Do bullets deteriorate over time?

[65Whelen]

[EastTNHunter]

[Lemonaid]

I have seen factory rounds get pretty oxidized. They were likely more than 50 years old and it was mostly on the exposed lead tip. Some Winchester Silver tip from the same era still looked pretty good. I traded them (300 savage) for some 6mm bullets that were only 20 years old.

[grayfox]

It might depend on how the inner lead was formed/fabricated into the copper case. If poured or pounded I doubt that powdering would occur, and anyway their use of the term "annealing" makes me wonder, b/c annealing is a temperature heat that allows metallic grain discontinuities to relieve short of melting - doesn't cause "powdering". I could see some oxidation of either the surface jacket, or exposed lead parts (the tip and maybe base if the base is exposed lead), only other effect would be if something in the environment, water or some corrosive agent comes in contact.
My 2 cents.

[Klem]

I know several Service Rifle discipline shooters who regularly come across WWII .303 ammunition and it still works. Larger group sizes than they can hand load but that's nothing unusual for any age of ammunition.

I see old cartridges where corrosion is taking hold all over the bullet and it is hit and miss whether the primer is still OK. I imagine chemical changes are occurring in the powder and read single-based powders store better than double-based.

As for bullets, I don't know but I imagine any uneven tarnishing of the cup is going to affect its flight. I have seen the same powdering of lead tips that Lemon has - a sort of white powder on the tip. That can't be good, but whether it is significant enough to worry is another thing.

[tdbru]

65Whelen,
that is one person's opinion, with, perhaps, very little scientific testing. perhaps if they had the tools to measure hardness of both core and jacket, and did enough measuring and analysis to come up with a statistically valid value of hardness numbers, and if it showed a difference, then I'd perhaps heed the statement. otherwise, it's just an opinion that doesn't seem to hold water to me since "annealing" is a process usually involving pretty elevated temperatures and times. might jacket hardness and/or core hardness change over time? i don't know. would have to ask someone who is more trained on those issues than me. As Klem stated, various stages of cartridge corrosion will have various affects on accuracy for sure, and perhaps may not even be safe to fire the ammo if the corrosion is severe. But even then i have my doubts about the hardness of the metals changing just due to age. But a more educated person than i on metal material science would likely be able to shed some factual light on the issue. If i recall those diamond tip penetration testers for measuring hardness of various materials is quite an expensive piece of gear. and quite specialized. A manufacturer of heat treated metal objects ( industrial knife blades, crankshafts, gas turbine blades, etc.) would likely have a tool like that as it's likely part of the manufacturing and quality control process. using a piece of gear like that, correctly, on an old lot of bullets vs newly manufactured ones might lend some insight, as long as good statistical control was maintained so that the probability of the measurements being just random variation and within measurement tolerances was kept low. other than a study like that, i would take web statements like you mentioned from self proclaimed "experts" who are neither scientists or engineers or have any kind of technical training with a grain of salt.
regards,
-tdbru

[tommag]

I don't know about accuracy or penetration degradation, but any exposed lead that has oxidized to the point of turning white should be handled a little more carefully. Lead oxide is very absorbable, so don't lick it clean.

[EigerWand]

I wonder what these special plastic tips are going to look like in 20 years time ?

Thanks for the tip about white lead.

[Laman]

I've got some 25 year old Nosler ballistic tips, they look fine and are still accurate.

[kmon]

I have my doubts, I have wiped the white oxidized portion off of lead bullets with paper towel and killed hogs with them. No idea how old those loads for the 6.5X54 MS were but suspect 50+ years old.

Did not recover the bullets but nice exit hole so I doubt they fragmented and crumbled even after going through leg bone. So I have my doubts. Civil war lead bullets that looked bad were still soft on the inside, wish I had a few still and would oen open for a pic.

[lazyengineer]

Thanks for the post - intersting to read. In terms of my own usage, I have shot pretty much everything, and haven't really noticed much to care about. This sounds more relevant to terminal performance, than ballistic. And for me, well, I'm not going to Camp Perry with 50 year old surplus ammo, and I'm not hunting with same. For those usages, I tend to run purpose made stuff with quality components. For much of my other shooting, I tend not to care about terminal performance. In general, I've found old ammo to shoot about as servicable as new-production ammo.

I will say, even if true, I doubt there will be many shots that would have succeeded had the ammo been fresher, but failed due to the aging of the lead. Maybe. Just conjecture as I'm talking a little outside my expertise to be sure.