[Odnar]

Are there any special considerations I need to give to brass from corrosive ammo? Do I need to rinse/wash it out immediately? Ammonia? What about scrounged range brass of a likely corrosive nature (7.62x54r)? Can it damage anything if it isn't cleaned out for a while before reloading (ie. brass that sits in someones garage or lays in the bushes at the range for years before I get it)? I didn't know if the brass could become brittle or not.

Thanks.

[USSR]

Odnar,

NEVER use ammonia on brass cases.

Don

[Steve C]

Don't know of any boxer primed corrosive ammo manufactured after the 1920's but most of the berdan primed from Eastern Europe is corrosive to some extent. Unless you are planning on loading a berdan primed case there really isn't any issue with corrosive ammo.

Its not impossible to load berdan primed cases, it just isn't worth it if boxer primed is available. Berdan primers are dificult to find, expensive to buy and needs a special tool to remove.

[Odnar]

Steve C: Didn't think about the likelihood that corrosive ammo is probably Berdan. Thanks for the reality check!

USSR: Thanks for the ammonia/brass warning. After I read your post I searched a little bit and found a page (http://www.whitechapel-ltd.com/tech/antique_brass.shtml) recommending ammonia funes as a way to make brass (the metal, not casings) look antique. Definitely doesn't sound like something that would be healthy for the metal.

[JA]

I was given several thousands of pieces of WWII 30-06 brass that was corrosive primed,fired in a M1919 machine gun,and had been sitting around in a attic for 20 years. Due to the design of the machine gun the headspace is set by the shooter and the headspace is always set a little on the large side to insure reliability reguardless of the quality of the ammo. This results in the brass being harder to run through a full length sizing die. I shared the brass with several friends and none said they had any problems except being harder to resize than once fired brass from current commerical ammo. We all loaded this brass multiple times without any problems.
The only rifle I had chambered for 30-06 was a Remington semi auto that wouldn't chamber reloads that had been full length resized. Once running the brass through a full length die I had to resize it again in a small base die so the reloaded ammo would chamber in the Remington rifle. If the corrosive primer residue did any damage it should have shown up in the brass that I had to resize twice to use in the Remington rifle. But I got the same amount of reloads with it as I did with commerical brass before I threw it away due to the thinning of the brass at the base from case streaching.