r/canadaguns • u/Traditional_Permit21 • Jun 11 '26

Misc Safe to shoot?

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I was gifted some miscellaneous 22lr and 12g shells . They have varying degrees of patina and corrosion (see in sample). Do you think these are safe to shoot and if so what level of corrosion is to much.

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u/22GageEnthusiast Jun 11 '26

Yea it's fine. You'll probably get some duds/misfires for the 22LR ammo but if so just toss them out. I've never seen a 12G round not go off tbh so those should be fine. The only issue you'll have after shooting dirty ass ammo is having a dirty ass gun lol

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u/Additional_Fold_1350 Jun 11 '26

I shot some 40-50 year-old 12ga shells a few weeks ago, Father in law brought them out.

Pretty sure some of them were even reloads based on the crimps and wear on the casing. Told him you first, I had a few 100 rounds with me anyways. After he made a few go bang without issue, I shot a few dozen of them with no issues or misfires. Only thing I noticed was the consistency, some shot like target loads, some shot like slugs or turkey loads. All were 2 3/4" so it was probably due to variable hand loads, loaded for different long forgotten purpose, though all were bird shot.

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u/Mil-wookie Jun 11 '26

Branch breakers are a classic home load. Powder, wad, bird shot, and a ball bearing on top. Ball bearing clears branches and drops out. Bird shot harvests the bird for the freezer. As long forgotten load though, you'd turn pheasant into racoon feed everywhere.