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I recently purchased some waa12 wads on ebay. The wads in one of the containers apear to be slightly yellowed and if the pettels are flexed very much will crack and break off. I have never seen this before. Anybody ever had this experiance? I would guess these wads would not be safe to use.

Zoomer,
What you are describing sounds like deterioration of the plastic. It sounds like those wads have either been exposed to extreme temperature or light, or both. I would throw these wads away. Not worth the risk.

The above post is me. For some reason my computer didn't log me in.

I would guess these sat in bright summer sun,
perhaps through a window,and possibly heat,
for a long period of time.
It's really sad someone would actually sell these,
did you leave negative feedback?
what's the sellers ID on Ebay?

I had the same problem with WAA20 wads. I bought a job lot of 'old' wads from a local gunshop of 1000 WAA20 wads and 1250 RP20 wads. The Remington wads were ok but the WAA20's I could crumble up on my hand. I'm pretty sure it was just age deterioriation as I'm sure the wads were 20-25 yrs old and had been stored in a storeroom of the old shop all their lives out of the light. Others have told me that Winchester AA wads often deterioriate badly with age.

Tempature, time and sunlight are the killers of plastic. I think you could maybe use some of them that are in better condition (the ones in the center of the bag), but the ones that are too brittle should be recycled or tossed. My thinking is that it would screw your patterns up if the wad broke up before it got out the barrel.

-Chase

I have used a bunch of old wads, RP, Versalite, and AAs that were stored in an old chicken house on one of my friends farm. Some of the bags had mouse gnawed wads complete with turds and pee stains. I just washed them in a 5 gall bucket of water and sorted the gnawed up ones out and loaded them up. No brittleness or discolleration at all. These wads were something over 25 years old when I got them and used them, in fact I still have some I've not loaded yet. I don't know how hot it got in that chicken house all those years, or how cold in the winter time, but they were not in sunlight. Sunlight is the biggest problem with light colored plastic of which most wads are made of. Just check to be sure they will still flex without breaking and discard those that don't, shoot the rest of them. Once they are loaded they won't get any more ultraviolite rays ruining the plastic. You may have to pitch them all?? Don't you just love getting riped off on e-bay?? Sometimes you get the bear, sometimes the bear gets you!

BP

ammonia?

I was wondering if these wads could be salvaged by something like armorall or something? Most of the wads I bought were in boxes and they seen ok, the ones in the plastic bags are the brittle ones with some being more brittle than others. They also have a different smell than the others.

I was wondering if these wads could be salvaged by something like armorall or something? Most of the wads I bought were in boxes and they seen ok, the ones in the plastic bags are the brittle ones with some being more brittle than others. They also have a different smell than the others.

Why don't you go ahead and use them and report back to us what happens? Surely you wouldn't write in if you thought that it might be bad?

-Chase

i have had the same experience,i was once given several thousand aa wads that were apparently very old.as you describe the petals would actually snap off if bent.i loaded several boxes and could actually feel some of the wad legs breaking as i was seating the wads.they all seemed to crimp okay but on the range the true shortcomings of these wads were revealed.i estimate 75% of the loads worked as intended, the others worked but instead of a sharp crack,all i heard was a loud pop.there was enough force to drive all the components out of the barrel and even break a few birds,but not enough compression to fully ignite the powder.as much as i hated to i decided it was not worth the risk of lodging something in the barrel and scrapped the whole lot.as far as trying to restore the wads with armorall or some other substance,why risk contaminating your powder?

I doubt that Armorall would help. As plastic has oil in it, maybe a soak in thin oil would rejuvinate them. You'd then have to wash them good, to get the oil off to prevent it from ruining the powder. I don't think its really worth the effort. The smell is likely because the plastic is breaking down, as you described (brittle).

I got several boxes of AA wads off ebay, and they were fine. I guess that's a good thing to keep in mind. Boxed over bagged!