Clean Cartridge

 So I've been busy doing lots of laundry since Steve fixed the washer. Yesterday I pulled the blue jeans and blue jean shorts out of the washer and lo and behold there was an old cartridge laying in the bottom, still damp. I said an ugly word and remembered where I had picked it up while in the frantic cleaning since we got the new shelves. I have loose ca'tridges lyin' around, I recognized that this was a several year old one because it was a semiwadcutter lead alloy bullet that I didn't use anymore. Instead I like the round nosed flat point as those work both in the revolvers and the rifle. Anyhow those who studied the shooting game some thirty+ years or more ago know about how moisture was a big enemy of the primer.

So, anyhow, here was this old, wet cartridge that went through the agitation, spin and rinse cycles, thirty-forty years back it would have maybe been useful in a slingshot but worthless in a firearm. So I stuck it in one of the .45 revolvers, opened the back door and let fly into the ground. I got a loud noise and the ground erupted with the impact of a 255 grain slug at some 850 fps.

 Now I realise that a sample of one does not a big scientifical experiment but still, I remember when we were not even supposed to touch a primer with bare hands for fear that the skin oil would render it inert. It wasn't long ago that a factory round couldn't go through the washer and work, now a five+ year old handload can. Progress.