L2A2 Rounds from 1969

[AKgunnut1]

Picked up 1000 rounds of Radway Green FAL ammo. Its pretty corroded but I think I can tumble it enough to function in my PTR 91.

Is this corrosive?

[Winger Ed.]

Non corrosive primers came along in the late 1950's.

I've always been leery of tumbling live ammo.
I'd scrub 'em with a scotch brite to get the green stuff off and then shoot them if there is no serious pitting.

[Martin Luber]

Wire wheel on a bench grinder

[blackriver]

Tumble them. Have tumbled hundreds of thousands of rounds. No issues at all.

[la5676]

People use the term tumble when they really mean to vibratory clean them, not an actual tumble cleaner. I still would not be concerned with either one. Commercial milsurp ammo sellers do this all the time.

[AKgunnut1]

Yes, I meant my vibratory case cleaner which is a Dillon Precision 2000 model with corncob media and some Dillon case polish.

[Bwana John]

IF that is copper washed steel cases it is counterfit, Chinese, corrosive ammo.

Real RG is no corrosive and uses brass cases.

[AKgunnut1]

The color is the corrosion. My corncob media is not doing very well. Is walnut media more abrasive? All I’ve used is corncob.

[la5676]

The color is the corrosion. My corncob media is not doing very well. Is walnut media more abrasive? All I’ve used is corncob.

Walnut generally "cleans" better, corn cob "shines" better. And vibrate away with no worries

[Larry Gibson]

I've tumbled (Thumbler) and vibrated thousands of slightly corroded milsurp over the years and would still do it.

If you've ever shot up 7.62 NATO and 50 Cal that has been riding in or on top of a tracked vehicle like an M113 for a couple weeks or more then you'll understand a little vibration to clean the cases doesn't mean anything.

I have vibrated 7.62 NATO M80 and M118 (ball and extruded powder) and 5.56 NATO for 72 hours and then pressure/velocity tested them with no change in pressure or velocity.

[AKgunnut1]

Update:

Well, the corrosion was too deep into the brass with some fairly extensive pitting. I decided the ammo was unsafe to shoot. I started to pull down the whole lot for the bullets. The bullets are 145 grain FMJ. After pulling down a couple hundred rounds I noticed the fifty one year old powder still "smelled good" and looked good without any visible signs of break down. I took a sample of powder weights from 20 rounds, all were consistent between 42.1 to 42.8 grains. I reloaded 20 rounds with the powder at 42.5 grains in 1x fired brass with the pulled bullets and fired them through my SCAR 17. Cronographed them at 2505 to 2607 FPS with an average of 2550 FPS. One primer out of the 20 flattened out.