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I would have a gunsmith check it out before firing.
Then I would keep your Grandfather's ammo for mementos and shoot fresh loads in it. Get several boxes of different ammo, and find out which load it "prefers" to shoot, then pick up a couple of bricks of it.
If you choose to shoot the old ammo, be prepared for misfires, hangfires, etc. If you get a click insterad of a boom, wait a few seconds before taking the gun off the target line or ejecting the round.
In my experience, rimfire ammo holds up better than centerfire over time, as the only point of entry for moisture is the case mouth, and most .22s are crimped at the mouth. I have fired centerfire ammo over 60 years old, and rimfires over 100 years old. The rimfire was more reliable.
Congrats on getting your hands on a piece of your history.
TR
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"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
De Oppresso Liber 01/20/2025
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