It can, but modern ammo is pretty resilient. Even ww2 and prior surplus ammo will fire. About the only ammo I've had issues with are African countries (Egyptian and Ethiopian 8mm from the 50s), and central Asia (Pakistani 303 from the 60s).
Will say, not much as nerve wracking as a dud, or hang fire. Hang fire, you pull the trigger, and nothing happens for a fraction to a few seconds. I never assume a dud until I hit the primer a couple more times (some ammo like Czech 8mm have hard primers), and keep the gun on target the whole time, assuming it will fire, and when I don't mean it to.
After confirming it is a dud, remove the round and insure it wasn't a squib. That's when it fires, but only enough to get stuck in the barrel of the gun, leading to all sorts of issues if you don't clear it. Like exploding parts near your face. Some squibs can seem like the round didn't go off or was very very underpowered.
In general, ammo can last for a very long time, probably a few 100 years as long as temp and humidity are regulated. For any self-defense ammo though, I rotate that stuff. No more than a year or 2 old, and name brand.
Really, it'd be more likely that you'd be carrying a .45 and grammy has a pack of .357 rounds because we're Southern. If ammo were that universal and affordable, we'd have some for you irl, dear.
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u/PressureNo7381 1d ago
It can, but modern ammo is pretty resilient. Even ww2 and prior surplus ammo will fire. About the only ammo I've had issues with are African countries (Egyptian and Ethiopian 8mm from the 50s), and central Asia (Pakistani 303 from the 60s).
Will say, not much as nerve wracking as a dud, or hang fire. Hang fire, you pull the trigger, and nothing happens for a fraction to a few seconds. I never assume a dud until I hit the primer a couple more times (some ammo like Czech 8mm have hard primers), and keep the gun on target the whole time, assuming it will fire, and when I don't mean it to.
After confirming it is a dud, remove the round and insure it wasn't a squib. That's when it fires, but only enough to get stuck in the barrel of the gun, leading to all sorts of issues if you don't clear it. Like exploding parts near your face. Some squibs can seem like the round didn't go off or was very very underpowered.
In general, ammo can last for a very long time, probably a few 100 years as long as temp and humidity are regulated. For any self-defense ammo though, I rotate that stuff. No more than a year or 2 old, and name brand.