Dud primers

I came across a box of 100 M2 ball .30-06 cartridges headstamped FN 57. Every case was clean and not quite bright - the brass had just a hint or tarnish but zero corrosion or any other defect. Primers were sealed. I figured they were corrosive & planned to clean up as soon as the last one was fired.

Retiring to the range, out of the first thre rounds, I had two duds & 1 hangfire before I quit. Had to swab the barrel with soapy water for 1 round!

Back home, I pulled a bullet & found the powder looked & smelled OK. The case held 52.5 gr of what looked to be 4895. I pulled the bullets, poured the powder into freshly primed cases and then seated & crimped the bullets. I haven't been able to get back to the range yet.

I wanted to scrap the brass (Beardan primed) but did want to do so with live primers. I deactivated the primers by holding the cases over a propane torch untill the primers cooked off. About 80% went pfffft. A few went PFffffft. A few more smoked but made no sound. A few went Pop with flame visible at the mouth. One went BLAM, like a normal primer, blew the primer from the case & startled me. If you try this, aim the mouth & primer pocket away from you!

Even though these rounds looked OK, they were duds. I have no idea how this ammo was stored over the last 50 years but it made a difference. I'd expected them to be OK - I fully would expect USGI ammo to be OK.

Much safer to simply squirt a small spritz of WD-40 into the case to deactivate the primers.
You could also drop them into a bucket of soapy water. Let them soak for a day or two just to be sure.

You say "I'd expected them to be OK - I fully would expect USGI ammo to be OK." You are aware this was NOT USGI ammo, I'm sure.

FN 57 ammo was loaded by FN/Belgium and distributed in many South American countries. I have a bunck from Columbia. I haven't tried shooting any in a rifle yet, but tested the priming compound for corrosiveness and found it to be non-corrosive. The 2 I tested went off just fine.

FWIW,

Emri

I had a bunch of this ammo a couple of years ago. Many would not fire in my 700 but did in an 03. I attributed this to primers that needed a really hard strike to ignite.

Ermi:

I was told in an earlier posting than FN 57 was most likely corrosive so I didn't take a chance. As I torched the primers, I held a piece of steel (cleaned the surface with a file) over 6 or 7 cases as the primer went off. The next day, it was rusty & today heavily rusted!

I had the same experience with some 7x57 loaded by FN around the same time. They could have had a bad batch of primers, or the ammo was improperly stored.

Incidentally, the reason the US kept corrosive primers through WWII was that the then relatively new non-corrosive primers had not been sufficiently tested for long term stability. Requiring GIs to clean their rifles was preferable to having ammo that failed to fire.

Jim

You're correct Jim.

As an example, the military had a lot of concern when they learned the m1 carbine needed to use the 'new fangled' non-corrosive primers because the carbine gas system wasn't field serviceable.

The Remington Kleenbore & Winchester Staynless primers had been around since the mid '20s. What kind of track record did they have by say 1939 or 1940 when the US began to get serious about rearming?

"Incidentally, the reason the US kept corrosive primers through WWII was that the then relatively new non-corrosive primers had not been sufficiently tested for long term stability."

I've heard that one but I'm not so sure if it's true. The exclusive use of non corrosive .30 Carbine ammunition during the war creates doubts about that statement.

I was thinking that maybe the military just figured that with all of the corrosive ammo already in the system, it would be too hard to issue just non corrosive .30 caliber ammunition to troops during a war. Soldiers could be carrying both types and would end up with rusty bores regardless. Why complicate the ammunition situation?

The Carbine ammo was non corrosive from the start and mixing corrosive and non corrosive ammo wasn't possible.