I have some very old Savage 22 HP cartidges and on several of them there is some type of corrosion or oxidation around the primers. I have seen this before on other old cartridges, they also had this stuff at the mouth bullet junction. So, what is this stuff and what causes it? I don't plan on shooting these cartidges, probably just clean them up a bit and set aside, but if I did want to pull the bullets, reprime, and load could I or has the corrosion weakened the brass?

Thanks,

RJS

You don't describe what the corrosion looks like, but I assume it's a kind of blue-greenish creeping crud.

I wouldn't be afraid to shoot the ammunition, just wipe it off as best possible. I wouldn't, however, recommend tumbling to clean it.

I wouldn't tumble them, the old powder might break into smaller particles, thereby increasing the burning rate and the pressure.

What you're seeing is copper oxide which is green and the condition is normal in old, and even new brass, exposed to humidity. It's the equivalent of rust on steel. You can wipe it off with KrazyKloth or similar. Brass does tend to harden with age. If you pull the bullets I'd go ahead and deprime, tumble and consider annealing the cases. Then use them as normal. I've used many an old case in this fashion and had no trouble. Without annealing you can expect split necks pretty rapidly.