Old .243 ammo

[shipwright]

Hi Troops: pulled my old model 70 out of box had not used for a long time, tried her out with 75g reloads, hell of a blast and recoil, this ammo is probably 25 years old. there is a lot of it so decided to pull the projectiles and reload, had one of those green plastic kinetic pullers, only got a few out and the puller flew to bits it was pretty old so picked up a new one today see how it goes, these projectiles are really tight maybe some action between copper and brass.
Keep you advised.
Shipwright

[headspace]

What sort of condition were the cases in mate? At 25 years old there could be a bit of corrosion which could be the reason your bullet puller had a bit of a job on its hands. A lot of factory ammo is crimped too which makes those inertia pullers job a lot harder. How old is the Mod 70?
JD

[shipwright]

Headspace thanks for reply, cases are once fired PMC. Agree there appeared to be some galvanic action between copper-brass. Gave them a squirt of CRC and projectiles popped out with 3 whacks. having said that one case cracked at the head surprised me .
Shipwright

[MalleeFarmer]

If one case cracked at the head is be very cautious using any of them. Recon I'd go buy some fresh cases and bullets for her. Model 70 deserves the best.

[SendIt]

They could arguable pose a few safety concern or just as easily be perfectly fine depending on how kind or harsh the 25 years have been.

Has it been kept in a dry, temperate closet for 25 years, or in the leaky, wind tunnel of a shed that alternates between being an oven or freezer depending on the day?

How much surface oxidation is there?

Pics?

[newsteadvic]

A useful lurk sometimes with hard to budge projectiles is to set up the seating die in the press to actually push the projectile into the case 1-2mm. This will "break the seal" and allow easier use of the kinetic puller.
Old projectiles I would tumble and use, as others say is some brass brittle? If you really wanted to use it consider annealing the case necks.

[Harper]

What's the general vibe on how long it takes a seal to develop in storage?

Anyone?

[Zilla]

It would have to be years at least.

[snag]

.243 cases are cheap, model 70's aren't. I'd junk 'em and buy new ones.

[Utcherd]

.243 cases are cheap, model 70's aren't. I'd junk 'em and buy new ones.

Depends... He might have 1000 of them sitting there already?