Shotgun shells need to be kept dry after the hunt

I recently went duck hunting with Cole, who you heard about in my first blog. He took another friend, his brother, his dad, and me to shoot some wood ducks on his property. It was the most fun I've had duck hunting all season! There were wood ducks flying in all directions for a solid 45 minutes. They were zipping through the trees or flying right over the tree tops. It was everything I could do to keep my gun loaded.

Unfortunately for me, keeping my gun loaded was an even more difficult task than it should have been because my 12 gauge pump shotgun stayed jammed after almost every shot towards the end of the hunt. I thought it was because I was hunting with an old clunker of a gun I got when I was in high school that I've had issues with for quite some time. For instance, for the past couple of years I've relegated  to using it as a 2-shot shotgun because it jams most of the time when there are three shells in it - 1 in the chamber and 2 in the magazine. My gun very well likely contributed to my problems. But this morning was much worse than usual. 

My friend Kevin Jernigan filled me in on the problem. My shotgun shells were rusted on the area where the powder is housed.

I had bought myself a fancy neoprene shotgun shell holder that attaches to my waders at the beginning of hunting season. It has individual slots to hold shells for easy access. I didn't want to risk fumbling around trying to get shells when there were ducks flying around me and I didn't want to have to worry about dropping loose shells in the water either. Well needless to say, this Bayou Beginner hasn't needed the quick access to shotgun shells all season because I haven't been inundated by flocks of ducks like I dreamed about prior to actually going hunting, at least not while hunting by myself or bringing my son or nephews along. For that reason, the shells in my fancy neoprene shell  holder have had no reason to be taken out. But while they sat in the shell holder all nice and snug and WET they got rusted. I was too inexperienced to know that would exacerbate my jamming problems. So when I noticed a little rust on the shells after a couple of hunts without firing a shot, I didn't even think it was a problem and never removed the shells, even after getting home. They sat in the neoprene holder for weeks without being removed, and in this humid Louisiana climate, the neoprene holder never dried out. None of these facts helped my shotgun shells to avoid some pretty heavy rust. 

At that point I had 3 options: 1. Keep using the rusted shells as is and hope they didn't cause my gun to jam, 2. Throw away the rusted shells, or 3. Try to remove the rust. Those who know me also know I'm WAY to cheap to chunk them, so I chose option 3.

I tried some rust remover gun cleaner, gun oil, and good ole WD-40 when neither of the first 2 worked to my satisfaction. Honestly, none of the 3 fluids I tried worked very well. It took considerable scrubbing and ultimately I used a pocket knife to scratch off the really stubborn thick rust. I may have done more harm than good because the metal casing is no longer smooth.  If you have any suggestions or experience to clean some rust off shells, I'd love to hear from you. Feel free to post a comment below. 

I'm posting some pics of before and after cleaning the shells to let you see the results for yourself. Then I'll update this post after I put them through the real test out in the duck blind.

Bottom line, make sure to remove your shells from wet conditions and store in a dry place after you get home from hunting. The wet will cause them to rust which will likely cause your gun to jam, possibly when you most want it to work properly.