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Waterproofing and Long-Term Storage of Small Arms Ammunition, by Nebraska Farmer
Did you ever wonder just how waterproof your ammunition is? Over the years I’ve seen ammo stored in everything from cardboard boxes in the attic to sealed ammo cans in the basement, to fruit jars in the refrigerator. Case corrosion and propellant degradation can occur as a result of exposure to elements, oxygen, and extreme fluctuations in temperature and humidity. Think of the times when both you and your ammunition were exposed to the elements…wouldn’t it be nice to add one more layer of reliability to your primary weapon system – by ensuring waterproof reloads? Okay, I’m not going to go into the basics of reloading…just going to talk about a few of the evolutionary steps I’ve taken to ensure that my reloads work as intended.
Being a re-loader of metallic cartridges for some time, I finally decided to conduct an un-scientific experiment of various ammunitions’ ability to remain viable after being underwater for 48 hours. From a long-term storage and use perspective the military has some of the best ammunition around. U.S. Military small arms ammunition is mostly produced today in the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Liberty, Missouri. M193 55 grain Full Metal Case (FMC) 5.56 ball, M855 62 grain FMC ball, M85 7.62, 9mm ball, etc – all have bullets and primers sealed during manufacture. Further, the primers are ‘crimped’ to ensure a better seal and avoid any possibility of the primer dislodging during firing and potentially injuring the operator, damaging or ‘jamming’ a weapon. A spent primer in the lower receiver of the AR-15/M16 family of weapons can find its way under the trigger group, and prevent the full range of trigger travel required to fire the weapon. In a serious situation – this could be a life-ending malfunction.
Since most of us can’t afford to purchase the full amount of military grade small arms ammunition we might like to stock for future ‘famines’ or any other reasons, we’ve turned to reloading. Or, it could be that you have non-military calibers in your fleet that you re-load and wish to maintain. All center-fire rifle and pistol ammunition can be reloaded as long as it’s ‘boxer’ (not Berdan) primed. Boxer primed simply means one priming hole in the center of the cartridge base. Berdan primed cases have two or more small holes (off center) and standard reloading dies can’t ‘punch’ the spent primers out through the bottom of the case. Most steel cased ammunition from overseas is Berdan primed. It varies widely in performance and quality, but generally it’s decent for long term storage, probably water-proofed to some degree by sealer or total case ‘lacquering’. When you can find it cheap it’s fine for long term storage and ‘shoot it and leave it’ applications. One of the hazards commonly associated with lacquered cases is build-up of the lacquer material in the weapons chamber. This usually occurs only when the weapon gets hot through rapid-fire sessions. The lacquer can melt in the chamber, then cool and harden –
Source: http://www.survivalblog.com/2013/09/waterproofing-and-long-term-storage-of-small-arms-ammunition-by-nebraska-farmer.html
