It is totally legal to own this Civil War era stuff
if it is inert. The governing federal laws are posted on Jack Melton's website (
www.civilwarartillery.com) under the "Introduction to Artillery" tab. The grey, or more clearly problematic, area subject also to some local laws is the stuff that is not clearly inert.
An issue arises when there is the aforementioned incident, most notably an accident during disarming, and it causes folks to rush to judgement in the interest of "public safety." Then the inert/harmless/solid baby can indeed be thrown out with the bathwater.
This is why, in my opinion, collectors should not inert their own shells. If they insist on doing so, they should do as John said. Personally, I think it is $35 or so well spent to let someone else handle the mess and break their drill bits.
There has been at least one recent situation, well post Lawrence Christopher and Sam White's self inflicted accidents, of Federal authorities going into a relic shop and taking one shell out of many that was not clearly inert. As I understand it, they had probable cause to go in based on another relic related matter of suspicion of recovery of items on Federal land and had a warrant. They used a wire probe on the shells and the one that was clearly not drilled out they confiscated. It is unclear if it was destroyed in actuality, but it was taken. Many others were left and considered safe.
Based on this approach, I feel good. I don't hunt on public (or any) land and I don't do the disarming work or anything that would cause an incident.
I have a few ammo cans of legally purchased ammunition for my legally purchased, locked and registered firearms and a full can of gas in my garage for use in my snowblower. These are 100% legal and a much greater threat to harm someone than legally owned, inert Civil War era projectiles if there was a fire. I wouldn't ever use a handheld drill on my modern shotgun shells or full jerry can either!
I don't want to get into any half informed discussions of this stuff here that may end up being "inflammatory" so please think before posting.
As this is Independence Day, I think it appropriate to conclude with this quote from the father of our country:
It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon the supposition he may abuse it.
- George Washington