Cleaning older mildly corroded buckshot?

[JeepsAndGuns]

I recently purchased 20 pounds of some 00 buckshot. It came in two 10lb bags. Lawrence brand. They look like they sat on a shelf for unknown number of years and the bags were dirty, show signs of being a little wet at one time. Probably stored in a non climate controlled garage, shed, or barn for 20 years if I had to make a wild guess.
The shot appears to be fine, but they are all just slightly "dusty" with white powder corrosion. Nothing bad, no pits or heavy amounts. But enough to where your fingers get covered in it fast (I wear nitrile gloves). I have loaded about 5-10 rounds with it and it seemed fine. However I wondered about cleaning it and recoating it with graphite. Because of the "dust", the pellets feel almost a tiny bit "abrasive", for lack of a better term. While on the other hand, I have 10 pounds of brand new hornady 00 buck and it is smooth and slick.
I was watching a youtube video where a guy was taking freshly cast buckshot that had a little flashing and a small sprue mark and they tumbled them in a small rock tumbler from harbor fright with some graphite and they came out looking perfect.
So could something like this be done, except first do it with some water and a little cleaner of some sort? That way it cleans them first. Then once clean and dry, do the graphite treatment?
What type of cleaner would you use?

[fc60]

Greetings,

The white powder is Lead Oxide. VERY hazardous.

You need to Google solvents for Lead Oxide.

Or, tumble them in corn cobs and throw away the media when finished.

Cheers,

Dave

[Hogtamer]

The rock tumblers work wonders and the shot definitely need it with all the oxidation. No graphite necessary. Wear a mask when loading/unloading the shot into the tumbler. I have the 3 lb version from Harbor freight.

[centershot]

If it were me, and I wanted to clean them for some reason, I'd just put them into my tumbler for an hour or two. Once done, remove them to a plastic Cool Whip tub, sprinkle a TINY BIT of powdered graphite into the tub, cover, and shake them around for 10-15 seconds. Clean the tumbler when you're finished.

[JeepsAndGuns]

Greetings,

The white powder is Lead Oxide. VERY hazardous.

You need to Google solvents for Lead Oxide.

Or, tumble them in corn cobs and throw away the media when finished.

Cheers,

Dave

I did a little looking online this morning. I saw some different places mentioning various different things such as muriatic acid, CLR, and vinegar.
I have some vinegar, gonna try a about 20 pellets in a small mason jar with some water/vinegar and see what happens.

[JeepsAndGuns]

Well that did not take long.
I mixed about 75% vinegar and 25% water and the water started turning cloudy almost right away. I spun them around in the jar for about 30 seconds every min or so. Only took maybe 5 min.
They came out looking almost new! The powder is gone and they have a little bit of shine to them now.
I tried to take a picture but my camera for some reason seems to want to darken every picture. So in the picture the clean pellets look WAY darker than they do in person. Plus the dirty pellets look darker and the white powder does not shot up in the picture at all.
But the clean is on the left, dirty/corroded on the right.



I will start working on the rest here in the next day or two. We have hazardous waste disposal where I work, so I can take the water left over for proper disposal.

[centershot]

Wow, that's amazing, beats the heck out of tumbling!

[jsizemore]

Be careful. Since the lead is already oxidized and you add vinegar (acetic acid) you will produce lead acetate which ain't real good stuff. Take care and Good Luck.

[G W Wade]

Tumbler sounds good to me GW

[John Boy]

Put the shot in a bag … put true mineral spirits in the bag and rock back and forth. Put shot in a dry bag with some graphite…. done

[Frosty Boolit]

I always put 45/45/10 on oxidized bullets to encapsulate the oxidized surface.

[JeepsAndGuns]

I cleaned the rest of the shot today. I dumped it in a 5 gal bucket outside added the water and vinegar. I put the lid on and shook and rolled the bucket around for a min or two, let it set for a few, then repeated a couple times. I rinsed in this way also, twice. I used a old towel to dry them off and put them on a old cookie sheet (I use to place slugs on to cool when I cast them) in the sun to dry the rest of the way. Shot came out looking great.
I then went to harbor freight and bough the dual drum rock tumbler. I added 3 pounds to each drum, squirted in some powdered graphite and let them run for about 45 min.
Holy crap these things look better than the box of brand new hornady buckshot I bout a few months ago.



Now that I have the tumbler, it will come in handy when I shoot this all up and start casting my own.

[Hogtamer]

Nice work!

[W.R.Buchanan]

Yeah those look nice,

People will eventually figure out that better looking ammo shoots better. Looks matter and if you don't agree with that, then you will be trapped in a world with ugly stuff.

If looks didn't matter, there would be lots more ugly women running around. It takes some effort to look good.

Randy

[JeepsAndGuns]

Yeah those look nice,

People will eventually figure out that better looking ammo shoots better. Looks matter and if you don't agree with that, then you will be trapped in a world with ugly stuff.

If looks didn't matter, there would be lots more ugly women running around. It takes some effort to look good.

Randy

Before, they were rough and gritty feeling. Now they are smooth and almost slick. They like to slip out of my fingers if I try to grab more than a few (wearing nitrile gloves).
I would think this would help them slide down the barrel, not stick to each other or the wads. It definitely can not hurt anything.

[hickfu]

And this is why I also powder coat my buckshot. Never a mess to deal with and safe around the kids (but they know not to touch papa's stuff)

[Cap'n Morgan]

Now, that was a nice result!

I have about 5 lb. of corroded #2 shot from an old diving belt. Gonna give it a try...

[JeepsAndGuns]

Now, that was a nice result!

I have about 5 lb. of corroded #2 shot from an old diving belt. Gonna give it a try...

Let us know how it goes. I would be very interested in knowing if it works for you too.
You could start with a small cup or jar and experiment on the amount of vinegar and see how it goes. Not sure if the size of the shot would effect the time it takes or the concentration of vinegar.