cast bullet oxidation

2 or so years ago I cast a quanitity of 22 and 30 cal rifle bullets made up of water dropped wheelweight metal, they are unsized nor gas checked, but some are badly oxidized with a gray and or black looking substance!
Will this oxidation cause a problem with my barrels if I use them as is? Will it effect accuracy? Considering the the time it takes to make them, especially the
22's, I would like to use them, at least for practice! I was hoping someone had run across and had experience with this oxidation issue.. Thanks... hipirn

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Originally Posted by hipirn

2 or so years ago I cast a quanitity of 22 and 30 cal rifle bullets made up of water dropped wheelweight metal, they are unsized nor gas checked, but some are badly oxidized with a gray and or black looking substance!
Will this oxidation cause a problem with my barrels if I use them as is? Will it effect accuracy? Considering the the time it takes to make them, especially the
22's, I would like to use them, at least for practice! I was hoping someone had run across and had experience with this oxidation issue.. Thanks... hipirn

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That oxidation is harder then the lead and might be hard on a barrel. It might be better to just melt them down and make new boolits.
To prevent it in the future, spray the boolits with something like Sheath from Birchwood Casey before storing them.

This is a good use for all of those bottles of LLA that we all have laying around. A light coat as an anti corrosive.

The oxide MAY be harder than the rest of the boolit, but is quite thin, and is NOWHERE as hard as a gilding-metal jacket.
Shoot the stuff up, and have a ball. As you lubri-size it'll probably scrape it clear, anyway.
Have fun,
Gene

throw em in a tumbler for 15 min.

In the future, add dish soap to your water, and they will not oxidize.

+1 Ric, I tried your suggestion a few months back and it WORKS.

Gear

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Originally Posted by geargnasher

+1 Ric, I tried your suggestion a few months back and it WORKS.

Gear

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Who are you agreeing with? The tumbler suggestion or the dish soap suggestion?

I was agreeing with Waksupi, sorry for the confusion. Vibratory tumblers beat up driving bands, bases, make checks a bear to get on, and they don't really get that clean because they fall straight to the bottom and stay there. Some type of true tumbler might work.

Gear

Thanks for all the great reply's on the corrosion issue! In the past I just re cast them... Getting lazy I suppose! I will try the coating trick next time.. hipirn

I would think that, for long term storage, that a coating of LLA/XLOX would prevent any kind of oxidation. Anyway, I'm counting on it. I decided it made sense to turn muffin ingots of lead into 200gr SWC 45's and 125gr RN and 105gr SWC 9mm/38's just in case I croak prematurely. I figured cast bullets, sized and lubed would bring more money at my estate sale.

I've got enough bullets cast to last me 5 or 6 years but I like to cast (since I'm retired again and playing with fire and molten metal is so much fun) so it gives me something to do.