Russian Surplus Ammo

[Louie]

I have some russian ammo I bought in the early 90.s....at fed Ord, here in Calif. Its in a typical Russian military ammo crate, knda beat up. the ammo is in Spam cans, which I haven.t opened. It was all in russian, with a label in Spanish on the top of the box. Ammo box has a seventies date, I think. Would this be lead, of steel core ammo. I know it s corrosive for sure. Have two spam cans with 700 rds each in them. Thanx for info

[Jaeger]

I have about a half a can of that ammo left myself. Mine is also corrosive. (grey primers) I am fairly certain that it is a lead core with a copper washed steel jacket, much like the current production ammo.

[Devil Dog]

It is very possible that your Russian ammo is steel core, as some was imported and sold before the ban on steel core ammo. The only sure way to tell is to send me the headstamp information or section a round of this to determine the core material. Using a magnet to check for steel core will not work, as much of the ammunition has a steel jacket, regardless of the core material. A grey primer (or Black) is not always a sure test of corrosiveness either.
If you can, scan the image of the markings on your case or spam cans. I can probably make a good ID of the contents this way too. By the way, the country of Peru bought a ton of 7.62x39 ammo from the USSR, so this could explain the label in Spanish.

D.D.