Black Powder In Unfired Brass Cartridge...does it cause corrosion?

[Southern Shooter]

I understand that firing black powder can eventually cause corrosion if the firearm is not cleaned. When brass cases are loaded with black powder does any corrosion occur to unfired brass over time? Say, I load up a box of cartridges with black powder, is there any concern with sitting them on the shelf for an extended period of time?

Thanks

 

[wogpotter]

Brass accessories will get a surface tarnish from unfired B/P but it stops as soon as the surface looks like hell.
I assume cartridge guts will behave similarly.

 

[mehavey]

Say, I load up a box of cartridges with black powder, is there any concern
with sitting them on the shelf for an extended period of time?

No. barring a dihydrogen monoxide environmental disaster, the rounds will be good semi-forever.

 

[44 Dave]

I have some bp. .41 shorts (derringer) rounds most likely from the 30s and they still shoot, the cases are worse looking on the outside from old age.

 

[4V50 Gary]

No. barring a dihydrogen monoxide environmental disaster, the rounds will be good semi-forever.

Dihydrogen monoxide involved environmental disaster? Perhaps that is why the Hopi say to build you house above 6,000 feet.

 

[bedbugbilly]

Shouldn't be a problem.

Just make sure that once you fire them, you de-prime and wash in hot soapy water then rinse as soon as you can after your range session. If it's going to be a while, then mix up a container of soapy water and toss them in until you get home.

As a side note - I load 38 spl. with BP. I like the looks of nickel plated casings and don't have a problem using them. For an experiment though, I loaded up 100 with BP and a 160 gr. lead slug form a Lyman/Ideal 358-311. I wanted to try it as if they worked out O.K., I would load my BP in nickel and my smokeless in brass.

I shot the nickel cased rounds - de-primed and washed well and rinsed well. Once dry, I primed them so they wee ready for loading. They sat about three months in a cartridge block on my bench and when I went to load them, I had perhaps 4 or 5 that during seating, the neck split so I had to toss 'em. These were 1X or 2X fired nickel casings.

I have used a lot of nickel casings for loading smokeless 38 spl. I've been able to load them many times with no problems. Yea . . . a lot of fellas don't like "em but I've never had much of an issue with them. Maybe it was just the batch of nickel casings I used for loading BP? But, I felt that I end up having too many that had to be discarded. So, now I'm back to using the brass for BP and I have yet to get a split neck - either during seating or firing. YMMV but that's the experience I've had.

 

[Bishop Creek]

I've had the same problem with nickel plated .38 cases splitting, so I too went back to brass.

 

[Fingers McGee]

I shoot 44-40 and 38 spcl in nickel cases. 44-40 starlines have never given me a problem splitting - brass not so good. My nickel 38s are mixed headstamp used cases that I have no idea how many times they've been reloaded. Occasionally one will split - maybe 1 in 100.

 

[wogpotter]

I don't think B/P is anything to do with splitting nickle-plated brass.

I use either Unique for low intensity, or H110 for magnum level .357 loads & plated cases have about 1/2 the life of plain ol' brass regardless of the propellant.

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

I load Black Powder cartridges all the time. I store them in plastic ammo boxes on shelves in my basement. As long as you store them in a cool, dry place, they will last a long time. No, they do not corrode the brass from the inside.

Nickel plated cases splitting are usually the result of a poor plating job.

 

[Mike Irwin]

The only way I could see it causing corrosion is if the hygroscopic properties of the nitrate in the powder were to draw moisture past the bullet (unlikely).

My chemistry is a little weak these days, but the moisture could possibly interact to a very limited degree with the elemental sulphur in the black powder to form acidic compounds that could cause corrosion...

 

[Pathfinder45]

OK, I will chime in.....

My expeience in this matter involves 45 Colt.... So, a few years ago I obtained some old 45 Colt ammo at the gun show. It was a mixed lot of really old stuff. It was all smokeless-powder, balloon-head cases, except for one. I fired most of it off, except for that one and a couple of others. The clue that one of them was a BP round is that it was the only one that didn't have a cannelure in the case where the base of the bullet would be. So, I dismantled a UMC , WRA-CO., smokless, and one WRA Co. black-powder rounds. Both brands of smokeless had hollow-base bullets and a small charge of powder that looked like it might have been Bullseye. The BP round had a 255 grain flat-based bullet over a compressed charge of 38 grains of black- powder. It was so tightly packed and compressed that the powder charge was a solid plug that could only be scraped out of the case wit a small screwdriver, and the base of the bullet was engraved by the pressure of the powder granules. The case was tarnished brown brass color, but clean and not corroded or pitted. The inside looked good, but not shiny. I chambered the empty case, and when I dropped the hammer it went bang!, with authority. I felt confident that the smokeless rounds were perhaps 80 to 100 years old, and there were several hangfires. I am certain the BP round was well over a century old and I am equally confident that it was functionally as good as the day it was made, muchmore so than the smokeless rounds it had been keeping company with for somany decades. I have absolutely no doubt, that well prepared, black-powder, ammunition, will outlast smokeless by a wide margin.