Cast Bullet long term storage?

[Alangaq]

I have been curious of the effects of age on cast boolits. I am aware that certain lead alloys do age harden to some degree, however I have assumed that this process, for all practical purposes ceased to be a factor after a year or so by which time the bullets were essentially as hard as they will ever be. Is this assumption correct? Also, I have noted oxidation in the form of white powder on some very old lead boolits, however I have never noted this on any of my cast bullets. Basically I store my hunting cast boolits, un-lubed in those case-guard plastic trays made for small caliber cartridges as they make it easy to stack and visually see how many boolits one has on hand for loading, and the plinking boolits get stored in zip-lok baggies. So my question for you fellers is this: Is it acceptable to “mass produce” and store lead bullets for extended periods of time i.e. decades? Do they need to treated with anything to prevent this oxidation or corrosion? If so, what do you suggest? And will they continue to age harden to any appreciable degree.

It may be important to note that my boolits are cast of two types of alloy. The first being WW + 3% tin for 13 – 14 bn. The other is 5 to 2 WW / Lino + 2% tin for 18 – 19 bn.

As always, you input is appreciated.

[mooman76]

I have some that are at least 2 decades old. They have no corrosion on them. They are kept in sealed containers though ie old powder bottles or coffee cans whatever. I would think at worst case you could remelt them down if they did start getting signs of corrosion. I wouldn't myself plan so far ahead as to mould up decades worth of bullets but things change and you switch projects or aquire new guns and so on.

[454PB]

I recently dug out some tobacco cans full of 452424 boolits I cast 25 years ago. These are the old metal pipe tobacco cans with metal lids that fit tightly into a recess. They look exactly like they did when cast.

I also have been doing some long term testing of some heat treated boolits. These were cast in June of 2006. They were WW alloy water quenched, then tested every month or so. Within a month they were up to 26 BHN. The most recent test has them softened back to the original ACWW hardness of 14 BHN.

Heat treating is temporary, alloy hardness is permanent.

[MT Gianni]

454PB, Were the old boolits lubed and how did the lube hold up? Thanks Ed, Gianni

[454PB]

Gianni, these were not lubed, but I have some at least 20 years old that are lubed. The 50/50 holds up fine, but some of my home made beeswax/mineral oil parafin lubed boolits don't hold up well after 20 years of storage. The home made stuff seems to "shrink". I store my lubed boolits standing on the base in covered containers.....I don't know how they would age if stored loose or uncovered.

Thanks for the great lunch and visit the other day. Next time I'll buy!:drinks: