Krag Collectors Association Forum

My son just purchased a CMP Special Garand and I figured we'd get it sighted in using ball ammo before we switch to match ammo. I dug into my stash of Greek HXP M2 Ball ammo yesterday and found several rounds that have this stuff on them (some sort of corrosion?). It appears to be from the fabric belts that must have contained them at one point in time. My question is whether this would be safe to shoot as is, or should I remove the stuff first. I'm fairly certain that the brass is not compromised. I could scrub it off with scotch-bright but that would also scratch up the brass. I've fired hundreds of these in the past with no issues, although they didn't have near as much of this crud on them... but you could definitely still see that they were held in the belts.

Any thoughts?

Paul - I'd pull the bullets and scrap the brass.

Looks like cracking in the neck area on two of them. Bad juju. BR has it right. Pull the bullets and on any others like the ones in the pictures and don't look back.

Better to destroy bad ammo than take a chance on destroying yer face or gun.

Amen to the above. Your eyes are not replaceable. You might take a look at the powder. Weigh a couple of loads just to see what the charge was. Then look at the inside of the cases. If any powder adhered to the inside of the case, use it all for fertilizer. Shiny case interiors mean the powder is OK for slightly less than issue power target loads. Squirt some oil down the case mouths to kill the primers. Do cases with primers have any scrap brass value?

Brass is bringing $1.45 per pound at the scrap yard. Maybe a good idea to fire off the primers after pulling the bullets and powder before bringing them in to the scrappers.

Oil may or may not "kill" primers. BTDT.

Paul, Out of curiosity, does this clean off with denatured alcohol using scrubby pads? Might be worth seeing if it cleans up and then inspecting the rounds better. Some people even tumble live rounds in walnut shells or corn cob media. hate to see potentially good ammo wasted but safety first, as you well know.

Whig wrote: ↑Mon Oct 10, 2022 10:39 am Paul, Out of curiosity, does this clean off with denatured alcohol using scrubby pads? Might be worth seeing if it cleans up and then inspecting the rounds better. Some people even tumble live rounds in walnut shells or corn cob media. hate to see potentially good ammo wasted but safety first, as you well know.

Hi Whig,
Yes, I have removed some using scotch-bright and they seemed to clean up ok (the ones I tried). I inspected the rounds pretty carefully, and any that look compromised will definitely go the scrap route! I'll give the denatured alcohol a try too!

I'd steel wool clean a few, fire them, then reinspect. Then they can become the first ones you use up.