incendiary ammo... most is old, do these bullets still bang

[magnumwheelman]

My retired buddy has a few blue tip 30-06 rounds he wants to give me... curious do these bullets "work" for a long time, or if they were WW2 or Korean war era, are they likely duds by now ( I could pull a bullet & check the powder & primer... I'm mostly curious if the bullets would still perform like they were supposed to, after all this time???

I bought a bunch of old 223 tracer bullets, that most didn't light up anymore... ( still shot fine when reloaded )

would expect these incendiary bullets would be about the same???

[nicholst55]

The ammo will almost certainly still fire. Will the bullets still start fires? Only one way to find out. Of course, they are almost certainly corrosive-primed, and will require cleaning your rifle with a water-based product after firing.

[ericp]

A friend and I shot up some old blue tip 30-06 about 5 years ago and maybe 30% still lit but I have no idea what it's storage history was. We split buying a bunch of black tip AP bullets about the same time.

Eric

Edit:
The ammo we shot was corrosive.

[bradshaw]

magnum wheelman.... .30-06 U.S. military head stamp show year manufactured and arsenal (TW----Twin Cities; LC----Lake City, etc). As Nichols indicates, certain to be potassium chlorate or some such corrosive primed. Warm soapy water to dissolve salts, as oil-base solvents do not dissolve salts. Dry & oil bore after. Tracer with phosphorous compound in jacket. Much WW II tracer still capable of starting fire in materials supposedly difficult to ignite. Don’t know much about incendiary, may have metallic compounds for pyrotechnic effect as spotter rounds.

Eric.... .30-06 black tip has .25 cal steel penetrator. More recoil in M1 Garand than regular ball. Used often by WW II riflemen for accuracy at long range, i.e., sniping. Heats barrel faster than ball. My coach Doc Carroll advised against using it in my M1 Nation Match, saying it would wear the accuracy faster. Doc Carroll knew a bit about accuracy, as he went on to shoot 99x100 in the Leech Cup 1,000 yard match at Camp Perry with his M1 National Match (.30-06 173 grain FMJ National Match ammo).
David Bradshaw