I did a collections condition survey a couple of years ago that included historic firearms and I found three that were loaded with live old ammunition. The curator was shocked. I went through with them how to check and advised them not to have a volunteer remove the live rounds but to have a qualified certified range officer or firearms armorer do it. Since one of these loaded pistols had historic significance in the story of where it had been found - I told them if they wanted it to still appear loaded then to have an expert remove the cartridge, empty the power, and replace the cartridge back in the pistol for interpretive purposes.

The rule is simple - always assume a firearm is loaded - ALWAYS! and handle it accordingly until it is checked. If the firearm does not have a cylinder then you can use a wooden dowel (pencils work well for pistols) and gently lower it into the barrel until it stops. Mark the end of the barrel on the wood, then check on the outside aligned with your mark. If the end of the dowel does not go all the way down to the breech (end) then you probably have a live round or ball in the barrel.

Never attempt to remove live ammo from a gun yourself or have a volunteer do it. Always get an expert who is certified in firearms to disarm the weapon.

Cheers!
Dave

David Harvey
Senior Conservator and Museum Consultant
Los Angeles, CA
MindngTheMuseum.com

On Thu, Sep 16, 2010 at 2:51 PM, Andy Grilz <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Cynthia-

I recall hearing a story some years ago that the Field Museum in Chicago discovered a significant portion of the early American firearms collection was still loaded, some after over a century in storage. (After all, an unloaded gun did you no good if you expected the Sioux nation to come over the hill at any minute, so the Remingtons & Winchesters were kept at ready at all times.) Nobody ever bothered to unload them when they were collected or donated, evidently. I've no idea who at the Field you might contact, but I bet the story is pretty prominent in the institutional memory.

Andy Grilz


On Thu, Sep 16, 2010 at 2:15 PM, Cynthia M. Miller <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
My name is Cynthia Miller and I am currently a graduate student at Texas Tech University, majoring in Heritage Management with minors in Museum Science and History.
For one of my classes, I have to complete an exhaustive annotated bibliography over a topic concerning museums and problems they could potentially face with their collections. My topic is the care and preservation of live ammunition in museum collections.
I was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction in terms of sources (books, journal articles, etc.) to use to complete my annotated bibliography. I have already done some preliminary research and found some things concerning the topic in the archives here.
Any and all help would be GREATLY appreciated!

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