I don't know so I will ask, how do you properly store pure lead bullets so as to minimize oxidation?

In an environment with as little air as possible. However, I think that the alloy affects the oxidization rate as well. I've seen bullets of the same age, stored the same way but of different make and different degrees of oxidization. In my experience, 30 years has not resulted in oxidization of lubricated and sized bullets.

Actually, rather than storing them you should be shooting them.

Anything airtight works fine. I came into plastic bottle of odd sized RBs maybe 15 years. Lord knows how long they had been in that bottle before I got them. Anyway, they were bright and shiny when I dumped them into the melting pot yesterday.

I use ziplock freezer bags and then store those in an old coffee can with a snap-on lid. A mostly full back will split after a few years, but other than that, I have had no problems.

A few years ago a friend of mine gave me some ingots that were stored in a wooden nail keg. Straw was mixed with the ingots. I know whese were old but there was no corrosion. Anybody else heard of using straw to keep down corrosion?

Either when water quenching, or afterwards, put some dish soap in the water, drain, and let dry. The layer of soap will prevent oxidation.

Waksupi that sounds like a great tip! I've never really been concerned about oxidation but it would be nice to keep them shiny if not too much extra effort.

I tumble lube my bullets with Lee liquid alox and then store them in quart size ziplock bags.

Oak, and presumably other woods, promote oxidation of lead bullets. Oak shavings with bullets in a ziplock bag produce instant antiques.
Cheers from Grayest Kalifornian Kansantasavalta,
Ross

The problem of storing bullets cast of lead/tin alloy is more complex than just preventing oxidation!

With no antimony in the mix for stabilization lead/tin alloys are unstable at normal "room" temperatures: The bullets will actually deform quite a bit over time. Enough that you really wouldn't want to shoot them in a match.

The reasons for this are interesting enough. If anyone wants to know more, I'll do my best.

If I intended to shoot striaght lead/tin again I'd just plan on casting the bullets shortly before loading/shooting them. Minimum storage is the answer here. Either that or add some antimony!

Good evening,
Forrest

If you REALLY want to store cast bullets over a long period of time with no oxidation, guaranteed, store them in oil. A large coffee can and a quart of motor oil and they'll look like they did when they went in 100 years later.

Puncher

I was stationed the Air Force Academy in the early 70's and was fortunate enough to have access to the indoor ranges, even to the point of lead recovery in the sand pits. Most of that was issue .38 ball ammo, fillings being very soft, probably close to pure lead. I still have some boolits (Ly 358311 and Lee 145 WCs) that I cast thirty years ago, stored in the original cardboard .38 ammo boxes stored in a GI ammo can. They look just fine, maybe a little dull, but no corrosion or oxidation problems. sundog

As an aside, I once had a very nice wooden (softwood plywood) cabinet full of shallow drawers that I was using for my cartridge collection. I refinished it with polyurethane and that was the end of my peace of mind. All bullets with exposed lead immediately began to suffer from major corrosion. Even a coat of lacquer on the bullets wouldn't help. I then tested the wood, stain, and poly with lead samples in closed containers and it turned out that the poly was the culpret. Oak and walnut contain tannic acid and will ruin bullets in short order as well.

Rezload, I had the same problem with my newly constructed, newly varnished (Marine varnish) reloading bench, every single soft tip bullet went white overnight. It stopped after 2 or 3 months. It's the varnish.

I'm with Sundog. I just dump the raw castings into a GI ammo can and close the lid. I suppose you could add one of those dessicant packages if you wanted but the rubber seal on the cans keeps the lead isolated. I haven't had any problem with oxidation using these cans.

Paul