WW1 rounds used in WW2?

[skyboy09]

Found some rounds metal detecting this summer in Eastern Europe in my grandmas backyard. Two of them had a legible manufacture date, 1916 and 1913. Was it common for German troops to used 30 year old ammunition in WW2 because next to these bullets I found some rounds dated 1939-1940 (not pictured here)? Or could it be by coincidence that these two types of ammo ended up next to each other from two different world wars?

PS. COuld these rounds still be good, if fired, or have the contents inside degraded over such a time span, esp the older bullets?

Thanks for the help

 

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[ivan salis]

battle areas in europe -- can easily over lap from WW1 and WW2 easily --- all bullets if still intact can possibily go off if the primer is struck -- althogh not being in a guns chamber it can still harm or kill -- so its best to "disarm" it -- pull the bullet from the casing dump the gunpowder out --wihile empty "pop" the primer and then reassimble it .

 

[Buck Bagaw]

Firstly, the rifle rounds are not German. Both the German 7x57 and 8x57 rounds were rimless with an extractor groove, yours are rimmed, and probably are 303 British although I cant say for certain. The pistol bullet is possibly a 30 Mauser which would be German. They may or may not fire depending on whether or not they were made with corrosive primers or not. The safest thing is to do nothing with these, and if you are concerned about their safeness, give them to an experienced reloader to do any dismantling.
Update: After doing a little research I am inclined to believe that the larger rifle rounds are actually 8x50 Rimmed Austrian, used in the Steyr Mannlicher rifle and not 303 British as stated earlier.

 

[muleskinner]

I found about 50 brass casings that look like the shell you show on the far right. The dates on mine are the same as yours. A gun enthusiast identified them as an Austrian 8mm. All the casings had the bullets and powder removed, but the primers intact. I threw several in a hot fire and none went off.
Still have them, but don't know what to do with them.