sksvlad
Well-Known Member
I forgot all my chemistry, so when I found a bag of VPT 30,32,33 and 34 Mosin-Nagant rounds, I decided to apply my own old age logic and remove it. Firstly, I pulled bullets using inertia puller. Secondly, I tossed a single worst verdigris covered cartridge into a 50ml test tube and filled it with 1M NaOH. My reasoning was that if verdigris was created by acid left in gun powder during drying process, then a NaOH base was a good counteractor for acid. Thirdly, I bounced that round in NaOH pretty hard, most verdigris dissolved but nor all. Disappointed, I put all dozen or so bullets inside the tube, filled it with fresh NaOH and shook it, To my surprise, almost all verdigris dissolved and was gone (see below). So, was that the fact that the cartridge was alone and did not rub against another which lead to verdigris staying on the cartridge? Or something else?
