Lead Oxidization on Jacketed Projectiles

[am44mag]

I came into a pile of old jacketed soft point bullets, and most have at least some level of oxidation on the tips. My question is, will this effect how they shoot in a noticeable way? If so, is there any efficient way to clean them? They don't look to be that bad. I've certainly seen far far worse

[Bazoo]

The oxidation that's migrated to the jackets I would think should be removed but just on the tip won't hurt anything other than being ugly. I've used my oily gun cleaning toothbrush to remove oxidation from jacketed bullets hollow points and it worked well.

If they were mine I'd wipe them off with an oily rag. Spray a hand towel or shop rag with remoil or similar, dump the bullets on it, fold over the towel and rub it all around. Kinda like tumbling. Then repeat with a clean rag to remove excess oil and they should be ready to load.

[billyb]

A trip thru the wet tumbler with stainless pin will make them look new.

[JimB..]

You sure there isn’t a bigger problem with the bullets in that third box? The soft points seem to be expanding. Maybe just the pic.

[Texas by God]

I had some .308" 170gr Silvertips that looked rotten compared to those- and they shot fine.

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[GhostHawk]

I'd shoot those, and for the record I agree with Bazoo.

I would be cautious if you clean those. Plastic gloves, dust mask.

[Hickory]

The only "problem " that you will have is the oxidation enriches the lead in such a way that it will cause acute lead poisoning to anything you shoot with them.

[dale2242]

]What billyb said.

[EMC45]

They're all bad....Send them to me.....

[Reverend Al]

A trip thru the wet tumbler with stainless pin will make them look new.

I agree with that 100%! I pull a lot of jacketed bullets from ammo that I empty out of the dud box up at our local range and even heavily oxidized / corroded bullets come out of my ss pin wet tumbler looking like they are brand new. A lot of them are from 7.62x39 and 7.62x54R steel cased military rounds that mis-fired and those bullets are perfect for fire-forming cases since you are not burning up higher quality and much more expensive commercial bullets just to fire-form some brass.

[mr surveyor]

The only "problem " that you will have is the oxidation enriches the lead in such a way that it will cause acute lead poisoning to anything you shoot with them.

jd

[am44mag]

I need to get a real tumbler. I have one of those cheap ones that just vibrates a lot. I have an old, small drill press that's damaged, but still has a working motor. I might see if I can't make one with it. I'll try just giving the bullets a good wipe down and shooting them. I'm not too concerned with how they look as long as they shoot good.

The oxidation is a bit thicker on the bullets in the third pic, but that's their only issue.

Thanks fellas.

[Wayne Smith]

Wear gloves - that white lead oxide is absorbed through the skin.