oldguitars
Member
Maybe I'm wrong but I suspect the issue I ran into with bullet storage may be a rare one. Most people have more common sense...something I've noted over the years.
So I'm re-organizing (read can't find anything under the clutter) my reloading bench and going through stuff I have and stuff I've forgotten I have. I've got way too many 150 gn .30 caliber bullets
and way too few 168's but that's not important, what I found is a bad way to store these things.
I had used a glass jar for a hundred or more 150 grain flat base bullets, basically M2 tips. I think I stored them 3 years ago or so?? I guess I had not cleaned out the jar properly or left a little moisture in it and found this when I was cleaning out the cabinets..
So I had some choices, just use them as is, ugly but probably not a real problem at 100 yards, or
clean them up. I felt bad about loading up such lousy looking rounds so decided to see what could be done to remove this copper oxidation. I tried a few things but found one that was pretty effective.
1. get a large bowl when you wife is not looking and some flower and vinegar. Mix up a paste, first putting some flower into the bowl and then enough vinegar to make a paste.. just about any thickness will do, then add a bit of salt. Seems to help. Stir it up well and dump in the bullets. Enough so that all of the are covered in the paste.
2. Stir a bit and leave things set. I found that with the amount of oxidation I had and hour to 1 1/2 hours was enough. The trick is just enough to remove the color but no more. Vinegar is incredibly acidic and will remove rust on tools if left long enough, then it starts to remove the metal under the rust so treat it with respect.
3. Once your are satisfied the oxidation is gone pick them out of the bowl with tweezers or pliers
and wash them off in a bowl of water, then drop them in a clean bowl of water to stop the acid reaction.
4. I set that bowl in the sink and let the water rinse things out really well and then proceeded to
the last step. I wanted to remove the slightly rough surface left by this process (not bad, just enough to feel a bit of a surface texture that was not ideal). I used Never Dull metal polish while
watching something really dull on TV that my wife wanted to watch so it helped pass the time while I cleaned these things up. Never Dull is amazing stuff and it restored the polish to the copper really well. I have found I'm really good at menial labor so this was right in my skill set.
The results were satisfactory and the lesson learned.
So probably not something most of you will ever need but I thought I'd post it here for those of us
who struggle with the basics in life and learn everything the hard way. If you find any errors or
problems with this process please post them, this idea seemed logical but maybe I'm crossing some kind of line here, let me know if you have a better solution, I'm all thumbs... ears.
Best
Bruce
So I'm re-organizing (read can't find anything under the clutter) my reloading bench and going through stuff I have and stuff I've forgotten I have. I've got way too many 150 gn .30 caliber bullets
and way too few 168's but that's not important, what I found is a bad way to store these things.
I had used a glass jar for a hundred or more 150 grain flat base bullets, basically M2 tips. I think I stored them 3 years ago or so?? I guess I had not cleaned out the jar properly or left a little moisture in it and found this when I was cleaning out the cabinets..
So I had some choices, just use them as is, ugly but probably not a real problem at 100 yards, or
clean them up. I felt bad about loading up such lousy looking rounds so decided to see what could be done to remove this copper oxidation. I tried a few things but found one that was pretty effective.
1. get a large bowl when you wife is not looking and some flower and vinegar. Mix up a paste, first putting some flower into the bowl and then enough vinegar to make a paste.. just about any thickness will do, then add a bit of salt. Seems to help. Stir it up well and dump in the bullets. Enough so that all of the are covered in the paste.
2. Stir a bit and leave things set. I found that with the amount of oxidation I had and hour to 1 1/2 hours was enough. The trick is just enough to remove the color but no more. Vinegar is incredibly acidic and will remove rust on tools if left long enough, then it starts to remove the metal under the rust so treat it with respect.
3. Once your are satisfied the oxidation is gone pick them out of the bowl with tweezers or pliers
and wash them off in a bowl of water, then drop them in a clean bowl of water to stop the acid reaction.
4. I set that bowl in the sink and let the water rinse things out really well and then proceeded to
the last step. I wanted to remove the slightly rough surface left by this process (not bad, just enough to feel a bit of a surface texture that was not ideal). I used Never Dull metal polish while
watching something really dull on TV that my wife wanted to watch so it helped pass the time while I cleaned these things up. Never Dull is amazing stuff and it restored the polish to the copper really well. I have found I'm really good at menial labor so this was right in my skill set.
The results were satisfactory and the lesson learned.
So probably not something most of you will ever need but I thought I'd post it here for those of us
who struggle with the basics in life and learn everything the hard way. If you find any errors or
problems with this process please post them, this idea seemed logical but maybe I'm crossing some kind of line here, let me know if you have a better solution, I'm all thumbs... ears.
Best
Bruce