Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters How to dispose of old ammo?

I found some corroded ammo in my safe.I really don`t want to pull it apart.Is there any other safe way to dispose of this stuff?Thanks,Huntz

Dig a hole and bury it.

Yeah, DEEP hole. Or pair of pliers and pull bullets sideways usually necks will rupture pretty easy. Or put in a bucket of saltwater for a few months...but then what...bury?

The police/fire dept often take old, corroded ammunition.

If not, you can burn it in a hole in the ground. 2 ft is good. Add sawdust and branches soaked with gas. Cartridges in last. Wait a few minutes for the gas to soak in before tossing in a match. We used to burn small arms ammunition in metal boxes we called furnaces. We used metal boxes because some of the SA ammunition contained tracer composition.

Cartridges DO NOT explode. They split open and the powder ignites because of the heat.

We also used to blow them up with C4, but I doubt that's an option for you.

Throw them in the garbage.

Squish 'em with a channel lock pliers and bury in oil filled, sealed gallon can.

Why not just throw them in the garbage and let them be buried in the landfill?

take the to the range -- someone will instantly snatch them up for the brass.

I don't save .45auto and without fail there are 5-6 guys lurking like vultures waiting for me to leave....

Usually you can take to local police station and let them deal with it.

Burning sounds like fun.

[quote=nick]Usually you can take to local police station and let them deal with it. [/quote)

They will likely just throw the ammo in the trash.

Sometimes, if the ammo's in decent shape and they're knowledgable shooters, they'll give it to fellow loonies.

I've read the whole thread as of 8:20pm tonight.

What's your objection to pulling the bullets/dumping the powder in flower bed/soaking primers in water-oil, etc??

Seems like the simplest way to me.

I've disposed of my share of bad ammo in my life. I'm too scotch to throw away perfectly good bullets if they are such and can be pulled. As for the rest, fertilize the lawn with the powder and toss the remains in the trash. Heck I've also gotten rid of some sick odds and ends by just putting them in the garbage and set out by the curb on Thursday mornings. Certainly some corroded ammo isn't a hazardous waste, per se, and who among us has never ever consigned something to the garbage that maybe we shouldn't have anyway?

Taking it to the cops would be the last thing I would do. In my neck of the woods, I would have to play Twenty Questions about where I got it, why I got it, and do I have any more. Bingo, I'm on their radar. Easier to just dismantle it or dump it.

Davey Jones locker.

Just put it in the microwave for 3 minutes.

...or in the woodstove.

The local police take it by me or our range will dispose of it properly, just please don't throw out in trash! I used to work as a garbage man for 5 years and found a fair amount of ammo in the trash. Made me a little nervous, I never had a round go off but some of my old co-workers had. Nothing came out of the trucks but the sides aren't very thick and small diameter rounds can penetrate mild steel pretty easily if they aren't buried in the trash. Chances are good it wouldn't happen but I don't think it's worth it.

Ammunition that is thrown in a fire, burned or heated cannot "shoot" anything. The reason is, any pressure created upon ignition within the case travels out in all directions, unless contained. There is insufficient pressure to push the bullet away from the case mouth more than an inch or two.

I don't know why this myth perpetuates. It must be the movies or television.

In order for a bullet to be propelled with any force, it has to be placed into a container (like your rifle's chamber) so that the pressure created by the burning gases cannot escape in any direction, except forward, and act on the base of the bullet.

Without this containment, the case splits open, any unburnt powder ignites and you'll hear a pop. Our ovens were nicknamed 'popcorn poppers', a slang term that describes the sound when cartridges are heated and burst inside.

How do I know this? I was in the service for over twenty yrs and used to work explosives disposal ranges as an EOD technician. And that's not Internets storytelling. I recently retired as a civilian after teaching wpns and explosives for 17 yrs, both in and out of uniform.

a short bio - https://www.303british.com/id68.html

I'd avoid burning. Had a guy in the ER who was burning trash at the skeet range. There where a few live rounds in the trash. When they popped, a primer came out with enough velocity penetrated the web between thumb and forefinger.