You do what with your bullets???

[dandyrandy]

When I clean my defense duty guns I clean the bullets too. Does anyone else do this? I find myself the only one that does this however Ive seen bullets corrode in magazines before especially brass and copper jacket bullets. Bullets are expensive and hard to get now especially those "high performance defense rounds" are always more costly. So when I do my scheduled general cleaning of my guns I take all the bullets out of the magazine or cylinder and give them a quick wipe down. I dont recommend any strong cleaners or soaking them down with any gun oil. Just a light wipe down with a rag with light mineral oil.
This is only if I dont do a lot of shooting that season because if I do lots of shooting the guns will always have fresh ammo in them.

 

[RWPBR]

No I don't clean my bullets. I CC a revolver and empty it when i'm not carrying it.

 

[LoboGunLeather]

I always made a point of wiping down my ammo, back in the days of cartridge loops and drop pouches. Verdigris and oxidation can become a problem when leather, copper alloys, and lead come into contact for extended periods of time.

More recently, I made up a display piece including a western holster based on John Wayne's later movies and a belt with 24 cartridge loops to accept .44 and .45 ammo (.44 Special, .44-40, .45 Long Colt). Stuffed the belt loops with new factory ammo to take pictures for advertising, put everything away, then later retired and sold the business. Couple of years later I pulled out that display rig and found that the brass cartridge cases were nearly welded into the leather loops! Finally got them all out, had to use a steel wool pad to clean up the residue on the brass and bullets. Finally, an old soft toothbrush with club soda was used to clean up the residue on the leather, and the rig is restored to as new condition.

If you carry your ammo or magazines in leather carriers you need to pay attention to them at least once per month. An old terry cloth towel or silicone-impregnated rag will clean everything up nicely. Once the corrosion and oxidation get started things will go down hill rapidly.

 

[Bumpus13]

OCD, much? LOL

I think that might be a tad overboard. But, hey ... Whatever floats your boat.

 

[Sistema1927]

If you aren't shooting it often enough that your carry ammo corrodes, you aren't shooting enough.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

NOPE.......NEVER.

 

[ContinentalOp]

Every once in a while with my snub carry ammo. I ankle carry my snub most of the time, and that can collect quite a bit of dirt on the gun. I wipe the gun down every few days, checking to make sure I don't have any accumulated dirt in places like under the extractor star, and I'll unload it and check the ammo. If it looks like it needs it, I'll do a quick wipe down of the ammo with a dry rag. While I use leather ammo carriers (a pocket pouch and a belt pouch for speed strips), I don't leave ammo in there. Otherwise, no.

 

[Echo40]

I've never experienced any notable corrosion of brass ammunition, sure it can become tarnished or have the surface develop verdigris, but neither requires much in the way of cleaning.

At most I'll wipe down my carry ammo with the same microfiber cloth I use to wipe off excess oil when I finish cleaning my gun.

That being said, despite the moist, often times humid region in which I live, I have never experienced the same kind of extreme corrosion of metal others seem to battle elsewhere in the US, and apparently my sweat isn't nearly as acidic as some folks because my firearms/knives despite often being exposed to moisture/sweat, have never rusted. I once even conducted an experiment in which I took a broken old knife of mine, wiped the flat edge of the blade on my sweaty skin, then just put it away, and it never rusted. Now granted that all my carry guns and knives are Stainless Steel, but folks are always going on about how; "Stainless doesn't mean Rust-Proof!" which is true.

That being said, I still obviously periodically clean/lube my carry gear because I'm not about to neglect them just because they haven't rusted on me as readily as others report, nor am I going to run the risk of having them malfunction when/if I need them because they're all dry/dirty.

 

[robertrwalsh]

Oil is BAD for ammo. Very bad. You should,at a minimum, shoot up your actual carry ammo once a year. The ammo in your weapon and in your backup carriers will be the crappiest ammo you own. It gets handled, jostled, exposed to sweat, high humidity, etc. Wipe it down, that is fine. NO OIL. Shoot it up once a year. It isn't THAT expensive.

 

[ISCS Yoda]

Oil is BAD for ammo. Very bad.

Totally correct. Never let your ammunition get oily - it can ruin it.

Brass ammunition and leather do not mix well together except for short periods of time. Leave your ammunition in a leather carrier of any kind = verdigris and exactly what was posted above.

And no, I never wipe down my ammunition. If I see it's somehow dirty I might for the sole reason that I want it to feed and eject, especially eject in any gun, round or flat. But as a rule, nope.

 

[Spokes]

Always wipe down my carry ammo...
I do it even if I don't shoot my guns..

 

[stansdds]

No, but whatever ammo is in my carry gun gets fired during the next practice session.

 

[Murdock]

The only cartridge cleaning I do is to wipe off anything I've dropped at the range on my jeans and reload it.

 

[gwpercle]

And don't spray loaded ammo with any penetrating oil ... even WD40 .
Penetrating oils like to creep into places ...that's what they are designed to do ... but you don't want the stuff creeping into powder and/or primers ...there's always the slight chance it could affect the firing of that round .
Gary

 

[glowe]

Well . . . I do not clean bullets, but if I was to consider doing it, I would wipe down the new ammo with paste wax, then you do not need to check or change out ammo.

Heck, I have a friend who waxes his furnace and water heater in his basement because of high humidity conditions. I always thought that was a little OCD, but his equipment never got a spot of rust. Sealed out the humidity and oxygen, plus he only did it once when the appliances were newly installed. Applying a little Renaissance Wax would do the trick and you could probably leave the ammo in your gun for years without worry.

 

[rosewood]

I make an effort to use nickel plated brass in my carry guns to reduce the corrosion issues.

Rosewood

 

[rosewood]

You could use Hornady one shot lube for wiping them down. It is safe for powder when lubing your brass when reloading, so should be fine for loaded ammo as well.

Rosewood

 

[ContinentalOp]

Well . . . I do not clean bullets, but if I was to consider doing it, I would wipe down the new ammo with paste wax, then you do not need to check or change out ammo.

I'm not sure that's a good idea. It seems to me that if you wipe down ammo with wax, then have to fire it, that might cause it to lock up in the chamber and be difficult to extract.

Ammo is best kept dry. Wipe down with a dry rag if you must, but keep it dry.

 

[Double-O-Dave]

Well . . . I do not clean bullets, but if I was to consider doing it, I would wipe down the new ammo with paste wax, then you do not need to check or change out ammo.

I do the same thing and have done so for years without any negative results. Mind it is a very light coat of paste wax, but again, I've never had a problem with the ammo firing, nor extracting the fired rounds from the revolver. As another poster suggested, nickel cased ammo helps immensely in controlling the staining/corrosion of the cartridge cases.

Regards,

Dave

 

[old tanker]

As a kid, I recall being told a story by my buddy's desk sergeant dad. Something about an Irish cop, "green" bullets and Saint Patrick's day.