Thread: Corroded brass

Hornady brass only fired once so virtually new. left these in the magazine for a few days to see if it would soften the spring and they come out like this.

Originally Posted by YosemiteSam

Hornady brass only fired once so virtually new. left these in the magazine for a few days to see if it would soften the spring and they come out like this.

Does the inside of your mag have discolouration?. Wondering if the source is in the brass, or something in the mag. If it were me I'd tumble the cases out of interest to see whether it was just superficial, but I'd take care to keep them segregated from others.

Originally Posted by YosemiteSam

Hornady brass only fired once so virtually new. left these in the magazine for a few days to see if it would soften the spring and they come out like this.

Maybe electrolysis between brass and magazine steel?

Originally Posted by YosemiteSam

Hornady brass only fired once so virtually new. left these in the magazine for a few days to see if it would soften the spring and they come out like this.

Hi @YosemiteSam

Re the corrosion, dunno - what did you have on your fingers? It looks like some ancient ammo I accidentally spilled copper remover over. Try putting unfired brass in and leave a few days.

Leaving a spring in its compressed state is no different from leaving it in its released state - no problem either way. That's why you can leave your bolt action with the firing pin cocked and no problem - probably less of an issue than might be caused by repeatedly dry firing it every time you close the bolt and put it into your safe.

Working (alternately compressing and releasing) the spring a LOT helps, a bit. Compressing the spring to around/past its elastic limit will definitely weaken it. Or just put one or two less into it if you can do with one or two less magazine capacity. Maximum capacity of a magazine is not necessarily optimum capacity.