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I've returned to shooting after a long layoff, so have been digging around my attic and back of my garage cabinets gathering up my reloading gear. I came across 25 never fired .44 Mag cases. These were primed over 20 years ago and have been lost in the garage since then. All were corroded to a certain extent, some so much that I will not ever shoot them.
On a whim, I tossed them into my vibratory case cleaner to see how much of the corrosion I could remove. After a couple hours in the corn cob it became apparent that none of these are salvageable. So, I need to ensure the primers are inert. So why not try to set them off, as the boys will love to make noise. So we loaded them up, pointed the muzzle in a safe direction and pressed the trigger.
All 25 fired with a nice loud report and a bit of flame exiting the 7.5 inch Redhawk barrel! So 23 years in the damp and heat left in an unsealed box. Case ruining corrosion and a couple of hours in a case cleaner did not dampen these primers one bit. We fired a couple of new ones for comparison. The sound and spit of flame out the barrel were pretty much identical.
I'm not sure what this info is worth, but I found it interesting so I decided to pass the tale along.
On a whim, I tossed them into my vibratory case cleaner to see how much of the corrosion I could remove. After a couple hours in the corn cob it became apparent that none of these are salvageable. So, I need to ensure the primers are inert. So why not try to set them off, as the boys will love to make noise. So we loaded them up, pointed the muzzle in a safe direction and pressed the trigger.
All 25 fired with a nice loud report and a bit of flame exiting the 7.5 inch Redhawk barrel! So 23 years in the damp and heat left in an unsealed box. Case ruining corrosion and a couple of hours in a case cleaner did not dampen these primers one bit. We fired a couple of new ones for comparison. The sound and spit of flame out the barrel were pretty much identical.
I'm not sure what this info is worth, but I found it interesting so I decided to pass the tale along.
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