The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

So this past week I met a feller on craigslist who was selling a nice 70's Abu Garcia reel, well I decided to meet the guy at his house since no flags were tripped and I was bringing a 6'3' plus one. Well it turns out that I'm really glad I met him at his place because he was a friendly gent who was getting near retirement and wanted to make some room in the garage and narrow down his collections. So to the point of this post, he had an old can of LC 53 black tipped 30 06 on enblocs. The only problem is that he had bought them from a guy at a garage sale who had stored them out in the barn. All told there is 480 rounds and 60 enblocs, the only question is do you think there is anything salvageable besides the AP bullets? Is there an easy way to polish the tarnish off the bullets, rust off the enblocs and is the brass still safe for reloading?
Thanks in advance for the advice guys.

Clean the rust off the clips and they are good, as for the ammo, pull the bullets and reload them into clean brass.

Junk Yard Dog wrote:Clean the rust off the clips and they are good, as for the ammo, pull the bullets and reload them into clean brass.

+1

I have a pal with some 303 with the same issue. It didn't seem wise to mess with them outside of saving the bullets. I understand wanting to use them but the risk seemed too high.

I would probably just keep them as an interesting conversation piece/collector item. Some day your great grandchildren can make up stories about how that particular case of ammo was fished out of Pearl Harbor or some such. Or has already been said, pull the bullets and reload if your feeling the need.

I would pull the bullets, black tip were going for a dollar each last gun show. If you have a brass tumbler just put them in there. If you have a problem with them settling to the bottom try adding some brass to the mix. The clips, soak in diesel oil or PB blaster for a few days then break out the wire brush.

I would hit a few with some 4-0 steel wool and see what they looked like. If they were sound, I wouldn't be afraid to try to shoot one. About the worst thing to happen would be a squib.

I know this sounds crazy, but get a big bottle of Texas Pete, use a baking dish or something and roll the rounds around in the sauce a couple minutes and wipe them off. Then examine the cases for pitting. You non believers try this with a nasty dark penny.

Did it work? I thought I had used TP on brass also.

Junk Yard Dog wrote:Clean the rust off the clips and they are good, as for the ammo, pull the bullets and reload them into clean brass.

+2

Nice Ambassadeur reel, too! 5500?

Thank you all for the advice. Sorry about the delay, I've been a bit busy lately between directing a fundraiser for my high school band teacher who is out battling brain cancer and working extra shifts in order to pay for a few new acquisitions(check out the other forums)... I think I'll go with a combination, continue to hand polish the better looking ones and pull the bullets from the downright nasty.
Steel... what exactly are you North Carolina boys growing down there??? I bought a big bottle of Texas Pete (why's it called Texas Pete if its made in North Carolina?) and tried it on a few rounds and sure as heck it cleaned up that brass no problem. Which makes me ask, who went and got the bright idea to start eating perfectly good brass polish? Thank you and close but no cigar Entropy, it's actually a 6000. It's nice to run across someone else who even knows what an Abu is. I think you'll get a kick out of the collection once I get them all cleaned and presentable

So it is. Here's my 6000; It is at least 50 years old, my Dad bought it when my Uncle John taught him how to muskie fish on Bone Lake, WI., ca. 1964 or 5.


Here's the whole Muskie rod, complete with big a$$ Daredevle, I've caught 3 muskies in that Daredevle, and many follows, as well as a boatload of Northerns, and the odd bass.

Did you say Lake Wobegon?

What is Texas Pete? Is that hot sauce?

SA1911a1 wrote:Did you say Lake Wobegon?

What is Texas Pete? Is that hot sauce?

Yes it is hotsauce. I think plain vinegar would have worked as well.

I would inspect that brass REEEEEAAAL good! I was just reading on another site about a guy who's grandson was shooting some 223 in old brass with old surplus powder that apparently had at least partially decomposed. The neck of the first round separated and stuck in the chamber. The next few rounds the bolt wouldn't lock up. Finally a 4th or 5th round locked up but was spongy, and it and a couple more suffered neck separation. He pulled a few down and tried annealing them and couldn't soften the brass at all. And this stuff was only 20 years old.

Be very careful with old ammo that hasn't been protected from humidity, make sure to check it out well before trying to fire it. Good luck.

I had the same thing happen to me with some Argentine practice ammo I had bought. Didn't look as bad as yours but it was close. Only about 10% went bang, so I started pulling bullets. I was able to salvage about 50 very nice 185 gr bullets and all of the powder. I wish I could buy spitzers like that but, alas, their impossible to find. The primers were what caused the non ignition. They were shot. But, the powder was good as the day they loaded it in the case. I used the bullets and powder in new cases and shot it last week. I used about 3 grains more powder than they did and the stuff shot awesome. I'd recommend salvaging anything you can. The cases are shot but most of the bullets should still be good. Don't know how the powder will fare but mine was fine.