Don't vacuum seal your ammunition!

[kx250kev]

(IMHO) You shouldn't "vacuum" seal your ammo! I did this with some white box 9mm winchester because I thought I was being "smart". I opened up some of it and shot it today with shocking results. One of the rounds was totally dead and wouldn't fire in 2 guns. Most of the ammo barely fired with enough force to cycle the action on my pistol, and the sound level of these rounds was strangely quiet. I figure the air had been "sucked" out of each round. I've just never had such a bad experience with the Winchester white box ammo before. Anyone else have a similar experience with vacuum pack ammo? I'll be labeling all my vacuum packed ammo as "use first/practice only" now.

[crashdive123]

I've never heard of this being a problem. Could the vacuum have dislodged the primer or bullet seat?

[kx250kev]

BTW, The ammo physically looked fine, and no I didn't marinade them in oil or anything. These rounds were sealed for about 12 months. I guess more experimentation would need to be done to prove this is a bad idea. To be fair, this ammo was also stored in an unheated cabin during the winter, so I'm not sure if that could be a factor.

[Pict]

My brother just vac-packed a pile of ammo. I'll have him test some to make sure. Scary. Mac

[catfish10101]

If you are going to seal your ammo in any hermetic packing, you should always place some silica packs in it to absorb any moisture that may be present. Even vaccum packing will not remove all of the moisture (nitrogen purging may help).

[Rick]

Why not email that question to Winchester? They should be able to tell you if sealing it would have any effect.

[rat31465]

sucking the air wont cause a misfire as the powder itself contains a very vigourous oxider...

[SARKY]

I believe that extremes of cold or heat would affect the ammo much more than the vacume sealing would.

[Ole WV Coot]

Shouldn't do anything but you can always cover yourself with a bag of silica and don't clean the ammo with WD-40 before sealing.

[Lothaen]

I have also heard that vacuum sealing can pop primers from the case. Any primers popped out to lay this theory to rest?

[kx250kev]

FYI: I went back and shot some other vaccum sealed .40 S&W and 9mm and it shot just fine. I might have had a bad box.

[Mountain Man]

Sounds like a bad box to me.

[Pict]

That's a relief! mac

[Bigdog57]

I stopped buying Winny Whitebox 9mm when I had one 'fizzle' in my pistol - primer popped but powder did not go off. Also found TWO rounds in the box with primers in the cases sideways. Brand new ammo a few years back - not due to overworked employees cranking out ammo now to make up for lack of supply and panic-buying.
I reload all my centerfire ammo now.

[SARKY]

That is why I've been rolling my own for the past 20 years.....I know what i've got!