Cast Boolits Oxidizing?

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MaDgamEr

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Hello to the experts out there... I have a question I'm hoping some of the experts out there can help me with.

I've come across some cast boolits that seem to be showing signs of oxidization. Boolits were cast about 3 years ago or so, and stored in cardboard ammo boxes. The metallurgy used for the casting was 50% pure lead and 50% wheel weight lead as this recipe has sown to shoot best for the particular rifle. The boolits were then pan lubed, lube consisting of beeswax, Crisco, canola oil and base lanolin anhydrous. Seems odd that the lead is oxidizing with the lube applied, yet cast boolits from the same time frame that were left unlubed show no sign of oxidizing. Same goes for the ingots they were cast from, both the pure lead and wheel weight lead show next to no signs of oxidizing even tough they are stored in a non temperature or humidity controlled environment for years and years. Is this oxidization the result of the lead reacting to something in the lube?? There should be no moisture or salt in the lube mix, so kinds stuck on what it is exactly that is going on here. I'm attaching a pic for reference.

Anyways, thanks in advance if you can help shed some light on this for me guys.

Boolits.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hju7utr50b6jlyd/Boolits.jpg?dl=0
 
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I've noticed exactly the same thing with similar lube and am trying to remember to only lube what I plan to use in the near future.

Have other boolits lubed with alox and other smokeless lubes that have been fine for decades. Curious to know what ingredients react with lead. It's pretty inert stuff generally.
 
I'm interested in this as well. I cast some .30cal bullets a few years ago from WW and never got around to using them. They were water dropped but I guess with their age they have lost some hardness. Anyhow I too was wondering if they need to be melted down and cast again.
 
You must be getting exposure to moisture somehow.

Natural fats left exposed to air for 3 years must have oxidized by now (gone rancid), I wonder if one of the products of rancidification is hygroscopic and is pulling moisture out of the air?
 
weird...The only boolits I've ever seen with that much "growth" on them were .455 that were loaded up for the first war & stored in a tobacco tin in an old barn for 75 yrs. I even have a 50-70 carbine round that was loaded probably in the 1860-s-early70's that the boolit is just a bit grayer than a new bullet but has no oxidization at all.

I would try boiling those bullets before I re-cast them to remove the old lube and then re-lube. Everything might clean right off in a boiling pot.
 
Lead,like most metals,oxidizes as soon as it solidifies.In case of lead that process is a lot slower than lets say Iron but it still takes place.

I store boolits in the uninsulated ( chilly) basement and it takes about 2 years for them to show oxy.I only lube them before use.

Even when covered with oxy I shoot them.They fly just the same but I have to remember to wash my hands twice as often when I handle them.Oxydized lead is not good for you.
 
Had the same thing happen multiple times with bullets stored in cardboard containers. Store your bullets in sealed plastic bags and they will last much longer.

It seems to be related to using cardboard boxes for storage, I've had lubed and unlubed bullets oxydize like that in 1-2 years when they were stored in cardboard containers without a plastic bag.
Use a ziplog bag and try to get as much air out of the bag as possible before you seal it. Bullets will slowly darken with age but that doesn't hurt anything.
 
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I remember buying cast bullets from a company years ago that sold them in 2 litre pop bottles. They were many years old with basically zero oxidation when I finally used the last of them up..
 
I don't think that's oxidization of the lead alloy, but the lube has dried out and perhaps oxidized. Oxidized lead looks different in my experience.
 
The lube could be doing something, but I'm not sure what.

Some years back before I started casting I bought several thousand 30/1 cast bullets, unlubed. A couple years later I opened the last box and found the bullets were covered in a white dust. Bullets from the same batch that I had taken out of the boxes and tumble lubed with alox and then stored in ziplock bags were still fresh. I don't know what chemical reaction was happening - oxidization or something else - but the uncoated bullets stored in cardboard containers had deteriorated quite badly.

I found some commercial 9mm cast bullets in storage that I had originally purchased back in the mid-1980s. They were still in decent condition 30 years later, stored in a twist-tie sealed bag in the original cardboard box from the manufacturer.
 
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something else I've noticed is that the BP lubes tend to deteriorate faster than the wax/paraffin based smokeless lubes. The vegetable oil based BP lubes do tend to have a definite shelf life.
 
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