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Originally Posted by
CINDERS
So does the cordite sticks suffer from time ageing like the primers, I shot some cheap as dirt
POF
'67 vintage MK VII for a while (5 shoots) any one watching would have thought I was loading black powder rounds and using a flint lock instead of a Mk III hang fires and all the confetti in the world flew out the end of that barrel with the expected resultant expression "Now where did that one go."
Simple answer is yes.. although cordite in sealed small arms cart cases seems to last longer than that in artillery carts..
Cordite contains a stabiliser which works by soaking up any acid by products of oxidation. The reaction is auto catalytic so once the stabiliser is used up the breakdown can progress very quickly, leading at times to self ignition, although this is rare in small arms..
Cordite is light brown when first made and darkens with age. The best thing to do is to sniff the cordite when you open the container.. if you get a whiff of vinegar then breakdown is occurring.. The official way to test cordite is the Abel Heat test, details of which you can find on the internet..!
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10-19-2016 02:11 PM
# ADS
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Originally Posted by
CINDERS
all the confetti in the world
The confetti is the over powder wad that they all have. I use new primers and it all lights for me. The old primers have had the bun and either hang or fail.
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Don't shoot any Ranger boats. (Local reference).
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wish me luck. I have 5 belts loaded. 4 are RG45 and 1 is RL 64.
I keep buying this old ammo because I think I will use it in my rifles but I never do. I always use newer ammo or reloads because of the cleaning which I just dont have the time to do properly after the range and before I have to be at work. So this weekend I will put a dent in the old ammo pile then spend my day off cleaning.
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From my experiences with POF
, that interesting "lag" is what my IT-savvy mates call an "undocumented feature". Some of it has been quite good ammo; the rest?
I think our American cousins would refer to it as "a crap shoot", in both meanings of that phrase.
As I have noted before, there is usually a GOOD REASON ammo gets "surplussed", and it is often NOT because someone has too many warehouses full of the "good stuff" and want to "share the "lurve".
It is why all halfway decent military systems have ATOs; Ammunition Technical Officers, and an "ordnance system" to control acquisition, storage, handling and distribution of ammo.
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Contributing Member
Mr E no wonder you do not have any time loading by hand 250 round belts good luck and have fun.........
Last edited by CINDERS; 10-23-2016 at 09:02 PM.
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so it went like this
RG45 had only 20 hangfires for 500 rounds fired
RL64 had 15 duds and the 235 were all hangfires with spaghetti confetti
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So...looks like you have lots of disassembling to do...I did some of that about two days ago and don't regret it a bit. No punk primers that way. Imagine hoarding it for a rainy day?
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