I bought some old .30-06 ammo at a gun show for cheap and didn't realize that they were the ones with the coirrosive primers. I am using an impact bullet puller to take them apart. My question is whether I can use the bullets? I expect yes, I can. Can I use the powder? I don't know? And what should I do with the primed cases? I don't wish to deprime live old, (crimped in?) primers. I have about 50 rounds of this stuff.

YOu can use the bullets. As to the powder it is anyones guess what it is. Toss it. As to primers wear eye and ear protection and simply deprime as normal.

i would venture a guess to say the powder is just fine. smell it and make sure it still have a bit of acetone odor, look at it and make sure it doesn't have any rust look. squirt a bit of wd-40 into the case neck aiming at the primer and that will kill the priming compounds. just make sure to tumble all the wd out before repriming

Why not shoot 'em up?? Are you shooting a bolt gun? After your shooting session, run a patch or two soaked with hot, soapy water thru the bore, dry it out and clean as you normally do.
If that is milsup ammo, you're gonna have probs pulling the bullets with an impact hammer as the bullets are sealed in the cases. You can try seating the bullets a bit further into the case before trying to pull them in order to break the seal.
WD-40 will not kill the primers. As soon as it drys, the primers will be good to go.
I''d sprinkle the powder on the lawn.

I'd just shoot it. Impact pullers are a royal Pain. Clean the rifle very well and you'll be fine.

If the primer was crimped, you'll have to swage it before you can reprime.

Wow, that certainly gives me some options. I am shying away from shooting them as my 06 is a remington 760 (old one in great condition) and I am not sure that I could clean it as well as I could a bolt gun with hot water and such. So I can deprime using WD 40 but just don't let it dry. I have in fact been able to use the bullet puller on one round but it was harder to do than taking apart one of my own reloads. I think that I will try deprime with proper safety equip and no loose/open powder around, etc. Haven't decided on the powder as it looks just like my new AA 4350. Some say dump it others say use use it. At least for this round, it smells and looks fine.

If you simply want to pull the bullets dump the powder replace the primer and go back with the same charge and bullet that is fine. I would not try and use it for something else. I seriously doubt surplus ammo is AA4350.

Some say oil the primer I've done it both ways. Now days I simply go slow and deprime like normal. (with eye and ear protection). Oil doesn't always kill a primer.

Agree that the powder should only be used with that bullet and case. As far as AA4350, I just meant that it looked the same in cut and size. After replacing the primers I think that I will give the powder and bullet a try in those cases. Thanks.

Just shoot it, run a some water through the barrel (to wash out the corrosive primer salts) than clean and oil as normal.

Sheesh, billions of rounds of the stuff were fired between 1900 and 1960 (on both sides in at least 3 major wars worth), and it didn't ruin any of those firearms.

Seems an obvious question, but no one has asked. Are these Berdan or Boxer primed cases? Corrosive military with crimped primers seem to be Berdan for the most part. Berdan primers have two flash holes, and you'll break your depriming tool because these cases are not designed for reloading.

Cleaning corrosive primers. Use dilute 1:10 household ammonia. Straight ammonia will remove/damage blue finish, but dilute is fairly safe. Ammonia neutralizes the salts in corrosive primers. Soap/water just rinses it off, which is not really adequate. Google articles on cleaning corrosive ammo. There are lots of references.

Powder out of 50 rds. By the time you figure out what it is, how it loads, you'll have no powder to work with. Sprinkle it on the lawn.

50 rds is hardly worth the effort involved in pulling bullets. I'd just take the stuff to the range and shoot it. Run a patch through the bore, and clean up the bolt face and receiver thoroughly upon your return from the range. Be sure to wipe down the muzzle crown. I missed that one on an old Mauser once.

Do you know what year those rounds were produced ?. Read this and just shoot them up as it's hardly

worth while pulling bullets . http://www.theammodump.net/Corrosive%20Ammo.htm

Soaking primers DOES NOT make them inert !. I thought I made that point very clearly MONTHS AGO with the

Article from my DoD munition's disposal Manual.

Here's an article I borrowed from Hammerslagger as he worked for Hercules as did I .


I am familiar with propellants in general, being a former employee of Hercules Inc.

Even with the most modern manufacturing methods, batches of propellants come out differently. Sometimes they are so out of spec that they are most economically dealt with by burning at the "burning grounds" rather than trying to make them into a marketable product.

Propellants that fall within a certain narrow and uniform set of parameters are designated as reloader grade (usually called "Canister Lot Grade") and sold to the general public through wholesale and retail distributors. Propellants that meet these C.L.G. specs may also be sold to military and industrial users when their is a surplus of it for the retail market. Propellants whose specs. do not fall within the narrow C.L.G. but are still marketable are sold exclusively to industrial and military users who have the knowledge and equipment to determine loading data for it.

This powder that is pictured is not likely a C.L.G. propellant. Does the seller supply loading data? How was this data obtained? By weighing the charge from a 7.62 X 51 cartridge? Some firms are being paid to disassemble surplus military ammo. Then they sell the components like bullets and powder. As commercial and military ammo plants often use non C.L.G. propellants, every lot number of a given caliber ammo could have a slightly different propellant.

What are the savings vs commercial 4895 type powders? What is your intended use(s) for it? What is your reloading experience level?

A new reloader who wants to load hot loads is less suited to this type product than a reloader with extensive knowledge of pressure test methods and years of experience and thousands of satisfactory reloads in dozens of calibers.

More than likely your cartridges use a CLG of 4895 type . Click on the link below and Read about Bruce Hodgdon

http://www.hodgdon.com/history.html

Ok, OK, I will shoot them and clean right after with windex, etc. Doc, thanks for the article, it made it much more clear. I agree, it is too much work to disasemble and reasemble. Thanks for everyone's imput.

I wisht I had known that soap and water wouldn't work to clean corrosive primer salts from a bore before I shot up several thousand rounds of the stuff. Especially since I still have the rifle and the bore is in top shape.

I didn't know about Windex tho.

In the FWIW dept: it seems to be a common practice in OZ to pull the bullets in milsup ammo and replace them with hunting bullets and go from there.

quote:

Originally posted by wasbeeman:
In the FWIW dept: it seems to be a common practice in OZ to pull the bullets in milsup ammo and replace them with hunting bullets and go from there.

Growing up there ain't no telling how many surplus '06 ball and ap were done that way between my pop and several uncles, they used Sierra 150gr spitzers for the ball, and 165gr BT's for the ap's, there are a LOT of deer that never new what they got hit with.

If you want to pull the bullets, you might want to seat them a little deeper first, most have a sealant that is very tough to pull down using an impact puller.

quote:

Originally posted by ramrod340:
If you simply want to pull the bullets dump the powder replace the primer and go back with the same charge and bullet that is fine. I would not try and use it for something else. I seriously doubt surplus ammo is AA4350.

I've done this and it's quite doable. Just weigh several charges as you dump out the powder to make sure you know what the charge is.

quote:

Originally posted by wasbeeman:
In the FWIW dept: it seems to be a common practice in OZ to pull the bullets in milsup ammo and replace them with hunting bullets and go from there.

Done that too.....it's all good!

quote:

Originally posted by wasbeeman:
I wisht I had known that soap and water wouldn't work to clean corrosive primer salts from a bore before I shot up several thousand rounds of the stuff. Especially since I still have the rifle and the bore is in top shape.

I didn't know about Windex tho.

I'm with you, Mr. Apiarist (Bee man).

The instructions for cleaning military rifle bores, issued by our own military for our own corrosive primer powered ammo, listed the following as the preferred solvents to use for removing deposited primer salts from the bore, in order of preference:

1. Hot soapy water
2. Hot water
3. Cold water and soda ash
4. Cold water

In corrosive primers, Potassium Chlorate was one of the major ingredients. It provided some positive (good) results, including longer storage life and more consistent functioning under almost any climatic conditions.

On the negative side, burning Pottasium Chlorate produces Potassium Chloride, which is spread all through the bore of a rifle by the high pressure gas of the burning propellant which the primer ignites.

Potassium Chloride is very, very, similar to Sodium Chloride (plain old table salt) in some of its properties, including the absorbtion of water. Together, the resulting thin "paste" of water and salt very actively promotes rusting of the iron in steel barrels.

Like table salt, potassium chloride is very easily dissolved in water (though it is NOT soluble in hardly any oils), and is thereby easily carried away in the water as the water is drained or wiped from the barrel. The soap helps the water get at the salt through the other gunk also deposited in the bore by burning propellants.

I personally would not use Windex in my barrels because the ammonia in Windex is also strongly attracted to water...and just as I don't add salt to the water when cleaning my gun bores, I don't like to add ammonia either unless I have to....just more stuff the water has to carry away as it drains off.