Corroded Ammunition

[Gerald]

The other night I decided to take apart some old 30-06 bullets (greater than 20 years old) that I had re-loaded myself. To my suprise I found several that had severe copper corrosion (bright green) that had occurred inside the brass and around the boat-tail.

The corrosion was severe enough that the gun powder was lumped inside and could not be removed. My intital suspicion is the old style case lube used with a pad that may have casued this corrosion. There was no corrosion on the outside at all, but have in the past noticed that if case lube was not wiped off completely, that some corrosion would occur on the outside of the brass, but this is the first I've seen it occur inside.

Has anyone else experienced this, or know what may be the cause?

[Subaru297]

If the rounds have gone through some temperature changes it could be condensation.

[Loki610]

I've seen the same thing with WW2 surplus .303 british ammo. But its a lot older and can almost be expected.