How can I clean corroded 7 1/2 - 8 bird shot

[bigjake]

I sifted and panned about 20 folgers coffee cans full of white or light grey bird shot. I tried tumbling small batches in the harbor freight rock polisher. the thing is pretty much junk. I didn't overload it by that much and after 3 loads the thing is toast.
Anyway is there any kind of liquid cleaner or chemical that I could soak them in? I want to load them up in some shotgun shells. I don't want to breathe in the puff of white lead oxide or whatever that stuff is.
Any ideas or suggestions would be helpful.
Thank you in advance.

[RogerDat]

I too was wondering about this question. I was thinking it might take washing with water and ???? And there is a secondary question. What to do to prevent new oxidation. I think new shot is covered with something to prevent oxidation and sticking to each other. Maybe graphite?

[MyFlatline]

Throw in a spoon full of play sand, tumble , then re-graphite. Should be good to go..

[copdills]

Throw in a spoon full of play sand, tumble , then re-graphite. Should be good to go..

sounds like a winner to me , should work, birds, squirrels and rabbits won't know the difference

[RogerDat]

Tumble dry or wet?

[MyFlatline]

Dry. I have to say something else because my answer was to short,,,:)

[Gewehr-Guy]

After I make my homemade shot, I tumble it with Lundmark floor wax, and get a good shiny hard finish that has kept my shot nice looking.

[jdfoxinc]

The sand will be contaminated with lead oxide. I am tempted to use oxidized shot to make lead picrate. I am reloading primers.

[RogerDat]

I have a FART so I'll give that a try with say 5# of shot.

[dondiego]

I had a few boxes of oxidized pellets for pellet guns and I washed with a little dish soap, dumped the water on my sand hill range and then added a little light machine oil to the pellets and swirled. No more oxidation or lead dust. I don't store them in my mouth while hunting like I did when I was a kid though.

[RogerDat]

I had a few boxes of oxidized pellets for pellet guns and I washed with a little dish soap, dumped the water on my sand hill range and then added a little light machine oil to the pellets and swirled. No more oxidation or lead dust. I don't store them in my mouth while hunting like I did when I was a kid though.

Makes me wonder if a little dawn & water in the brass tumbler would do the job. Have to be well dried afterwards before storage but I don't think that would be a problem. Might be easier on the drum liner than sand too.

[country gent]

Might be as simple as an old towel and a little oil agitate by gripping each end of towel in one hand and raise and lower. towel and the agitation should remove corrosion and the light oil hold it in the towels fibers. dawn and water might work also for this. keep towel good and damp to hold dust and discard towel when done.

[SOFMatchstaff]

I have done TONS of this shot, best way I have found is to fill a 5 gal pail half full of shot and add water to just cover the shot then add a cup or so of lime away, I use the Smart &final Lime Gone as its cheaper by far. Let it fizz for awhile and agitate some. It then goes into a sturdy tumbler for half hour or so, add enough water to make a slurry and some more lime away if it needs any. after its clean and black again I rinse it in an old sieve(carb cleaner basket) until the water is clear and put it out in the sun to dry in an old sheet pan. Vegas heat in the summer does it Quick.

If the shot comes out of the first soak and fizz process looking good, you might be able to for go the wet tumble phase, I like the way the wet tumble finishes the surface. After its all dry, then it goes back in the tumbler with a teaspoon of graphite. come out like new. This all takes awhile, and it doesnt hurt to let it soak over night.

[bangerjim]

Don’t do it DRY!!!!!!! Too much oxides to breathe!!!! Not healthy.

CLR2 or LimeAway attack oxides of all types. I use it for a lot of corroded metals and stuff. Just let it do it’s business and then rinse and dry. Should be pretty clean. Then add your graphite “goop” of whatever you want.

Your left-over liquid will be contaminated with PbO2 and other carp, so be careful where you dump it! NOT in the garden!!!!!!!!

Bangerjim

[OldBearHair]

On another thread, I told about Hi-Tek Gold on .177 pellets. They don't have dust anymore.

[MyFlatline]

Don’t do it DRY!!!!!!! Too much oxides to breathe!!!! Not healthy.

CLR2 or LimeAway attack oxides of all types. I use it for a lot of corroded metals and stuff. Just let it do it’s business and then rinse and dry. Should be pretty clean. Then add your graphite “goop” of whatever you want.

Your left-over liquid will be contaminated with PbO2 and other carp, so be careful where you dump it! NOT in the garden!!!!!!!!

Bangerjim

Doesn't lead come from the ground. But you warrant dumping caustic substances down the drain??

Some of y'all go way over the top. I took the OP at a small amount of shot that was oxidized, 3 to 5 pounds. A few tablespoons of sand and all is clean,,,,but the sand is now contaminated..Right... Can't breath the fumes, if you stand over it while it is tumbling and are in a air tight room, well maybe. My tumblers run in the open air. Some of y'all are pushing this to the extremes..Kinda like fake news.

[bangerjim]

I just plan to live a lot longer than some of you breathing un-needed PbO2 dust......even in small amounts.

I must coorect you.........I said NOTHING about dumping it down the drain. You can dispose of it any way that is compatible with your local regs. I just said do not pour in your garden!!!!!!

Yes Pb comes from the ground. So do many other things we use. Crude oil, Cd, U, Ra, Hg, etc.

Oxides of many things can be far MORE dangerous than the primary element itself. PbO2 is the dangerous stuff.

Not fake news. Just facts about human physiology. And our mortality.

[john.k]

Best not to tell anyone about it,like your neighbour,your exwife,your teen children,or anyone else likely to drop a dime on you.At the very least ,official interest will result in a cleanup,and costly testing by a lab.The narcs can detect all this stuff in parts per billion nowdays,same warning goes for poisoning trees ,its all detectable.Same reason ,never dump it in a sewer.Your trash pickup is one method thats not likely detectable,once its off your property.Everyone casting lead produces toxic waste,so be careful.

[Pardini]

Put a heavy garbage bag into a 5 gallon bucket. Pour the waste water into it. Let the water evaporate off, dispose of the bag.

[RogerDat]

The two ways reloaders are most likely to elevate our lead levels are primer residue in brass or from firing indoors. Casters also have to be concerned about the oxides on the lead. I don't put human waste in the garden because it carries health risks to eating the food so I guess I wouldn't put lead oxide contaminated waste into the garden for the same reason. I would want to avoid breathing it too.

I put a dollop of mineral spirits in the dry media before I tumble brass to avoid breathing the dust containing primer residue. My blood lead levels dropped after that. Sure not interested in breathing white dust directly off of lead shot.

I like the idea of evaporation of the used water in a plastic bag. Between dump having a liner and plastic bag wrapping any dry residue I would say this approach should mitigate risks without undue hardship. Will try the bucket and Lyme Away approach on a small batch to see how it works. Would be interesting to know what the "fizzing" is doing as far as changing the oxides and how safe it is to dispose of resulting chemicals afterwards.

I'm on a well and septic system as are my neighbors, makes one a little more connected to what gets dumped on the ground or down a drain. If I had a bit more property as a buffer it might make a significant difference. But there is no way I'm dumping 5 gallon of contaminated water on my small garden. No more likely to do that than I am to lick the floor around the casting bench.

I'm doing more like 50# of shot so my waste stream would be more than a single tumbler full of water.

[bigjake]

I tumbled the shot with water and a handful of sheet metal screws. it worked ok, it just trashed the Chinese rock tumbler. I'm going to try the lime away idea. I'm not going to give up, shot is expensive and we shoot a lot of shells in my sons vepr 12. that gun is crazy fun.
separating sand from the shot is a pain, I already did that once after I dug it from a turkey shoot and an old skeet range.

[RogerDat]

I have had my eye on a neighbors metal bucket 2/3 full of white dusty reclaimed shot as scrap lead. Sounds like with lime away (just picked up a bottle) and a little time I might be able to load that shot which he doesn't use any more. Was thinking of it as scrap lead that would be a hassle to melt but as shot I can use it makes the price a much better deal.

[Mr_Sheesh]

If you do have Lead Oxide contaminated water, please also keep it away from kids, pets, etc. as that wouldn't be good at ALL.

[RogerDat]

Lime Away seemed to work well to clean the pellets, having a little trouble finding dry graphite. Anyone know of stores or type of businesses that would need to keep a stock of dry graphite?

I found this spray version at Home Depot https://www.amazon.com/Blaster-8-GS-Industrial-Graphite-Lubricant/dp/B0094IZ3BA/ref=pd_sim_60_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B0094IZ3BA&pd_rd_r=QCFT47A1EYZAYD0W9M1Y&pd_rd_w=wk0pU&pd_rd_wg=Rx1gm&psc=1&refRID=QCFT47A1EYZAYD0W9M1Y Wonder if anyone has ever tried it?

But have no idea if that would work well on shot or not. There are a few items on Amazon but was hoping there was a big box or local supply with a competitive price https://www.amazon.com/Generals-Powdered-Graphite-6-oz/dp/B00TCLCO7A

[Mr_Sheesh]

RogerDat - Any place with a key copying machine (your local general stores, hardware stores, and locksmiths etc.) should carry dry graphite for using in your car's or houses' locks; Usually $1.50-$2.00 for a 0.3 gram (thumb sized) tube. There should be other cheaper places, I just don't happen to have looked them up yet as a tube lasts me long enough. That dry graphite you showed is a good deal relatively, but the 2- and 3-packs are way over priced, looks like, unless I'm not getting something there.

[SOFMatchstaff]

get the generals powdered stuff and you'll never run out. I use a half teaspoon in the tumbler for each load and adjust the amt as needed. My tumblers are tough Thumblers Ultra Vibes, and hold a bag of shot easy, just add until it sounds like its working and the shot is moving nicely, a 3lb coffee can hold about 40 to 42 lbs of shot .

[Mr_Sheesh]

I bought 4 (I think) of the tubes a while back and still have graphite in each, but I agree, should be able to refill them later that way :) I mainly use it for neck swaging for 7 TCU and 7-30 Waters, and the occasional lock lubrication. I haven't been doing any shot related stuff but will be doing pistol shot shells in a while. That shot is clean and dry though. Looks like you use a lot more! :)

[RogerDat]

True Value Hardware. 1.12 oz bottle for $4.95 I bought two bottles (2.25 oz total) Could have gotten 3 oz. for same price online but being blessed with a real honest to goodness hardware store I try to do my bit to keep them in business.

I have about 12# of washed and dried shot in a folgers red plastic coffee can. I figure maybe somewhat less than the 1/2 teaspoon of graphite being used on a full load. Does that sound about right?

Duct tape the lid down and throw coffee can in trunk to roll around should get the graphite dispersed and the shot covered.

[too many things]

my blond gal friend tried the limeaway because she said it would work. OK now she got to go to out for dinner.
a vib case tumbler works to re graphite about 1hr but dont fill it full. make sure its DRY
not sure i would trust can and duct tape you may have long time finding shot in the car

[Camper64]

I had a few boxes of oxidized pellets for pellet guns and I washed with a little dish soap, dumped the water on my sand hill range and then added a little light machine oil to the pellets and swirled. No more oxidation or lead dust. I don't store them in my mouth while hunting like I did when I was a kid though.

I used to store them in my mouth as well. Wouldn't make noise in container while walking around and faster access to reload.

[RogerDat]

............
a vib case tumbler works to re graphite about 1hr but dont fill it full. make sure its DRY
not sure i would trust can and duct tape you may have long time finding shot in the car

I understand that putting graphite in tumbler makes it almost impossible to get clean again.

[Reverend Al]

I have about 18 pounds of old 7 1/2 shot (somewhat ozidized) sitting in an old coffee tin and what I've decided to do with it is to try putting about 5 pounds at a time in my vibrating tumbler with plastic air soft BB's and some bright orange powder coat and then bake it as normal for pc. I want to see how well it coats the shot and then load some of it for "tracer" loads as a training tool for "newbies" at our local Trap and Skeet range. I'm hoping that it will be visible in flight so that you can actually see the shot string. Most "tracer" loads that are on the market are only showing you the wad in flight and not the shot string ...

[Mr_Sheesh]

That's a good idea to try! I know back in model rocketry days we would put a bunch of corn starch (IIRC) in a model rocket and then a venturi tube in there so the starch would leave a trail behind the rocket showing us where it went. PCing the shot should make seeing it easier :)

[RogerDat]

Coffee can didn't move or roll for squat. Sat there like sandbag. Poured shot in one of those larger plastic storage bins typically used to store clothes or decorations, size of an ice cooler with snap on lid. Shot is sliding around at ever stop, start and turn. High sides make sure that as long as shiny side of vehicle is up and greasy side down it won't slop out. Lid is on for a bit of insurance and to keep other things from getting in or graphite dust from getting out.

So far that is looking like best approach to re-graphite that doesn't involve putting in tumbler. Will have to see how easily the graphite washes off after the process is complete.

PC shot... as tracer rounds.... Hmmm interesting. Oh the insanity will the projects never end?