Phil,

In my experience most musuems do not keep live ordinance anywhere near their
collections or staff. When I was doing arms conservation every weapon was
checked for rounds first and foremost . As a matter of fact I almost exploded
myself in shock when one of our technicians showed me her filter from her
vacuuaming all the brown besses, it was full of remnant black powder and she had just
pulled it through a device with an electic motor! How did it get there? Well
it seems that back in the 1960's they used the original muskets for firing
demonstrations! So we immediately went to a protocol of swabbing out the barrels
with patches lubricated with a non-ionic oil. When I did archaeological
conservation I would somtimes come upon an old 18th century shell or a grenade with
black powder inside. We always drilled out the casing with a bronze bit under
water and removed the power with wooden sticks and tools.

The powder in your bullets may be stable now but that is not to say that at
some point in say 50 or 80 years that it will remain so. There is also the
issue of fires and the storage of live ordinanace - you would not want the rounds
to cook-off if your building or an area in your building goes up in flames.

If it were me, I would talk to an amourer or certified gunsmith about
removing the powder so you can safely preserve and display the ordinance.

Cheers!
Dave

David Harvey
Artifacts
2930 South Birch Street
Denver, CO  80222
303-300-5257
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