Last week I purchased a nice 1899A in .303Sav.
When I remarked to a friend that ammo was hard to come by he seemed remember buying a wooden Savage ammo case many years ago and thought there may be some ammo in it. He scrounged around his basement and found the case and inside were about 12 boxes of factory loaded .303.s.
Most have a red savage label on them, a couple have a green Savage label and one's UMC.
Most of the boxes were falling apart, none were sealed, so we sorted the ammo.
We immediately discarded any that had green corrosion coming through the shell casing wall.
I have saved exactly 6 boxes of ammo, 4 red, 1 green and 1 UMC. The boxes are in OK condition, labels are loose
About half of these shells show green corrosion around the primer or out of the neck or both
Can I pull the bullets with an inertia puller?
If so, how can I safely remove the primers? If I do this can these shells be reloaded?
I pulled one bullet and the powder inside (the boxes all state that it's smokeless powder, no nitro glycerine) looks dry but there was a bit of green in there from the inside of the case wall. Do I need to discard any with green corrosion inside the casing?
Would I just be better of selling it for the collector value, if any and buying some newer ammo or cases?
Thanks, Rob

Based on a recent experience of mine, I would recommend against shooting or utilizing any component, aside from the bullets if you want to pull them.

Last month, I bought two boxes of early '60s Peters .270 Win., 130-gr. Bronze Points. I, too, had a good portion of cases that exhibited the old Statue of Liberty-green in spots. I set those aside and culled a few rounds that looked clean. Then, I went to the range.

On the first (which also turned out to be the last) shot, everything sounded and felt good. But, when I looked up I saw some little wisps of smoke coming from the action.

The case had two parallel splits running from the upper body, through the shoulder, and into the lower neck. Also, down at the bottom, two holes had been burned through where gas had escaped. And remember, this case looked good and clean.

I had planned to use the brass, but now I will just pull the Bronze Points and drop them in some handloads.

So much for ammo lasting decades.

RSY

If you can't find a collector for it, those 190 grain bullets are salvageable, and good fodder for 30-30 class cartridges.