Bullets turned green(brass)

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I'm guessing you sloshed the cylinder bores real good with Hoppes #9 and left it in there when you loaded it.

Hoppes is a mild copper remover, it will eat the copper from your brass if you let it.

I'd clean the cylinder with Hoppes, dry, then put a VERY light coat of CLP or some other oil in to prevent rust.
 
The green goo is verdigris, which shows copper is being removed from the brass by some form of a salt. I find this interesting as I can't for the life of me figure out how you could have any salt contacts.

If these rounds perhaps have been in a leather loop belt for a long time, then I have a maybe.

I'ld like to know if this was the case.

What kinds of lubes and cleaners have you used? None I can think of would have any kinds of salts.

Is this a car gun? Maybe if that is the case salted dusts can enter the car and so then maybe a gun, but that too seems far fetched to me.

I cross posted with Musher, perhaps he has it right.
 
I doubt Hoppes is to blame. Sounds like you left those rounds in there for quite some time, in a dirty gun, where some moisture was around.

tipoc
 
I say it's electrolysis. Three or four different metals in contact with each other with enough moisture to get things reacting.I have seen it in police revolvers where the temperature changes caused condensation to form.chuck.
 
Aah come on now...Hoppe's #9 solvent and gun oil caused them to turn green? Damn and I've been using hoppe's products including Benchrest #9 copper solvent for most of my 65 years...I better change products hadn't I? Rather doubt it on both counts. I doubt that any gun cleaning products except Benchrest #9 made by Hoppe's would do that.

I agree. Failed to properly clean that gun or they were in leather loops for a period of time before loading in that gun. I keep brass cartridges in my two house guns for a year at a time and have never seen them turn green...I use copper solvent, dry patches, gun oil and finish with dry patches.
 
Bush, I can't say, but it seems reasonable that copper eatting cleaners would have to make verdigris in the process of eatting copper to me.

If some copper eatting liquids were allowed to remain on the gun and brass was loaded and left unfired a while, then I would assume to see green.

I have seen green verdigis leech out of brass in bullet cases left for a long time in leather belts loops, A antler grip knife scales soak up green from presumably hand sweat salts, where the rivets were brass.

A canoe brass bow and stern stems, brighten just used in salt water (the ocean)

Acid rain will turn a copper roof green in a years time, and that verdigris is why the Statue of Liberty is green.

So we know something that oxidizes brass and eats copper was on that gun.
 
Drop some hoppes on a cartridge case and leave it. It'll turn green (pretty quickly).

Here's a photo from 'the box of truth' of hoppes #9 left on cartridge case heads for a week.

Box o truth--oil vs primers

I've never run across an oil that would oxidize the copper, but any kind of copper solvent will do the trick.

No idea if this is what actually happened in this case, but I thought it was a reasonable guess.
 
+1 on Hoppies #9. It is a mild copper solvent, and will certainly turn brass green if left to it's own devices long enough.

Don't believe it?
Put some in a copper-fouled rifle barrel and leave it set for a couple of days and then run a clean patch through the bore.
Notice the nice green color on the patch?

I tend to think gunslinger686 left way too much of some type of bore cleaner in his cylinder with loaded ammo.

That is all it can be.

Ammo doesn't just turn green and stick in the chambers without help from some sort of copper solvent.

Whatever the case, cleaning solvent should be removed from the cylinder if you plan to leave the gun loaded. It can penetrate the ammo and cause misfires and/or squib loads.

Leave nothing more then a very very light coat of oil in the bore & chambers if the gun is to be left loaded.

1224.jpg
rcmodel
 
If Hoppes did it then we come back to the question of proper cleaning. For the years that I used it I never had it turn my brass green. After you clean the chambers you run a dry patch through them to clean up the excess solvent followed by a lightly oiled patch. If you've used a solvent, for lead or brass, you want to clean this away prior to setting any rounds in the cylinder.

The op shouldn't feel bad, he may have gotten sidetracked while cleaning his gun and forgotten this step. But I wouldn't blame the Hoppe's.

I could add that only a bit of oil should be left in the chambers or bore. Leave enough to soak into the ammo and a misfire could result.

tipoc
 
tipoc, Some people tend to think solvents and oils are the same thing, since both are as slimey as a snake to the touch.

I agree the likely problem if not salt based contaminations are infact copper cleaning solvents, allowed to remain after the fact, by one means or another.

Seems very plausible.. If a single drop was missed getting mopped up, it would spread over a wide area in a few days since it doesn't evaporate very fast. With limited air flow between a caseing and the chamber, any fluid would take a long time to dry and might not for a very long time.

The only damage can be IF this seeps into the charge, and might eat bluing given time enough.

Mirror polished steel to the eye is a whole other ball game under say 400 power microscopes. Under that you might be looking at a moon like body full of holes, and any oils, and other thin liquids like solvents are going to enter these pours..

You could have cleaned a gun and made it dust free a year ago, and set it in the sun on a dash board on a hot day and watch it sweat oils and solvents.

What you would see is a seemingly dry gun suddenly become wet in appearance and have a snake slimey feeling to it..

The solvent was doing what it was supposed to do. There is no problem.
 
Macmac...I'm well aware of what leather will do to brass as all of my holsters and belts are of leather. In fact I use nickeled brass in my belt loops. But to have brass turn green someone left the copper solvent in the chambers then loaded the gun...

Musher...Pertaining to "box-O-truth...When was the last time you saw Hoppe's gun oil come in a tin can? Besides I didn't see a lable on that can (how convenient)...Just what he wrote.

As what was said. Proper cleaning and he wouldn't have seen that green. In fact...If he had inspected his firearm periodically as he should he would have caught it early...I bought my first rifle (.30 WCF mod 94) in 1960 and have been using Hoppe's from the first. All my revolvers have been properly cleaned using Hoppe's and loaded with brass cartridges and have never turned green and like I said earlier, left in the night stand for six months to a year with the same rounds loaded in the cylinder chambers...NO GREEN!!!

The most prominant Hoppe's products on my cleaning bench are Hoppe's Powder solvent #9, Hoppe's gun oil #9 and Hoppe's Benchrest copper solvent #9...
 
Yeah, Hoppes, Sweets 7.62 or nay of the nitro solvents will do it to one degree or another. Sweets and the Black bottle Hoppes Nitro Solvent will do it in a hurry.
 
The rounds were in the gun aprox 3 months,and the gun was moved from the house to the truck (temp change) four-five times in this time,,,anyway,cleaned the rounds&cylender then put a light coat of oil on both and i'll see what thay look like over time:confused:,,,,thanks for all the info,,,,,,,,,,,c
 
We could, I suppose, go round and round on what may have caused the verdigis but without a bit more information on this case in particular I don't think we can know exactly.

Well we can say this, or I can...It was poor maintenance.

Went to unload my 357 and the rounds where stuck in the cylender.When i got thim out thay had green goo on thim.
Click to expand...

That is more than one round, so from two to six rounds had "green goo" on them.

Was it that the fella used too much Hoppe's and did not clean? Could be.

Was it that the gun rode under the seat of his truck for 6 months without being cleaned or checked? Maybe.

Exposed to moisture? Maybe.

Improper storage? Maybe.

A bad reload? Could be.

Someone poured lime jello in the chambers? Well it could happen.

Could be a number of things but at the center is improper maintenance in one way or another. Doesn't mean the op is a sloppy fella, just means that in this case something was done wrong. Likely the majority of us have not seen "green goo" come out of our guns.

tipoc
 
To the OP, get some nickel plated ammo for the gun. Most premium rounds are nickel plated and nickel is a bit more resistant to corrosion than brass is. Don't leave the cylinder wet with solvent either.
 
Ok 3 months back and forth from house to truck, maybe a little too much Hoppes. That could do it.

I have a habit, which I think is a good one. Every time I pick up a gun (unless I plan on shooting something), even to move it from one room to another, I open the cylinder and check the rounds. If the gun is dirty I clean it soon as I can.

Good luck and let us know if the goo shows back up please.

tipoc
 
I clean my sp-101 monthly (at a minimum). With Hoppe's #9. Then I reload it.

I've noticed that if I am not meticulous in thoroughly drying it, I get green gunk growing on the cartridges.

It's the Hoppe's doing it. And you, for not being THOROUGH getting all the Hoppe's out of the chambers.

Normally, if you dry it out well and let it sit in the open air, cylinder exposed and unloaded for half an hour, then reload, you won't get this problem.

I haven't had my stainless 4" redhawk long enough to run across this, but I've never gotten funk growing on cartridges loaded in my 5.5" redhawk ever. But then again, I haven't left that gun loaded for a month at a time. I've suspected that stainless steel does this more readily than blued steel.
 
Barricade spray did that to mine. Some got into the cylinder and fouled the cases on a .357. I like the product for use on blued guns and i kinda like the smell as well. However, a bit-o-time in the tumbler and they polished up like new.
 
I did the same thing a while back. Used hoppes #9 to clean gun, ran out of oil, so I just let the #9 sit on the gun. I had to get a knife to pry the bullets out of my 357. Started cleaning cylinders with a clean knap after running hoppes and then oiling w/ remoil and never had problem again.
 
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