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FISH4BUGS
06-04-2007, 09:43 AM
Another rainy NH Sunday, and casting was accomplished! I did some 1000 380 bullets for the MAC M11A1, a totally useless but fun as hell to shoot submachine gun. That should provide an afternoon of full auto fun.
These 380's were cast from a 10 cavity Hensley & Gibbs S55 mould. Boy do those moulds put out a ton of bullets when they come up to temperature! It just takes a while to get there!
After I got back home, (I cast at my girlfriend's house out in the barn) I was cleaning out the reloading bench and came across a box I had forgotten I had. Years ago someone sent me a bunch of gas checks. There must be 4000 35's, 2000 44's and a bunch 30's and 22's. They are clearly rather old, because they are in the old Hornady round metal tins (I haven't seen that packaging in years), some are in plastic bags and some are in old Lyman boxes.
They aren't in the best of condition. While not really DIRTY, they are tarnished and some have a little bit of some kind of crud on them. I don't have a clue as to what it is, but it looks like some kind of tarnishing that has built up on some of them.
Can I use them as is, or should I tumble them? I don't want to ruin a barrel on a gun if they should be clean and shiny like the last Gator Group buy for checks.

NVcurmudgeon
06-04-2007, 10:43 AM
Fish, if the foreign substance on your GC is small black flakes it is likely to be the anti-tarnish coating Hornady puts on. I anneal most of my GC and put a sheet of toilet paper in my annealing container to use up the oxygen and prevent the coating burning off and making crud. Tumbling for a short time should work, I used to just shake off the black dust. I can date the Hornady metal can fairly precisely. I started buying GC in 1973 in the can. When I needed more GC about 1975, alas they came in the cardboard box. I still have that original Hornady can. It has been refilled many times.