Ammo with some corrosion

[Drec]

I was looking at some ammo that I got with one of my guns; which is Silver Bear 9mm Makarov. I noticed there is a slight amount of corrosion on the cases, is this a problem? Should I just shoot it and not worry about the cases?

[Curly1]

If you can clean it off is there any pitting under the corrosion?

[Drec]

They look like they were sandblasted. I don't see any deep pitting, just the sandblast look after taking some steel wool over a couple of them in the picture. In fact, after cleaning another picture they would look the same.

[Ketchman]

were they loose in a container or in the original cardboard packing? And has the packing been wet? Looks like a bit ofa bit of electrocorrosion from metals touching one another.

[Drec]

They were in the original Silver Bear packaging. Don't know if they got wet, they came with a CZ82 I bought.

[Ketchman]

It looks as if the corrosion was not too advanced. I would just clean them off with emery cloth and shoot em. Of they go bang then all is well. If they do not treat them like a hangfire and move on.

[Curly1]

^^^ +1

[Ketchman]

Drec I was just looking at the picture of those 3 rounds again. I would NOT shoot the round in the top right corner of the picture. From what I can see it looks as if the bullet has been pushed back into the case some, probably from being cycled from the magazine into the chamber too many times. Having the bullet pushed into the case could cause chamber pressures to be much higher during ignition which could cause serious problems, one of which could be destruction of your pistol. Place your rounds on a table resting on the bases and compare them and you will immedialty know which rounds have bullet setback. If it is deep enough it can be dangerous.
Just looking out for a brother.

[Drec]

................... From what I can see it looks as if the bullet has been pushed back into the case some,

Thanks for the heads up, but I think that is just an illusion. I measured the three rounds and the OAL measured 0.936", 0.941" and 0.942".

[Ketchman]

SAMI specs overall length for the 9x18 Makarov are .964 minimum OAL and .984 maximum OAL. I think I would remove the one you measured at .936 from your "to shoot" pile as that one seems juuuuust a bit short. Again I am just looking out for a Brother.

[Drec]

I'm going to check the rest of the box of ammo, in next few days. I have some other factory ammo, that I'll look at as well. I wonder how well the Russions follow the rules?

[Ketchman]

The round was designed by the Russian's and as such I would believe SAAMI would use their specs as a basis for their rules.