Vintage (old) Ammo .... safe or not?

[joeyj]

I inherited some 1942 9 mm luger ammo, I don't remember whose brand it was. It all went bang. Also the brass seemed heavier than what you buy today.

[GeneCC]

I should clarify.... I come across old ammo while I am buying other stuff to re-sell. I have no intentions on re-selling the ammo. Just wondering if the stuff is safe to shoot so I can plink for less

It's not a bad idea to consider any ammunition for fun shooting. Unless you know the history of this stuff it's a risk.

I don't have all of the answers. I don't know what goes wrong with old ammunition. I've heard and read about hangfires but have only seen one in the many of thousands of rounds I've fired. I've pulled down old surplus, to find orange flecks in black grains. That's supposed to be bad, and they smelled sour too. I burned the propellant, reused the bullets.

I'll admit, it's fun to see how close you get "to the edge". I like to calculate my risks. I don't have a basis for making a rational calculation here.

[Bang]

If well-defined as original manufacture, go for it. But do not fire in a rapid cadence. Rapid-fire is dangerous because you may automatically re-pull the trigger even though the previous round was a squib. Rule of thumb on a fail-to-fire.....wait 30 seconds continuing to point at the target.

I think anyone attempting to sue the seller of corrosive ammo would be on a fool's errand. I think even antis probably know you should clean a gun after firing.

[Gunplummer]

I never used surplus 8MM ammo from WWII. A lot was made by slave labor and they were not happy campers. I have fired some surplus Japanese ammo that got serious cracks in the brass because it became brittle with age. Commercial ammo, not a problem.