Home› Main Category› General Firearms
JuddHunter
Posts: 8 New Member
243 Ammo Partial Explosion
JuddHunter
Posts: 8 New Member
I shot some ammo today that could be 10 years old or could be 40 years old. It has been in a gun safe of my father for years. The first bullet didn't fire and so I loaded a second one and it shot, but I felt a slap to my face like sand hitting it hard and then i looked at the cartridge and it has two tears/holes in it.
Does anyone know what happened here?
Do you think the gun is damaged and what should I do with it?
Does anyone know what happened here?
Do you think the gun is damaged and what should I do with it?
Replies
Good advice here. Discontinue that batch of ammo, double check rifle. Chamber, bolt, chambering, etc..
yes, stop doing whatever you plan or want to do.
the ammo/brass looks like its corroded.
- Don Burt
I've posted a few photos below. I also contacted a local gun shop who has a gunsmith and asked them if they can take a look at the gun next week. It is an old Winchester 243 that I think my father used when he was in his 20's living in the sticks of North Dakota, but I could be wrong. It's one of a bunch of old family guns.
I visually inspected the chamber just now and didn't see anything odd or out of place, but I am no expert.
Any other comments/advice are always welcome. What a cool site this is and thank you again!
Nice rifle! If that's an example of what's in that safe I would take pics and write down all the info you can find then show it to your gunsmith.
By they way, we always appreciate pics of nice guns.
Post 64.
The ammo looks corroded. That green stuff is bad juju, weakens the brass. New ammo should work fine!!
Finally, get rid of that ammo. It looks like someone did carry that box in their pocket for a bit, like Freezer said. Sweating on ammo and then storing it for awhile doesn't do the ammo any good. Worse still, removing the rounds with your bare hands and then placing the ammo back in the box for storage is really bad. I've had lots of ammo turn green on me mysteriously. Never could figure why until I paid close attention to "where" it was turning green. In the picture below, it's turning green right where someone would put they're thumb and forefinger to remove a cartridge. That brass is most likely compromised at that location. Take the ammo, loaded, spent or misfired with you when you visit the smith and see what he tells you. Btw, that box looks like it was from the 80's. Time and sweat do wonders on brass.
How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and [how] hard it is to undo that work again! -- Mark Twain
One more question: Does it matter which Gunsmith I go to? I see on the Winchester website that they have certified gunsmiths, but there really are not all that many of them and certainly none in my immediate area. I'd be happy to ship the gun out to make sure that it is fixed/inspected to the highest standards.
Never met Justsomedude, however I know he's done work for some other members and they've been pleased.
I've found decent ones, and some HORRIBLE ones around here in west Alabama, but not what I'd call a good one, yet.
I'd suggest asking around, at gun shops, sporting good stores, etc and see who they recommend that's local.
An example of what I have to deal with... I have a Rock River Arms AR with the "Elevated Optics Platform" (EOP) upper. At the time, most AR upper vises wouldn't fit the upper. I had over 15K rounds through the barrel and accuracy had dropped off because of throat erosion. I was in the process of ordering a new barrel from Lilja for it, and needed to get the old one removed. A new gunsmith had opened up in town, and he said he could handle the EOP upper. Take it to him, he looks at the upper and says he can't do anything with it. Then, with nothing more than eyeballing the bore, proceeds to tell me the barrel's not shot out, it's just copper fouled. Then he proceeds to grab a cleaning rod and some of his homemade bore cleaner, that he sells, and proceeds to start running patches through the bore from the muzzle (HUGE no no without a bore guide) If I hadn't already ordered a new barrel, I'd have had a "sho nuff" fit. Funny thing was, I'd left a message with Lilja with a question, and about the time I was ripping my upper out of that clown's hands, my phone rang and it was Dan Lija himself, returning my call.
When I finished my call, the "gunsmith's" eyes were huge when he asked, "Was that Dan Lijla calling you?" I just smailed, said, "Yep" and walked out.
I typed all that to emphasize that going by a direct reference is a safer bet than just searching for "gunsmith" online and going to see one you know nothing about
-Mikhail Kalashnikov
Usually those rounds will spread all over the target at 220 yards so will just keep shooting and hoping same problem won't repeat with the next round since we have to spend anyway the issued prectice ammo before being able to ask for more.
Friend of mine cut a few of such cracked cases and all showed internal corrosion in the brass walls, both those showing the poor storage effects externally and the ones that were still clean and shiny; the ammo was always non-corrosive Berdan primed.
If you can, make a gunsmith check your chamber anyway (down here we can't afford such "luxury") but my guess is that that Winchester should be fine. Only time I've seen clear damage to a gun in such kind of incident was in a .357 Taurus revolver cylinder that showed an evident eroded scar inside one of the chambers after the owner used some old CCI aluminum-cased ammo he had that cracked after being fired and blew hot gas and metal splinters against his hand. After that he usually had extracting issues in that chamber even using brass-cased .357 & .38 ammo.