Thread: Greek Brass Quality

Re the refund, I pulled bullets and took in the components I was refunded on the "faulty" rounds and kept the better stuff, as I wanted it for the reloadabilty. Some had corroded necks some had wet powder some had pitting on the case wall. I ended up pulling the lot. I have reloaded it with the original charge, any that was clumped or corroded around the bullet base was turned into fertiliser
I think its a bit of Caveat Empor, you are buying stuff that is 50 to 60 yrs old, But you are entitled under the consumers act.
I didnt make a song and dance about it and I dont think thats warranted, I have noticed that they now sell the projectiles from these rounds, so obviously getting down to the bottom of the barrel so to speak and the only salvageable part is the projo.

Originally Posted by No.3

Apparently the primers are not just corrosive after they go bang, the stuff the bang bit is made of apparently over time causes the brass to give up it's zinc - which seems to be the bit on the bottom when it's stored for 50-60 years. Brass minus zinc is not very good, break apart with your fingers type stuff. It's quite common in marine applications where brass that isn't 'marine grade' or more bronze than brass goes pink and weak.

Dezincifcation is a thing not only in marine applications, but whenever clorinated, or oxygen/CO2-rich liquid contacts brass. The zinc disappears and leaves the brittle copper behind. Marine grade metals are more typically bronze, which is a copper/tin alloy and not subject to the same chemical degradation. Brass fittings for potable water applications such as domestic plumbing will be stamped with DR (dezincification resistant).

It would be interesting to closely inspect the cases, inside and out, to determine if the dezincification initially occurred externally from water (or damp) contact, or if the powder charge somehow deteriorated and leached something that caused it internally. My mate took all the ruptured cases so I can't look myself...

There's a whole big bag here for free

I won't risk it in a 122 year valuable vibtage rolling block rifle without decent has control features

PM incoming

Originally Posted by Ingrid 51

PM incoming

will have a clean out and see what else is there
These greek seem pretty good
I do have others

And the 60 new old stock Norma I have is all I will need for the no5

Originally Posted by Taff

I don,t think it’s that simple, most shops give refunds if customers are not happy with the product, does not mean the product is faulty, just the customer is unhappy.
Beware what you are asking for with getting the arms office involved, If we rang the arms office every time we here a stupid remark from a customer the number of customers /firearms owners would drop dramatically.

Sorry I value my mates and their safety
This shit shouldn’t be sold. Have another look at the photos Ingrid posted

Dave Tipple on file as saying " God doesn't care how you make your money "

Originally Posted by omark

Sorry I value my mates and their safety
This shit shouldn’t be sold. Have another look at the photos Ingrid posted

Agreed if it dangerous it should not be sold, but the problem is , when we had non in stock, customers asked for it, one even travelled to Auckland to buy several hundred, only complaint we have had is about odd ones that don’t fire, we have no problem selling federal 303 which is now $99.99 for twenty but customers seem to have a problem, hopefully a delivery of privi will be here soon.

Originally Posted by Beavis

The primers in this ammunition are none corrosive

Missed the point there - the primer compounds themselves apparently react with zinc elements (zinc is one of the most reactive metals). Losing the zinc (and there isn't much to start with) means the 'gunmetal' brass the case is produced from is not ductile any longer, just fails. As it's losing zinc inside the case (reaction is apparently something that occurs with the powder being exposed to whatever is in the primer compound) the evidence is mostly internal. Most military ammo has a 25 year design life, or a certain number of cycles, travel hours or time out of the case whatever comes first. We were using some that was 1960's production, most went OK. There's a reason it's been turfed out and sold off, apart from the lack of places using a caliber. I saw some 7.62x54 that was rubbish, along with some weird 7.62x51 NATO (boxer primed but most was hangfire or dud and the cases were rather dodgy - not even worth recovering components).

Originally Posted by No.3

Missed the point there - the primer compounds themselves apparently react with zinc elements (zinc is one of the most reactive metals). Losing the zinc (and there isn't much to start with) means the 'gunmetal' brass the case is produced from is not ductile any longer, just fails. As it's losing zinc inside the case (reaction is apparently something that occurs with the powder being exposed to whatever is in the primer compound) the evidence is mostly internal. Most military ammo has a 25 year design life, or a certain number of cycles, travel hours or time out of the case whatever comes first. We were using some that was 1960's production, most went OK. There's a reason it's been turfed out and sold off, apart from the lack of places using a caliber. I saw some 7.62x54 that was rubbish, along with some weird 7.62x51 NATO (boxer primed but most was hangfire or dud and the cases were rather dodgy - not even worth recovering components).

its always worth recovering components. I see that GC are now selling the projectiles. They must be pulling them from the last of the corroded crap they have in stock

Greetings All,
There were two things in older primers that created problems. Chlorate was included in most military primers up to WW2 or a bit later. When fired these deposited a chloride in the bore. This needed to be removed with hot water to stop rust developing in the bore. Military units had a special funnel to do this. The cases were fine. The other was Mercury included in the Berdan primers in most .303 ammo. This attacked the zinc in the brass and rendered it brittle and likely to crack. Boxer primers in WW2 military .303 ammo does not contain Mercury but does contain chlorate.
Regards Grandpamac.