Cleaning jacketed bullets.

[Bazoo]

I have several hundred jacketed bullets that are older and have some very mild corrosion on them. They are starting to get darker, the lead tips are starting to turn white, and they don't feel slick anymore. I don't want to load and shoot them immediately, so I'm thinking of how I can stop and reverse the deterioration. It might be a couple years to a couple decades before I use them.

I took a few of them and wiped them with an oily rag and that removed the white from the tips and generally just made them feel and look better. So I was thinking I could put them on a rag, spritz them with remoil and move them all around. Then, remove the excess oil with a clean rag.

Any other ideas? Any better product to use?

One consideration is I might load some of them, so I don't want whatever I use to destroy the powder or primer. I figure remoil would wipe clean enough I wouldn't have any issues. I also thought about WD40 or One shot case lube, but haven't tried either.

Bazoo

[M-Tecs]

tumble in corn cobb and follow-up with wax.

[Winger Ed.]

I've run old brown looking ones in my brass tumbler.

If they have a large exposed lead tip, it sometimes sort of flattens and rounds over.
Of the ones like that that I've fired, they did fine.
I've read that the lead tip sluffs back on acceleration anyway.

[Land Owner]

I concur with running them through the tumbler/shaker. I have done this with many "white-sided" boolits and corroded jacketed bullets.

"Upset nose" has been intentionally done, investigated, and reported, which suggests for hunting within 300 yard (+/-), it had no ill effect.

[762 shooter]

Citric acid works for bullets too.

762

[rockrat]

Sounds like you might be able to tumble them in the citric acid/dawn/car washwax mix people use in tumbling brass. Rinse them off and dump on a paper towel so you won't have water spots. Supposed to leave a slight wax coat from the car wash/wax.

[osteodoc08]

I had several thousand pulls that were very dark. A little Lyman cleaning solution and some car wash and wax with STM for 30 mins, they were super bright and shiny. The pins did put little micro burnishing on the pills but these are for blasting ammo anyhow so I didn’t care. Load and shoot just like before they were cleaned but they’re so purty now.

[Bazoo]

Thanks for the suggestions.

Some of them are rifle hollow points. I thought of tumbling them, but I'm afraid grit will get clogged in the hp cavity if I tumble them in media.

[RU shooter]

I doubt a few granules of media in the hollow point would effect anything

[EMC45]

Lemon juice and Dawn hot water wash. Let them dry then tumble them in corn cob media with some NuFinish. They will come out looking good and will have a light wax coating on them.

[lead-1]

I bought some really tarnished, .308 pulls from demilled Indian ammo. I cleaned them with a batch of old crushed walnut that I added Nu-finish car polish and a couple tsp. of lacquer thinner to, worked great. They weren't blinding shiny but they were very clean and smooth.

[Reverend Al]

I tumbled batches of grimy old bullets, mostly pull downs from junk ammo. I use my ss pin tumbler with my regular brass solution of a little Dawn dish soap and a bit of Lemishine. They come out looking like they are factory fresh ...

[Kraschenbirn]

+1 on corncob media with a couple capfuls of Trutlewax Polishing Compounding (the white liquid, not the red paste). This is the same mix I run in my large Dillon tumbler to clean up badly tarnished brass and I've never noticed any appreciable damage to either cases or bullets.

Bill

[Thin Man]

Your suspicions about tumbling media loading up into the hollow points is correct. I learned this a while ago when several factory cardboard boxes deteriorated and the cardboard stuck to the bullets. These bullets were in 100 round boxes from big name manufacturers, not bulk packs. I cleaned off as much of the junk as would release from these projectiles and put them into the tumbler. When I got them out the HP cavities were packed full. I tried several different ways to pick the media out of the HP cavities but no single plan worked out well. In the end these bullets wound up being used for only very casual recreation loads, never for hunting or self defense loads.

[redhawk0]

If you're talking possible decades...I'd tumble them first to remove the contamination. then I'd mix some paraffin/axle grease to make a "cosmoline" consistency to store them in. If its good enough to protect a century old firearm from the elements...its good enough for a few thousand bullets that you don't plan to shoot any time soon.

When you are ready to use them...just soak them in gasoline overnight and wipe them clean the next day.

redhawk

[jsizemore]

Your suspicions about tumbling media loading up into the hollow points is correct. I learned this a while ago when several factory cardboard boxes deteriorated and the cardboard stuck to the bullets. These bullets were in 100 round boxes from big name manufacturers, not bulk packs. I cleaned off as much of the junk as would release from these projectiles and put them into the tumbler. When I got them out the HP cavities were packed full. I tried several different ways to pick the media out of the HP cavities but no single plan worked out well. In the end these bullets wound up being used for only very casual recreation loads, never for hunting or self defense loads.

Did you notice a deterioration in accuracy between those with and without stuck media?

[gwpercle]

Thanks for the suggestions.

Some of them are rifle hollow points. I thought of tumbling them, but I'm afraid grit will get clogged in the hp cavity if I tumble them in media.

By the time you finish loading them I'm sure most dry media would get dislodged and if not a quick look and a toothpick would take care of any stuck media .
This is one place where dry tumbling with treated polishing media would be a good way to clean and polish them into "like new" shape .
Gary

[abunaitoo]

I was given a whole bunch of .223/55gr heads, that had been molly coated.
Ran them in the stainless pin tumbler and most of the molly came off.
Only did it once.
I think if I ran it through again, the rest would come off.
Probably work for corrosion.

[T_McD]

I would only clean as many as you plan to load. No sense in cleaning only to have them corrode again.

[Bazoo]

Thanks for the replies.

Only about 400 bullets. I ain't done anything yet. Next tumbler load I'll see about running a handful through and how it does. I don't have a wet tumbler. I'm collecting the parts to make one however. So I might wait until then.