingly the only ones that failed like this were all 1944.

I had over 200 from various sources of unknown provenance, mostly CAC. Had the same issues. In the end I pulled them all dumped the powder sold the good clean unfired Berdan primed brass off for $20. About 30% had wet or damp or badly clumped powder, another 20% had significant corrosion. So able to sell about half with a good conscience. Unless you have a batch you're confident of as being clean or reliable I'd pull them all. Repurpose the good ones by selling or reloading with new powder and old bullet. Just neck size them. You could carefully anneal them but you don't want to get the heat up to the primer - totally your risk if you try annealing. And point the case mouth in a safe direction lol. And make sure you got all the old powder out! Pulled bullets worth about 60c each

The ones in your photo look rubbish, dangerous actually. Pull the rest.

80 yr old ammo would have to be suspect I had hangfires in the 80s with it gave up using it.

It is all about the long-term storage. Cool and dry like the NZ Ammo Depots - no problem, moist and variable like the Greek stuff causes problems with internal corrosion. It is false economy to use crap ammo.

I've had a few click......bangs & a few clicks, that anxious feeling of ejecting them into the creek is not fun!

Your cases show all the signs of "brass rust" Copper coloured spots tell the zinc has corroded out leaving a porous copper sponge. Coppers way softer than brass so it will blow. Mercuric primers also release free mercury which amalgamates with the brass destroying it's ductility. Both occur under poor storage moisture especially is the biggest culprit.
Im still shooting cac and footscray mnf mk 7 of various dates, the odd hangfire but the 57 cac seems perfect. If only there was more of it.

In the late 90's I had one blow a whole bunch of crap out of the gas port all around my eye but somehow missed my actual eye. I don't know how it came back from the gas port to where my eye was, but it was a massive wake up call. Never used old ammo since and never will. I reload now.

Originally Posted by Jhon

I had over 200 from various sources of unknown provenance, mostly CAC. Had the same issues. In the end I pulled them all dumped the powder sold the good clean unfired Berdan primed brass off for $20. About 30% had wet or damp or badly clumped powder, another 20% had significant corrosion. So able to sell about half with a good conscience. Unless you have a batch you're confident of as being clean or reliable I'd pull them all. Repurpose the good ones by selling or reloading with new powder and old bullet. Just neck size them. You could carefully anneal them but you don't want to get the heat up to the primer - totally your risk if you try annealing. And point the case mouth in a safe direction lol. And make sure you got all the old powder out! Pulled bullets worth about 60c each

The ones in your photo look rubbish, dangerous actually. Pull the rest.

Yeah, i was unsure what to expect, I initially thought it was just external corrosion, but i suspect these things have absorbed moisture, they are all cordite loaded and no powder in these from what I can tell. Does the cordite absorb moisture and/or cause corrosion with age?

Ive got some 1950s era sporting cartridges in the orange and black box that have gone all corroded and even wet looking, which apparently was well known for those, i dont plan on using those.

I also have a ton of P.O.F rounds that are also known to hangfire, but I have not tried any yet, all are early 1960s, I will try a few of them out and if they hangfire, I will pull the lot, but all the rounds look mint.

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

Your cases show all the signs of "brass rust" Copper coloured spots tell the zinc has corroded out leaving a porous copper sponge. Coppers way softer than brass so it will blow. Mercuric primers also release free mercury which amalgamates with the brass destroying it's ductility. Both occur under poor storage moisture especially is the biggest culprit.
Im still shooting cac and footscray mnf mk 7 of various dates, the odd hangfire but the 57 cac seems perfect. If only there was more of it.

I think I have now gotten rid of the majority of the worst stuff if cosmetics are anything to go by.
Should they be safe enough to use if there is no signs of corrosion anywhere? Im still not holding my breath with hangfires however.
I also have some earlier ones with nickel jacketed projectiles, I was told that those are harder on the barrel compared to copper, so i have not shot any.

Originally Posted by Ducksnchips

In the late 90's I had one blow a whole bunch of crap out of the gas port all around my eye but somehow missed my actual eye. I don't know how it came back from the gas port to where my eye was, but it was a massive wake up call. Never used old ammo since and never will. I reload now.

Yeah same for me here, i grabbed my safety glasses after the first one went awol.
Im thinking that the best thing is to sort out what ive got and try a few rounds in each batch.
Most of what ive got looks visually fairly good, im probably going to experience more hangfires than anything else, if so i will pull the lot.
I do have some exceptionally good rounds still in their boxes and look shiny all over, the rest of my stuff is all loose random years, mostly 1940s-50s and some 1930s.
Going forward I think I will consider reloading with new brass.

I believe the Canadian brass is good stuff if i find more of that, its also boxer primed and non-corrosive.

Well, I’ve done some stupid shit in my younger years but would never have considered firing ammo in a rifle that looked that corroded. Used to throw a bit of old ammo down the offal pit that looked that dodgy.

Originally Posted by woods223

Well, I’ve done some stupid shit in my younger years but would never have considered firing ammo in a rifle that looked that corroded. Used to throw a bit of old ammo down the offal pit that looked that dodgy.

Well again, i never had much experience with it, and the old guys selling this at the gun shows all said to me they used it fine, so really didnt think it was much to worry about at the time other than appearance. I expect I will have better results with the remainder which looks better condition.
Its not like the greek bunker stuff gun city sells is much better either, ive had a few split cases with that, and that was pretty green looking what they are selling.

Just run them through a fl die, be sweet as

Another question, I was reading that its extremely dangerous to pull the heads off these with a kinetic hammer, apparently people have had them set off using this as the hammer in the primer can at times get set off.
Has anyone experienced this?

Sure have with 7.62X39,(Berdan}only once though, now rcbs tool used always....

Ive spoken to others who have never heard of it happening, but will be a bit cautious i guess, some tools that physically pull them out can deform the projectiles dont they?

One thing with WW2 ammo is that the primers are corrosive and the barrel needs to be cleaned with boiling water the day that the rifle is fired. Every generation seems to need to learn this the hard way. I won't use it.