Corroded Hirtenberger 7.62x51mm NATO surplus

Norwegian22

Norwegian22

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Hi all,

Wanted to share some photos of corroded ammo I bought in January but only just opened the crate today. I had other ammo to burn through before cracking open the crate ;). Saw no reason to open it until I needed to and the crate looked fine from the outside. The crate and battle packs were completely sealed and just opened today by me. I checked two of the 20 round cartons and both had corrosion on most of the 40 rounds.

Has anyone else experienced this problem?

I emailed TradeEx to hopefully get an exchange/refund. The only issue is they do not do returns on ammo and I bought it 6 months ago. However, the ammo was factory sealed and I stored it nice and dry. The corrosion had to have happened prior to my purchase. I have had great experiences with TradeEx in the past and this thread is NOT meant to slander them. Only to share, discuss and see where things go from here regarding return/exchange.

http://s350.photobucket.com/user/crazycanadian17/media/image_zpse7kdz49j.jpeg.html

http://s350.photobucket.com/user/crazycanadian17/media/image_4_zpsvnzkzuzk.jpeg.html

http://s350.photobucket.com/user/crazycanadian17/media/image_3_zpsw8bf3frb.jpeg.html

http://s350.photobucket.com/user/crazycanadian17/media/image_2_zpsbwhkxqav.jpeg.html

http://s350.photobucket.com/user/crazycanadian17/media/image_5_zpsj7wklyzr.jpeg.html
 
Not to be difficult this is surplus military ammunition & while I wouldn't expect this from sealed Hirtenberger battle packs, it was manufactured most likely in the mid to late 80's, how many times do you think this ammunition changed hands & how was it stored?? Food for thought....

gadget
 
Good point, although being sealed should have avoided any corrosion.

gadget said:
Not to be difficult this is surplus military ammunition & while I wouldn't expect this from sealed Hirtenberger battle packs, it was manufactured most likely in the mid to late 80's, how many times do you think this ammunition changed hands & how was it stored?? Food for thought....

gadget
Click to expand...
 
its surplus and as long as it goes bang i wouldn't be concerned. it looks more like a tarnish than full on corrosion... pretty much just esthetics
 
I spent an evening with a cloth, scotch pad and some light oil. No problem now. All fed well and I am now going to try crimping a batch to see if it tightens the groups.

I really like this ammo, and its fairly priced too.

Candocad.
 
wbaad said:
its surplus and as long as it goes bang i wouldn't be concerned. it looks more like a tarnish than full on corrosion... pretty much just esthetics
Click to expand...

That's what I wasn't sure about, I'll see if if scratches off easily enough. It's on quite a few rounds though, was curious if anyone else has seen this from the Hirtenberger that came in this past year or two.
 
The brass is very soft, and needed a lot of trimming to reload. Ejector marks also common on proper pressure reloads.The 1983 stuff is boxer primed
 
It's pointless here to get into another "never tumble ammo" slugfest.

It's cosmetic. Shoot it and then clean off the stains if shiny is important to you.
 
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Ammo should be fine. About 10-15yrs ago there was some Swedish Ammo 6.5x55 being sold that was tarnished like that. Sold in heavy nylon/plastic peel open 100rd battle packs. Much of it was tarnished like yours. Accurate and shot well, no issues. Some buyers had concerns after they opened the peel packs up that it was 'bad' (including me!:p). As our in-house guru states....cosmetic issue only .
 
Factory ammo is tumbled before its packaged, there's been a lot of tests done with ammo tumbled for hours and hours and powder never broke down, I tumble all my reloads after Iam done because I like my ammo to shine. Your rounds look fine to shoot, I wouldn't be concerned in the slightest.
 
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