cleaning corrosion off 22lr bullets

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boostedtt91

New member
I was at a gun show today and i bought a brick of thunderbolt 22lr ammo.
I got home and went to the range and when i opened the box, all the bullets have white corrosion alittle bit to where i can't completly chamber a round cause it gets stuck. Is there anyway to get this little bit of crud off it? Could i tumble it without it going off?
 
Sounds like moisture damage from high humidity levels due to improper storage. Not worth shooting and risking personal injury and/or damaging a firearm to save a few bucks in the short run.
 
RC is right about this one.

That white stuff is oxidation AND the loss of bullet lube.

It would be possible to hand clean them off with Hoppe's - I kinda think tumbling them might knock loose the priming compound - and then re-lube them with some liquid graphite solution.
But that is adding up to a lot of time.

Had an old box of Mohawk that looked similar - a crusty white bullet - and I am a known cheapskate. Shot two mags through a Woodsman before taking a look.
Spent better part of an hour getting the lead out. Lesson learned.

My take, JT
 
Anything that removes the lead oxide will remove the bullet and case lube.

These bullets are externally lubricated and so are the cases. I have never shot ungreased 22LR but I suspect it will cause some awful leading.
 
As much as i hate to throw $20 away your probably right and i shouldn't use them.
How can i safely dispose of them since i can't pull the powder or anything
 
Hello, boostedtt91. Before ditching, try cleaning white oxide off with solvent..don't use anything containing an abrasive..such as sandpaper or emory..it could charge that soft lead & act as lap. once clean, you could re-lube with either commercial lube, such as Lee liquid Alox or make up your own concoction..Parafin & Vasilene works well, or a beeswax, lanolin, castor oil is good. put a light coating on bullet with fingers. The cases are not intended to be greased. The rimfire bench-rest guys have been re-lubing their match ammo with home-grown lube for quite some time.
 
I would just put them in the garbage, but if you're worried, call your local law enforcement about how they dispose of unwanted ammo.
 
I don't think it would be a smart idea to tumble rimfire ammo! Even in the virbatory tumblers.

The white stuff is lead oxide. It comes from lead being exposed to air, over time. Since it is there, that means that the original wax lube put on the lead isn't there. Might never have been there, although it should have been put on in the factory. IF it was intact, air wouldn't get to the lead, and the oxide wouldn't form.

I don't think shooting them would actually cause any harm to your gun, but odds are you'll have to spend a lot more effort cleaning afterwards. If you have a cheap .22 to pop them off with, I'd do it. OF course, they may not fire reliably. One thing has already gone wrong with them, so odds of another are increased. If you don't want to try shooting them, several good ways to dispose of them have already been mentioned.

One often sees the white oxide form on old exposed lead centerfire ammo. It doesn't cause any problems there, because the bullet lube is inside the case. Those rounds we pop off as plinkers, without a second thought.
 
Knuckle-head here. I did tumble (vibrator type cleaner) some old .22 LR rounds that looked like what you described. They shot well enough afterwards, but the leading was awful!

I did not realize the lube was missing and figured I would shoot them. They all shot well, but never again. I like cleaning guns, but that experience was just ridiculous. :o
 
Aside from sealed military surplus ammo I have seen and heard of poor quality ammo and reloads sold at gun shows. Most notable example is my friend trying to shoot his Hi-Power with gun show reloads. These rounds barely cycled the action and many misfired. Seems as if your seller was reselling liquidated goods. Probably a stretch to request a refund.
 
I wouldn't think it would be worth the effort to try to clean them up, not for .22s anyways.

Gun show ammo vendors kinda hate me, I open boxes to check out what's inside, especially if the box looks old, or a little rough, or is surplus. If it checks out, I buy the ones I opened.
 
Except for the suplus "battle packs" sealed in plastic (with original markings intafct) if I can't look at the rounds, I don't buy them. Period. Been burned too many times.

Any time the rounds look less than pristine, expect problems, and if they look poor, don't pay full price! If the seller won't take less, pass...

Example: Friend bought 500 rnds 7.62 NATO, ball ammo TZ 79-82 headstamp. Packed in large cardboard box. Didn't inspect it at all. When opened, the brass was dingy, dirty, but no obvious corrosion on the outside. A handful of the rounds had soft point bullets!

Fired 100 rnds. 11 duds, and 17 cases cracked! :eek: Pulled down the rest, and some evidence of powder deterioration was evidenced (clumping powder and corrosion on the base of the bullets). Will use the bullets. The brass is going for scrap, the powder is already gone for fertilizer...

Lesson: if it looks like its been stored badly, it probably has...if you can get it for real cheap, ok, but don't pay even "surplus" price for what is questionable crap.
 
yeah i usually always look at ammo especially at gun shows, but i honestly never thought id ever run into "bad" .22LR ammo so i didnt really think to much of it. The funny thing is that as i was on my way to the range i just was thinking in the back of my head that now watch something be wrong with this ammo to where it wont chamber or something and sure enough it happened. Lesson learned! If i didnt drive 1 1/2 hours to go to the gun show i would of went back the next day to get my $ back
 
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