What to do with white, gritty Silver Bear .223

[USAF385]

A coworker gave me 200 rounds of Silver Bear .223 he had sitting around. It was very nice of him. When I looked at it I saw the rounds all have a white, almost powdery grit on the casing. It can be removed by scratching.

Any thoughts? Would you even use this ammo? I've never used the brand.

I guess I could sit down with it using some emery or mesh grit cloth.....

 

[arjay]

It looks like drywall texture/mud or possibly paint.Id clean a few and try them.

 

[Alk8944]

That ammunition is of Russian manufacture, Tula Arsenal I believe, and imported to the US by Wolf. Basically is manufactured to Russian military specifications (except for caliber obviously) and that this is loaded with a sporting type soft point bullet. The cases are steel, coated with a lacquer or varnish that is intended to prevent the cases from rusting. The cartridge shown has been wet and caused deterioration of the varnish coating.

If all you have is the one box then scrub them with steel wool to remove the varnish. You could use a hard wax like Johnson's Floor Wax to replicate the lubrication that the varnish provided.

Many do not like to shoot steel case ammunition due to a perception of added wear to the firearm, but shooting just a box should cause no problems, but that is up to you.

 

[CTG_COLLECTOR]

Silver, Brown and Golden Bear ammo is made by Barnaul, not Tula.

Some Brasso and elbow grease should take the corrosion off.

 

[Steve912]

It's not lacquer. Silver Bear has zinc plated cases,
just like the box says.

As zinc rusts, it forms zinc oxide, which is the white
stuff (just like the sunscreen) you're seeing.

The 'Bears' are supposed to be loaded a bit hotter than
Wolf and Tula, from forum chrono reports. Shoot it up!

 

[Brasky]

Clean it off and shoot it. Nothing wrong with silver bear.

And if steal casings "wreck" your firearm, then your firearm must have pretty poor metallurgy

 

[Pisgah]

It's not lacquer. Silver Bear has zinc plated cases,
just like the box says.

As zinc rusts, it forms zinc oxide, which is the white
stuff (just like the sunscreen) you're seeing.

The 'Bears' are supposed to be loaded a bit hotter than
Wolf and Tula, from forum chrono reports. Shoot it up!

Right on. They're zinc-plated, and although they won't look purty you can wipe 'em off, load 'em up, and shoot away.

And lacquer hasn't been used on Russian ammo in something like 20 years. Some of it is still coated, but it's a polyurethane coating that will not cause the problems the old lacquer could.

Like so many gun-related things, most of what you hear about Russian ammo today is bullfeathers the "experts" heard sometime from who-knows-who, and have been repeating ever since.

 

[Franklin]

I think you should drop it in the mail to me!

 

[MichiganScott]

Toss it. I can't see wasting your time to scour a box of corroded ammo. If it will quickly wipe off, yes. Scour, not gonna do it.

 

[gregintenn]

Got a tumbler?

 

[BC38]

Got a tumbler?

That was my first thought too. Except that I don't think I would want to contaminate my walnut media with that corrosion. Maybe tumble it right before getting ready to change it out with fresh media.

 

[Eddie Southgate]

That was my first thought too. Except that I don't think I would want to contaminate my walnut media with that corrosion. Maybe tumble it right before getting ready to change it out with fresh media.

Sounds like the way to go to me.

Eddie

 

[Arik]

Toss it. I can't see wasting your time to scour a box of corroded ammo. If it will quickly wipe off, yes. Scour, not gonna do it.

200 hundred rounds. Not a box.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

 

[gregintenn]

That was my first thought too. Except that I don't think I would want to contaminate my walnut media with that corrosion. Maybe tumble it right before getting ready to change it out with fresh media.

Go to the pet supply store and pick up a sack of lizard bedding. It's cheap, and a bunch of it. A bottle of Nu Finish car polish is a cheap alternative to reloading specific brass polish.

Use this, and you'll never worry about throwing away media.

 

[Mark IV]

I wouldn't worry about this much at all. At most, I'd spray a bunch of WD40 on a rag and give them all a hard wipe down to remove the worst of it, and call it a day.
And no, that won't be enough WD40 to seep into the primers and wreck them. I once traded into a big bag of loose 5.56 ammo that had a bunch of green corrosion on a lot of it. I separated the worst rounds, then liberally sprayed them all down with WD40, then sat in front of the TV with a rum & coke, and wiped them all down individually (which cleaned them up a bit, but not completely).
Every single round fired without incident, some of them at least a year later.

 

[m1gunner]

Got a Lee case trimmer? Use the shell holder in a drill with some fine steelwool. An hour, tops, and it will be slick as new.

 

[jimbo728]

I wouldnt shoot it. Im too fussy.
Jim

 

[gwpercle]

Zinc oxide , I would remove it with 0000 steel wool pad , dampened with a little mineral oil/gun oil. Then a wax job should keep it from returning.
Had some zinc plated WWII 45 acp cases do it , they had been left on the grass at the outdoor range. Cleaned up they reloaded just fine. The steel cases didn't last as long as brass but they were good for several reloadings.
Gary

 

[USAF385]

Thanks for all the input!