Coating on my ammo

[diego_m]

I have some older round balls that have developed a whitish coating on them. Should I do anything to remove this coating? If so, what should I use? Or can I just use them as is?

 

[mooman76]

Just shoot them. They are wrapped in a patch anyway. The coating is oxidation.

 

[Claude Mathis]

http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/295423

 

[Crewdawg445]

Don't shoot them, I'll give you my address so they can be sent to me for disposal. :grin:

Oxidation as previously mentioned, nothing to be worried about at all.

 

[AZbpBurner]

To deter oxidation, store lead balls in a sealed container such as a plastic pillbottle with screw-on lid. Storing lead in leather bags for an extended time will promote corrosion.

I found some hollow-base soft lead minie balls I cast 35 years ago. They were stored in a metal tin with friction-fit lid & still look as shiney as they did when cast.

People obsess about roundball diameters and weight variances. Corrosion will affect both diameter and weight. It's no grande task to simply recast them.

 

[nhmoose]

I have stored my round balls in plastic soda bottles for year and give them a squirt of WD-40 when put in they grow nothing on them.

.58cal Minnie's go in the big mouth soda bottles with the same treatment and they stay the same as new.

Same as my big smooth bore balls from .600 to .730

 

[RedFeather]

The oxidation layer is pretty thin and doesn't get thick over time. Dug ammo from the Civil War looks like it could easily be loaded and shot today. Virginia Tech did a study of the potential for lead leaching into the ground. They found that it forms a coating of oxidation and then becomes practically stable.

 

[Tom Compton]

The oxidation layer is pretty thin and doesn't get thick over time. Dug ammo from the Civil War looks like it could easily be loaded and shot today. Virginia Tech did a study of the potential for lead leaching into the ground. They found that it forms a coating of oxidation and then becomes practically stable.

Boy, I bet the environmental extremists hate that study.

 

[hanshi]

Ball with a whitish coating are deadly dangerous. I've seen with my own eyes deer dropping dead after being shot with such oxidized ball. :v:

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I've no problem with them. I just pop them in my mouth and suck on them for a minute, and they go back to gray. They taste kinda sweet too.

As a side note, I've noticed an increase in headaches and I've developed sort of a nervous "tic"....

:shocked2:

LD

 

[No Deer]

To deter oxidation, store lead balls in a sealed container such as a plastic pillbottle with screw-on lid. Storing lead in leather bags for an extended time will promote corrosion.

I find that mine stored in a leather bag don't last long enough to corrode. :rotf:

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

HA!! I lol'd! :grin:

 

[FishDFly]

The question by the OP has been asked as long as the forum has been here, a "sticky" should be here so new comers do not repeat it every 2 months.

 

[azmntman]

Some of us need to hear things every two months :surrender:

So whats a sticky? :blah:

 

[necchi]

So whats a sticky? :blah:

Oh no! He asked!

 

[FishDFly]

Think that is one of those things that all can read and not ask the same question over and over,
kind of like telling your kids do not ask the same question multiple times.

 

[azmntman]

But why?

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I thought that the terminology was:

Lil' Sticky = infant

Crumb Cruncher = toddler

Yard Ape = small male child large enough to climb small trees and also to climb and fall off a jungle-gym.



LD

 

[Tinker2]

But why?

:rotf: :rotf: :rotf: :rotf:

:slap:
William

 

[diego_m]

They're on the way, FedEx 2-day, collect. :wink: