Cleaning old-ish poorly stored Ammo

[Phydoux]

Came into a few thousand rounds of .22 LR . It was just put in a cardboard box and left on a shelf for 20-30 years. Looks to be from the 80s compared to the price tags on some of it. No rust, any that had any corrosion I threw out, the ones I kept are just kinda nasty. would like to clean it up to shoot without having to individually clean each round. I have a tumbler, but also not to sure about live ammo in a tumbler, red flags popping up in my head on that, but I’ve never needed to clean up Ammo before, any help appreciated!!

 

[The Southern Gentlemen]

Sub’d for info on this subject

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

I had 2 boxes of early 1980's .22LR that had thick corrosion on the bullets (but not the cases).
THey would not fit in a .22LR chamber without scrubbing them clean. Lot of work. I only cleaned a few.
I tested the rest of them, still corroded, in a .22 WMR gun, and the bullets fit fine. They fired, and the cases swelled a bit,
fire-forming themselves to the width of my chamber.

 

[Barbwire]

I have cleaned center fire cartridges in a tumbler with no probems but don't know about rimfire.

 

[palmettomoon]

Tumble in corncob media. Rub in a towel after sifting media out.

Don't believe the Fuddlore about powder breaking down. Total "old man wants to sound knowledgeable" B.S.

 

[imawoodsman]

Vibra-cleaner w/ corn cob or walnut shells media will do a GOOD job too.

 

[Deleted member 79987]

Came into a few thousand rounds of .22 LR . It was just put in a cardboard box and left on a shelf for 20-30 years. Looks to be from the 80s compared to the price tags on some of it. No rust, any that had any corrosion I threw out, the ones I kept are just kinda nasty. would like to clean it up to shoot without having to individually clean each round. I have a tumbler, but also not to sure about live ammo in a tumbler, red flags popping up in my head on that, but I’ve never needed to clean up Ammo before, any help appreciated!!

You could clean all of of that up, but is it really worth your time & effort, as long as .22 is readily available & cheap?

 

[EMC45]

Tumble in corncob media. Rub in a towel after sifting media out.

Don't believe the Fuddlore about powder breaking down. Total "old man wants to sound knowledgeable" B.S.

Fuddlore. A good one, and a new one for me.

 

[Dodge man]

I remember back when we had to clean every round in our rifle. That was punishment though, and floors with a toothbrush You’ll never look at a tooth brush the same way again hahaha.

 

[Phydoux]

You could clean all of of that up, but is it really worth your time & effort, as long as .22 is readily available & cheap?

True! And it’s definitely not something I’m going to start on today, but running a few through the tumbler now and again won’t hurt. And as we have seen, available and cheap....until they aren’t.
but when that time comes I could probably sell em in bad condition anyway and let someone else clean em.