I have found some cast bullets that I purchased some 40 years ago. They now have a darker appearance and feel gritty to the touch. Are these safe to use or should I toss them? By the way the price on the box of 100 was $3.01 for semi wad cutter .45 acp 200 grain.

I have found some cast bullets that I purchased some 40 years ago. They now have a darker appearance and feel gritty to the touch. Are these safe to use or should I toss them? By the way the price on the box of 100 was $3.01 for semi wad cutter .45 acp 200 grain.

They should be just fine to shoot. The darker appearance is just oxidation. The lube may be dried and that may be the gritty feeling or it could be they've accumulated some dust. You could lube them with some Lee's Liquid alox is you are worried about it, a bottle is around $4 but will lube many hundreds of bullets.

For low velocity .45 acp I'd just shoot them if it was me.

Ditto to everything Steve said.

As long as the gritty feeling isn't from dirt off of the garage floor, I say ditto to the above.

If it is, hit them with an air hose and blow it off before you shoot them or Alox them.

Interestingly enough, most cast lead alloys tend to age-harden. Much like freshly poured concrete, research has shown that there is a 24-hour strength, a 30-day strength, a one-year strength, etc.

I have cast, loaded, and fired tens of thousands of lead alloy bullets in handgun and rifle calibers. Somehow, none of the bullets ever stayed around long enough to adequately test the premise of age-hardening.

Shoot 'em up!

__________________
Life of the party until 8:00PM

I agree with all the above. It's not like a chunk of lead goes bad just sitting.

I checked the cartridges I reloaded 40 years ago, atored in similar ammunition cans. They look the same as the day I put them in the box. The 50 remaining unused bullets have a rough feel and look as if something has been growing on them. I wiped them off, but they still have that gritty feel to them. I have some bullet lube on order and will treat them prior to reloading. You would think they would be the same as the ammunition I reloaded.

I suspect the difference is oxidation. The loaded ammo was stored in sealed containers, the leftover bullets have been exposed to air.

Lead oxidizes to a dull gray. The wax in bullet lubes will dry somewhat and begin to crystallize.

Shoot 'em up.

__________________
Life of the party until 8:00PM

It would be interesting to see how those 40-something loads have held up, ballistically.
If you have a chronograph, or access to one, you may wish to shoot 10 or 15 rounds over the chronograph.
I'm sure we'd all be interested to see your findings listed on this site. Could be good reading.
I recently discovered some .45 Long Colt ammo I loaded back in 1976!
When the weather gets warmer -- right now it's 25 degrees F and blowing snow -- I'll chronograph it. It's been stored in spare rooms and bedrooms all those years, never exposed to temperature or humidity extremes.
Should be fine, but who knows?

If you shoot that ammo, at least let us know how it groups and shoots, and under what condtiions it was stored.
Sounds like a fun project.

I was given some .41 Caliber 210 grain Jarro cast bullets sealed in their box. Never had been opened. I expected them to be as new but they had oxide on them to the point that I didn't want that "stuff" going down my barrel. So, I put them in my tumbler with corn cob media and it cleaned them rather well. Before they were tumbled they miked at .413 to .414 instead of the .410 marked on the box. Also the lube was gone. These were rough looking and feeling bullets. After tumbling the size was .409 so I ran them through my .410 sizer and more or less just put new lube in the groves. I will shoot some of them tomorrow and report back on how things went.

D

Howdy

When I cast bullets from pure lead, they start oxidizing within a few weeks, and the metal turns a dark gray. However when I cast with a little bit of tin in the alloy, they do not change color at all, but stay bright and shiny for years.

Most commercial bullets have some tin and antimony in them. Most commercial bullets are not made from pure lead.

You could send them to me for testing and I will post a report.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Dew:
I was given some .41 Caliber 210 grain Jarro cast bullets sealed in their box. Never had been opened. I expected them to be as new but they had oxide on them to the point that I didn't want that "stuff" going down my barrel. So, I put them in my tumbler with corn cob media and it cleaned them rather well. Before they were tumbled they miked at .413 to .414 instead of the .410 marked on the box. Also the lube was gone. These were rough looking and feeling bullets. After tumbling the size was .409 so I ran them through my .410 sizer and more or less just put new lube in the groves. I will shoot some of them tomorrow and report back on how things went.


Things went well. Bullets shot just as good as if they were new.

W