Green corrision on the inside of loaded ammo.

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CoalCrackerAl

CoalCrackerAl

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I started my transfer of ammo i sitting in the flats that come in ammo boxes. To my new ammo cans. Some of it is corroded. I pulling them as i find them. Some even had corrosion on the inside of the casings. Some had a white/grey fuzz like stuff too inside. Has me puzzled how the insides got it.

I checked what i have in the MTM ammo flats with a lid. They are are ok. Another question. How many of them descant packs should i put in the cans? I have some that came in medicine bottles and ones that came in scope boxes.
 
You have no idea how/long the ammunition was stored was before you got them.

Gunpowder Stability - https://shop.hodgdon.com/gunpowder-stability

"Smokeless Propellant

The main ingredient of smokeless propellant, comprising from about 55% to 90% of the composition, is nitrocellulose. The process of creating nitrocellulose leaves remnant acid in the material. This acid immediately starts decomposing the finished product. Left alone the decomposition will reach the stage where the propellant becomes unstable and self-ignites. This process resulted in massive explosions at U.S. Government arsenals after World War I.

To increase the life of the smokeless propellant, a stabilizing chemical is used. This “stabilizer” reacts with the acid to slow down the decomposition process. However, as the stabilizer reacts with the acid it is consumed. After the stabilizer is totally consumed, the propellant is no longer protected from the internal acid.

The entire stabilizer / decomposition process is a time and temperature function – the higher the temperature, the shorter the safe life of the powder. Even moderate temperature, over extended time, leads to propellant decomposition. As a rule of thumb, any temperature over that which is comfortable to a person is accelerating the decomposition of smokeless propellants.

Under proper storage, modern smokeless powder can last for decades. However, this does not mean the reloader can ignore how the powder is stored, particularly if in an uncontrolled environment such as a garage or storage building."​
 
They are loaded with universal and unique. Only the Copper jacketed are doing it. It is only a few so far out of 150.They are stored in my man cave. I threw the corroded brass in the scrap bin. After i tried to see how it come out tumbled. Just a clean up so my scrap don't grow green and the yard rejects it. These loads maybe a few years old. Cast loads the casings are fine.
 
What grey fuzzy stuff? I wonder bout that. I don't know I've ever seen ammo that had verdigris inside. Was it your reloads? Or was it factory?

Answers appeared while I was posting.
 
I've never heard of powder molding. That's interesting.

Maybe, do you wet tumble, maybe it was still damp?
 
The inside of the casing had the mold looking stuff. Next one i come across i'll take a pic before i get it ready for the scrap. I had my wife smell the universal that i pulled. Then some from the powder bottle. She said the powder i pulled smelled foul. I can't smell well myself. Did some image search. They grey stuff looks like the second casing from the left. The green looks like the rifle rounds in the other pic. But it was at the case mouth. And some was on my copper coated bullets.
wJ58icU.jpg

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Walkalong said:
Powder going bad.
Click to expand...
The white stuff probably isn't mold, it's likely just corrosion.
Handloads that are not fully stripped of all crud are likely growing oxidation crystals inside, especially over the long haul (for more than say 5-10 years)
They might start to fire erratic; with less consistency, or become over-pressured. Or crack cases....cause a squib. I know the chemical makeup of powder can be altered through time.
Also, I've fired some old 38 special rounds from the 1940s....and they lacked consistency. And they smelled bad when fired, very pungent odor.. but I want to note that they all still fired, and still hit the target.

I've gone to strictly wet tumbling brass with stainless steel media, and that has made all the difference.
In dry vibratory tumblers, the granules inside the cases do not act like they should, and do not remove the soot from the inside very well.... now, if Im firing rounds within a few years, or even a decade, not a problem....but once I got to the point where I knew I might be loading ammunition that might not be fired in a decade or more, I've changed my cleaning process.

Obviously making sure that cases are fully dried is an absolute must with this process.

I'd be hard to convince that modern smokeless powder could go bad inside a properly cleaned/new brass case in any less than 50-70 years.
 
I been debating with myself over going to wet tumbling. Is it cheaper than dry tumbling after the initial investment?
Click to expand...
Maybe a bit, water, wash and wax, citric acid vs media that has to be replaced, but then dry media is not really pricey.
To tell for sure you would need to include power costs.
I wet tumble and like it but as far as being cheaper I think it would take a lot of batches for the wet tumbler to pay for itself.

The main reason to go to wet is cleaner cases and clean primer pockets if you deprime first.
While cleaner brass probably does not shoot any better it makes me smile, makes it easier to see things like the stupid ledge in some 9mm cases.

(Note: using auto wash and wax vs dish soap make the brass easier to size and helps prevent tarnishing)
 
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Thanks for sharing walkalong. You reckon that was acrid powder that caused that corrosion?

I answered my own question via the how long does ammo last thread. I didn't know powder would cause case corrosion like that. I don't have much experience with surplus ammo.
 
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Wet tumbled brass is harder to size, harder to expand. I run any I use through the regular tumbler, so it has some dust on it.
 
Dudedog said:
Maybe a bit, water, wash and wax, citric acid vs media that has to be replaced, but then dry media is not really pricey.
To tell for sure you would need to include power costs.
I wet tumble and like it but as far as being cheaper I think it would take a lot of batches for the wet tumbler to pay for itself.

The main reason to go to wet is cleaner cases and clean primer pockets if you deprime first.
While cleaner brass probably does not shoot any better it makes me smile, makes it easier to see things like the stupid ledge in some 9mm cases.

(Note: using auto wash and wax vs dish soap make the brass easier to size and helps prevent tarnishing)
Click to expand...
I wonder if the wax inside the case would affect the powder in any way.
 
I've been hand loading long enough to have powder start going bad that I purchased new. When gun powder starts getting some age on it I start checking it every year. This is the way I found the powder going bad. Since I had ammo loaded with it I elected to shoot up the ammo, instead of breaking it down. The last powder I found going bad was this summer. IMR4350 from the 70's. With this powder I elected to break the rounds down and replace with some fresh powder. I had limited bullets on this one and did not want to waste them.

You can do this with purchased ammo. But any rounds over 40 yrs I would start keeping an eye on it. Even breaking one down to make sure it's not breaking down. Once it eats through the brass it's all scrap. Catch it early and you can salvage components.
 
I have 30.06 ammo from the 90's. I save it for hunting. The stuff i load is for range play. I look at the old ammo now and then. It's looking fine on the outside at least. I ordered 100 desiccant packs to put in my ammo cans too. I'll put one in my MTM ammo boxes too. I was thinking maybe the bad ones i found got wet. I was using ammo flats i find laying on the ground at the bush shooting spots. Sometimes they are dirty. And i wash them. Maybe some were not dry completely.
 
I wonder if the wax inside the case would affect the powder in any way.
Click to expand...

It has never seemed to cause me any issues, but then I shot most of what I load within 6 months, longest maybe 2 years.
 
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