tarished loads can thay be used

[testhop]

i have a very large amountof loaded ammo proubly 5000 roundsand most have been kept in the reg factory cartage boxs for years and thay have become
tarnished not bad just likeyou would tummble the ammo is 38s 357s 06 270s 45s
any ideas on this will be helpful :castmine::coffee:

[imashooter2]

Tarnish or verdigris? Just tarnish, shoot them as is. Verdigris should be cleaned off and make sure the cases aren't compromised.

Verdigris:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a3/Verdigris.JPG/300px-Verdigris.JPG

[testhop]

no verdigris just tarnished thanks

[EMC45]

Send it to me and I'll test it out for you[smilie=1:

[leftiye]

Wipe em down with paint thinner Kerosene, or diesel to get the dirt off. Or a light oil, but youwill probly need to get all of the oil off afterwards. Don't use a sloppy wet cloth, you want it pretty dry so it doesn't possibly mess up your primers.

[DLCTEX]

I use the Lee lock stud in my cordless drill , spin the cartridge and polish with a green pot scrubber. Shines it up in a hurry. Dale

[KCSO]

Or you could just shoot them and polish the brass after, tarnish doesn't hurt anything.

[Char-Gar]

I started handloading back in the 50's before case polishers came into vogue. You could tell handloads from factory loads because the cases were so tarnished they were almost black. In very tranished cases were something of a status symbol. They set the serious handloader/rifleman apart from the unwashed masses.

We just wiped the fired cases with a little rubbing alchol on a cloth to get off any grease or grit. If the necks had powder fouling, they were wiped down with Hoppe's No. 9.

Some where, along the way, things changed and today's loaders make a fetish out of shiney cases. About the only real advantage to shiney cases is it makes them easier to find in the weeds.

No..we didn't scratch or damage our loading dies, as we cleaned the cases as above and I have not seen any jump in accuracy from the "Days of Yore" to today!

It really doesn't take any longer to wipe the cases than put them in and take them out of a tumbler.

This is a long way around the mountain to agree with those folks who are telling you to shoot the tarnished ammo and don't look back.

As to that green verdigris, I have cleaned thousands of ancient M2 ball ammo with a fine wire wheel on the bench grinder. No, the wheel won't set off the primer when you clean the case head.

[pa_guns]

Hi

Take a look at the primers. If they got damp over the years, you may be in for "goes click, but not boom".

Bob

[randyrat]

OR, Click....1..2...3.. BOOM, I seen it happen. My ears rang for a few days and i had hearing protection on. Puts meaning into "Keep your weapon pointed down range" I felt like double tappin the guy between the eyes.

[georgeld]

Back about 1961 an uncle gave me a tobacco can full of OLD either '06, or '03 240gr steel/silver coated loads from WWI he said.

Too bad they've been gone since shortly after that IF they were actually the '03 stuff. They'd buy me a new gun!

Anyway, shot some in a 1917 Enfield and busted up some pretty big rocks.
Then one went: "poof hisssssssssssssss" and blew gas out the side port.

Gunsmith hammered on that slug for hours with his electric hammer he claimed and gave up several times without it budging. Just kept trying it now and then knowing this kid really couldn't afford another rifle and it meant a lot to me.
Finally, after a week or so it started to move a touch after the bore had set with some type penetrating oil, or whatever they used in those days.

Slug was about 3/4's up the bore. After that, I pulled the rest down and refreshed the primers and powder and never had another problem.
Two things, I've never seen 240gr .308" bullets since then, and won't try to shoot anything that's been sitting in an unheated garage in an open can for many years without pulling them down and reloading with fresh fire.

Just sharing a near painful experience in hope's to educate others.
Wish you well,

[pa_guns]

Hi

Most US rifle ammo dated before 1952 is likely to be corrosive. Carbine ammo is the exception to that rule. Ammo from the WWII years has some collector value. Ammo from WWI has definite collector value. Non-US ammo has different dates and values associated with it.

I would not shoot WWII era ammo from any source at this point. It's probably worth something to a collector. It's also old enough that even without wartime shortcuts it should be considered suspect...

Bob