Rusted chinese 7.62

[kygen]

I'm not kidding, if you bring me the bullet puller (the hand held smacker thingy) and you are local, I'll do what I can to pull the bullets and collect the powder for you.

bought it at an estate sale. All sales final. Friend spotted them. He's not a shooter. Sent me a picture with a price, and I was feeling unusually sporty, so I went for it

Yes. AK ammo.
I'm weary of shooting it...

You win some, you lose some.
If both cases had been in good shape, it would have been a hellova deal for 2880 rounds of ammo.

oh well.

-Z

[zartoon]

You're too kind!
The only thing I would see myself using the powder from these cases for, would be to start a camp fire (which I do, by the way) but this is way too much work for just that.

I may give it a shot tonight, see how hard the bullets are seated inside...

Thank you for the offer though.

-Z

I'm not kidding, if you bring me the bullet puller (the hand held smacker thingy) and you are local, I'll do what I can to pull the bullets and collect the powder for you.

[saki302]

I would wipe them all down, and tumble the ones with light corrosion.

Anything with pitting gets junked.

-Dave

[Dan_Eastvale]

definitely steel case if old 80's preban Norinco Chinese.. But heck... Now it's not just corrosive but also corroded

[surplus-addict]

I would wipe them all down, and tumble the ones with light corrosion.

Anything with pitting gets junked.

-Dave

Bingo. I've seen a lot of rusted/corroded rounds saved this way. If it's gonna be shot in an AK/SKS, it's not that big of a deal in my book. The rounds are probably sealed around the primer and case mouth, so they're likely not water logged.

If you get the rust off, they'd probably shoot fine for plinking. Just wear shooting glasses

[Sampachi]

Pull the bullets and dump cases and powder. Sell or reload bullets.

[zartoon]

So I puled a bullet.
Everything inside is perfect. The case looked new inside. The powder is a small stick powder. Looks as fresh as the day they poured it in. And the bullets are copper, so not rusted, just tarnished.
I just need to figure out a way to clean the rust off of it.
I don't think tumble media will do it.
Any thoughts?

[zartoon]

CAguy,

Great read. Thank you for the link.

[TURNKEY13]

I brought some tarnished 556 back to life by tumbling in dry corn cob. Its usually finer then walnut shell, so does a better job polishing. Some say to add a little liquid polish into the media for even better results FWIW.

Ps my Franklin tumbler will hold 100 556 cases. I did 50ish rounds at a time to give them plenty of room to move around.

[NOTABIKER]

perfect AK ammo it will feel right at home.

[zartoon]

CAguy,

I'm with you on this.
I'm going to try and tumble it tonight, and get it ready to shoot. This is not ammo I'm planning on storing long term. Just need to get it to a point where I can shoot it.

Tumble it then hit it with a Mr. Clean magic erase marker.

I'd take this stuff out and shoot it vs. trying to store it much longer. In order to get it storage ready (long term) you'd have to use aggressive cleaning that I would be uncomfortable doing unless it was separate components.

Clean it up a bit and go shoot it up.

[louie]

[IMG][/IMG]
If there is no powder mixed w/ rust, and the rounds aren't corroded in the inside, shoot it. Rusty steel ammo can be a real pain when it comes apart. It isn't dangerous per say, but a royal pain in the butt to get out when it does come apart. Steel really bonds w/ steel when fired, and if it's stuck at times u will break case extractors trying to get it out. Just to be on the safe side, I would check a few more cases. The case pictured is from a slightly rusty German 8mm case. I always use Johnson's Paste Wax on the necks of steel ammo to give better extraction. German and Communist lacquered cases were waxed when new, and this isn't the same as using oil. If one gets stuck, this will make it a lot easier to remove.

[zartoon]

Good point.
I'll take a close look after I tumble them.

[Vlad 11]

Let us know how they turn out

If you reload, pull the bullets on the worst ones ( hopefully you have a collet puller which makes fast work of pulling )

New case, non-corrosive primer and reweigh consistent powder charge (assuming powder is good)

You'll have better cartridges than the original ones

[Bobby Ricigliano]

The Chinasports silver box x39 is desirable ammo. None for sale commercially for years now.