Wet Ammo Torture Test - Wanna Help?

[workinwifdakids]

I'd like to take commercial American ammunition and submerge it in water and then measure for moisture content of the powder. Is moisture content of powder a function of time?

Q: Is there a standard way to measure the moisture content of powder that wouldn't involve the Large Hadron Collider and a physics degree?

Q: To keep the number of variables to a minimum, is it reasonable to assume that modern new commercial American ammunition has the same level of 'waterproofosity' (seals?) across the industry?

Some remarks:
I don't think I can take corrosion into consideration, for a lot of reasons. Do you?

I'd have one data set for fresh water, and one set for salt water.

Is there anything else you'd do? What did I not take into account? Anything else you want to add? Dive in!

[mekender]

Q1 - weight will tell you if it has added or lost moisture

Q2 - no you would have to assume that each brand was different and possibly even each batch

[Combat Controller]

+1, weigh it. Be sure to add the same amount of water from a dropper.

[mekender]

and yes, if the seal is not breached but is still permeable, time will be a factor

[JustinR]

I guess my question would be why. Something someone said somewhere about keeping your powder dry..... But seriously, if the ammo is submerged any longer than it takes me to pick it back up again, I'm probably not going to put it back into my gun, unless I'm being shot at. Was there any particular scenario you were thinking about here?

You should also test some military ammo and wolf ammo to see how well the 'proper' sealant paint works.

[DwightG]

You'll also want to account for water pressure as in how deep was it submerged. A few years ago, a friend that lived along a river had his shed flooded. In it was some surplus Egyptian 9mm. It had been under 15+ feet of water for a few of days. He gave it to me in case I wanted to salvage the bullets. Being curious about such things, I tried firing a bit of it. All duds out of 10 or so rounds. I then pulled the bullets on another 5 and found they were dripping with water inside. I kept the powder of each cartridge separate, left them out to dry for a few days and reassembled them. This time, 3 out of 5 fired. They seemed to have diminished performance but they went bang. Not that I'd recommend trying to save ammo this way in anything but an emergency but it was interesting to learn that the primers weren't all destroyed by the soaking.

[308Mike]

Let me know when and where you plan to test such ammo so I can be a long ways away.......

[mekender]

You'll also want to account for water pressure as in how deep was it submerged. A few years ago, a friend that lived along a river had his shed flooded. In it was some surplus Egyptian 9mm. It had been under 15+ feet of water for a few of days. He gave it to me in case I wanted to salvage the bullets. Being curious about such things, I tried firing a bit of it. All duds out of 10 or so rounds. I then pulled the bullets on another 5 and found they were dripping with water inside. I kept the powder of each cartridge separate, left them out to dry for a few days and reassembled them. This time, 3 out of 5 fired. They seemed to have diminished performance but they went bang. Not that I'd recommend trying to save ammo this way in anything but an emergency but it was interesting to learn that the primers weren't all destroyed by the soaking.

i would be curious to see if that same ammo would flood out under an inch of water. 1.5 atmospheres really isnt a lot of pressure so it would surprise me if that 15ft was really the cause and not just that the water itself.

most milsurp ammo will be waterproof for several minutes when new... that changes with the age of the ammo and the time spent underwater... pressure will also have an impact but it would surprise me if anything less than 50ft in depth really mattered a whole lot.

[workinwifdakids]

Let me know when and where you plan to test such ammo so I can be a long ways away...

No loading. No firing. Just moisture content.

[Combat Controller]

I had 5 rounds of .357 hydra shoks survive 8 months underwater and still fire. Go figure.