Waterproof Ammo

[Rally]

I was cleaning out a culvert last Friday and up to my chest in water for about 1.5 hrs. When I got home I realized I had two .38 spl. shells in my pants pocket, that had been submerged the whole time. They were the NOE 154 in DP with 4.0 grs of BE and CCI 500 primer. Well today when running traps I figured I'd see if they would fire and sure enough they did! I wasn't worried about the bullet end but thought the primer would leak. I have some .38's I actually sealed the primers, these weren't them though so was kind of surprised they fired. Anybody else submerged ammo like that and it still functioned?

 

[fiver]

does duck hunting count?... LOL.

I have short term dunked a bunch of ammo, I'm not a fan but it has never gave me a fizzle.
and I learned to build shelves with the bottom one about 6"s off the floor in the basement.

 

[popper]

HAd a pipe burst and after I got the sheetrock cleaned I got to dump water out of containers of reloads rifle & pistol plus several boxes of factory SG shells. they all did fine. Probably in water 2-3 days.

 

[Eutectic]

does duck hunting count?... LOL.

I have short term dunked a bunch of ammo, I'm not a fan but it has never gave me a fizzle.
and I learned to build shelves with the bottom one about 6"s off the floor in the basement.

Lamar......Some of us can even remember trying to get those swelled wet paper loads into the chamber before the flock of Sprig got into range!!

 

[fiver]

twist left twist right gently gently push twist gently come on twist right some more come ON!!!

 

[Rally]

Fiver,
That would have to of been a Baptist duck blind you were in. If those Sprigs had their wings set, in front of my blind and the shells wouldn't fit...well my mother wouldn't have been proud! But if they were Mergansers, I'd just laugh it off.

Pete,
Remember when Federal used to sell primed, paper hulls in boxes of 100? Well I had an early model Browning A5 in sixteen gauge (safety in front of trigger guard). I bought 200 out of a "bargain bin" at a gun shop in Texas. Loaded them up to shoot some doves. Did I mention this shotgun had a real small chamber? About every third one would jam when fired in that gun. It wasn't a Baptist stool I was sitting on that day either.

 

[fiver]

it was usually Teal we got the most of over the decoy's.
Pintails never come along until about 10:30 or 11 then they would just circle and set like they were coming, then flair and circle.
usually the second pass was when we would shoot.

one of the few times I ever got my Mom to come out hunting was right after I got one of the very first 3-1/2' 12ga shotguns.
long about 90-91 or so.
she come out with me and Dad to a little spot on a new pond I had been watching fill up all fall I had gone out and dug in some seats on the edge of the berm and got some decent foliage going long about august hoping it would hold some water later.
I had been seeing birds move in and out of the pond for 9-10 days pretty regularly and they really moved in when the wind would get going about 8-10 MPH so I'm pretty excited for a decent shoot and for her to watch the big stupid dog that lived with them actually do something besides mooch food.
we get out there and I empty the gun on the first bunch of ducks that comes through and the dog went and done her job with no fuss, when we hear some geese coming in from Behind us.
I'm trying to watch them, not move around too much and give a couple of honks on the call while fetching a couple of 3-1/2" shells out of my pocket.
I drop the first one in the slot and go to close the bolt when it won't move more than about 1/2".
I try again shaking the gun and...NOPE.
I look down in there and I had dropped the shell in backwards jamming the whole thing up tight.
Mom got to hear some words strung together in a way she hadn't ever heard before as I'm trying to tear the gun down and gauge the distance of the now coming quickly Geese.

 

[RBHarter]

See stories like this are why I always shot one load .......an oz of 1s or B's is pretty hard on teal , ruddies , widgens and bufflehead , about perfect for malards , red heads , cans , gads , and scoter . Inside 35 yd it's fine on honkers and out to about about 40 on snows .

Quail ........yeah don't shoot quail with those ..........

 

[fiver]

I pretty much settled in on 1's,2's and B size area at 14-1450 fps. also.
one of my favorites was a mix of 1's and copper or zinc plated #2's, or the same mix but with B shot.
an improved cylinder choke is still in the guns that use that load.

this was back when steel was pretty new and asking other hunters what they were using was about the only information available as to what was working and what wasn't, and god,,, nobody was reloading the stuff.
at least no one that was having any real success.
the 20 ga. was the only factory ammo with enough speed to be effective but it only held like 6 pellets.
worse yet several of the guy's I talked to were pretty much using their lead shot loads and just substituting in steel pellets.
trying to explain to them lower mass meant higher velocity's were needed, and larger shot has a larger frontal area which hampers penetration meaning it needs more velocity.
[that alone tells me I need larger shot for energy retention and more velocity]
the really bad part is even the factory's were severely lacking in the velocity area.
1350 fps #3 loads is not going to bring down a gadwall at 40 yds no matter how many times you shoot it.
you would blow half of it's breast feathers off but not penetrate through and kill it.

 

[RBHarter]

1&B's were my mainstay 1-1/16 oz in a CSD 118 inside a Fiocchi case with 4756 for about 1470 fps . Shot them in a BPS with a Special Steel barrel . It's only about a loose modified but the fixed choke is 6" or so long from a .710 or so bore down to .700 I think . It would put 97-99 of 105 pellets inside 27" at 40 yd .(Because I had a 14" hacksaw blade to make a circle .) I had about 80% pass through on 3/4 7ply plywood carrying 4.5 ftlb per pellet with B's . I don't remember ever getting a BB in a bite .

I shot a bunch of 3" FC early in the steel years . Pretty useless past 27 yd over deks . Forget pass shooting . On the rise going away was about the only sure thing . I lost track of the cripples lost , birds with ganggreen , and others chased down before I shot a honker 5 times and it was still in the flight when they disappeared into the low sun . That was when I started loading steel . MEC wad 800x and 1-1/4 .

 

[fiver]

mec 800-x and 1-1/8 here.
I switched to the sam-1 and Steel when they become available much easier locally.
but still have a fondness for the 800-X load in 2-3/4" hulls.
it was klunking along about 1425 and was very effective, I still have 5-600 of them loaded up downstairs and have no problems dragging them along on the occasional grouse or even dove hunt for the fun of it.


I still have a bunch of 3" mec wads and started using them in 3-1/2' hulls with the 4756.
I really had to watch those loads in the semi-auto guns though, they would lock the bolt back hard and I had to re-work them down from BPI's data.

 

[RBHarter]

I didn't care for the Steel , I don't know what it was , I liked Blue Dot better . I don't know if it was the flash or the bark .

 

[fiver]

it was measuring it.
I never thought about it measuring as poor as gauging the wind speed with your wet finger, and it gave me all kinds of issues to begin with.
they then changed the stuff so it was a little bit faster which gave me more problems until I figured that out too.
I never had real good luck with it in 3" hulls which was a shame since they were about the easiest for me to get and work with.

I have used it in cast rifle loads by just doing a volume measurement and running with it,,, it worked fine there and I'm sure the weight varied by a grain at least.

 

[Eutectic]

I absolutely HATE STEEL!!!!! That's 'Steel'as in steel shot now..... I like those denser than lead shot loads they make now.... But two shells cost what a whole box of lead 5's cost back then.... So ducks are safe any more. I actually like Steel powder quite a bit for certain cast loads; like medium range .25-20 in my Model 23's. Very accurate and a lot cleaner than 2400! Yeah...... you have to weigh it...... So what!! It beats mowing the grass or plowing snow! Besides...... my lifelong buddy says I can weigh charges as fast as he is with a powder measure.... but he may exaggerate just a little

Pete