Speer bullets ruined while in factory box
I bought a box of Speer 70 grain .224 bullets from a local shop. When I opened them I discovered a mess. What looked like ground rubber was sticking to the bullets and everywhere inside the yellow plastic box. Most of the bullets were corroded as well. I returned them and the clerk cut the sealing tape on several other boxes. All were ruined as well. A few had remnants of a foam like pad at the top of the box. It appears that the pad had disintegrated over time and ruined the bullets. I think that the boxes of bullets must have been very old. Have any of you experienced this? Thanks for any replies.
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Go back and buy all of them at a big discount. 15-30 minutes in a tumbler will take care of the "ruined" bullets. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by Mobuck
Go back and buy all of them at a big discount. 15-30 minutes in a tumbler will take care of the "ruined" bullets.
Yes!0 -
Speer went to yellow plastic boxes in the 90s if my memory is correct and as of late black plastic boxes and yes they used black plastic foam as required to fill space and cushion.
I have never heard of such a problem unless something leaked inside. Ammonia based cleaners to name one.
What I would do is contact Speer CS. My experiences with them have always been positive. They may send replacements at no cost.0 -
Ah ha.. I had some like that and tumbled them clean. 0 -
I had an old box different cal. with the foam, it did the same, disintegrated and covered the bullets, put them in a bowl with boiling hot water and dawn , after a while mixed them about , rinsed the off and put them in my s/s pin tumbler, after a short time they were like new.
I'd go back and offer 50% of the asking price and take them all.
The bullets might have had some "lube" or cleaning solution on them from the manufacturing process that was not cleaned off, that may have led to the foam problem.0 -
I'm sure when they left the factory along time ago they were fine. Sounds like they spent a long time in less than ideal storage conditions. +1 for the store should sell them at a good discount. Depending on the level of corrosion they should clean up without loss of functional accuracy. 0 -
The foam disintergrates over time. I had some boxed coins it happened to.
Like everyone says: Tumble and load, the bullets aren't hurt.0 -
The Speer 70 grain bullets were probably pretty old and as others have said it is probably the foam top that more or less deteriorated over the years. For a long time these were the heaviest bullets you could buy to shoot in a 5.56/.223. 0 -
The issue of putting live ammo in a tumbler has been discussed here before. The effects on any given powder cannot be predicted without testing under controlled conditions. I contacted tech reps at Hornady and Federal on the subject and both said it should never be done as it is possible to wear the deterrents off the powder resulting in a very hot load. Flatly stating that tumbling live ammo is harmless is simply not true, according to the manufacturers. 0 -
BTW, I suggested in previous posts that a buffing wheel could be useful in making ammo more presentable. Someone suggested that the ammo would explode from the heat produced. My opinion: anyone that careless probably should not even handle live ammo. 0 -
Reducing the brass cartridge wall thickness by buffing is even more dangerous than tumbling. 0
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