.45 cal ball with corrosive primers & steel cases... Would you use them?

[BIA_Design]

I have a ton of .45 ammo.... Actual 230 lbs worth or 4800 rounds to be exact (4 crates, each with 2 spam cans with 600 rounds each). Issue is, it's all WWII mil-surplus and therefore, corrosive primers and because it's out of the Evansville Ordnance plant, steel cases...

So..... What do you think? Run it and clean like crazy after each session with the same process I use on my take homes that 'have' to run corrosive, or avoid and sell to some WWII junky who wants this? Will the steel cases hurt the extractors or is this just running new Wolf or Blazer ammo?

I'll be putting this through a couple Sig p220s and modern Springfield GI Spec 1911.

I opened one to check condition..... hmmmmm.....

[sciroccosven]

Pretty cool stuff. I would try and sell it to a ww2 fiend. Even if you traded straight up for some cheap winchester target you would make a collectors day and get ammo you would feel more comfortable shooting.

[Shawn.L]

shoot it and clean

or........

put it up for trade for some modern 45 ammo at like a 2:1 ratio or whatever seems fair.

[Farbmeister]

Steel cases were VERY prevalent in the war... brass was scarce... steel was not so much.

You will not snap an extractor or rot your chamber. This unfounded fear of 'corrosive ammo' is funny.

As you correctly stated its the PRIMER that is corrosive. The powder is regular powder. All it takes is some water (generally hot because it will evaporate quicker) Hot water does NOTHING to the corrosive salts left by the primer ignition.... it just washes them away.

[tobyking8773]

Either shoot it and scrub w/ hot H2O or sell 2 cases to me!

[WVBob]

You can also use Windex to clean after shooting it. The corrosive primers are not that much of a problem as some people make out. Thay were used for years and people just had to clean very soon and well. Do a quick clean and brush on the gun, spray it with Windex and let it set for a 5 min., brush and clean with Hoppels (sp) number 9, and oil as needed. The ammonia in the Windex is what does the cleaning and the spray is what gets it to all the parts.

[Farbmeister]

NO!

The Ammonia in Windex will start to clean out the copper fouling. The concentraition of ammonia in windex is trivial.. so it won't get much out... but it might do *something*.

WATER is all you need.

Come on guys... all you have to do is google this stuff... the first hit is generally the answer.

Windex will not magically make the corrosive salts disappear any better/faster than plain old cold tap water.

[GRIZ]

I would not worry about shooting corrosive in a 45 just clean it well right after shooting. I don't see a need to "run like hell" to clean it just clean it well when you get home. Water cleans corrosive salts as well or better than anything else. Windex is mostly water. Ammonia is chemically pretty close to water. Julian Hatcher commented that using ammonia was more acceptable than using water to clean a firearm so that's how ammonia got this magic reputation.

Jeff Cooper commented that steel cases were a little hard ion extractors without being specific.

Collectors would probably pay a premium for that ammo.

[Plain Old Bill]

Hot water will take care of cleaning anything shot with corrosive ammo. Don't forget the firing pin, take it out and clean it too.

Steel cases are ok, as long as you're not shooting 5000 of them.

That is cool ammo- sell it to a collector and go buy some commercial stuff to shoot!

[BIA_Design]

Thank you for the replies everyone.....

I think I've decided to keep most of it, but sell a crate or so..