Air Pellet Shelf Life

[Hon]

Hi I have heard some conflicting opinions on whether lead pellets have shelf life or not. Please see attached photo I took today on two different batches of RWS R10 pellets bought about the same time (2015). Both batches were purchased from a reputable dealer in Germany so I trust them to have good turn over and both batches were relatively fresh when I bought them.

As you can see, the 4 pellets on the left are from RWS R10 Match 500pc tin packing. The 4 on the right are RWS R10 Match plus 100pc plastic box packing.

Both batches were stored unopened until today in living home with air conditioning running most of the time. Those on the left were shiny to perfection when opened as expected from the premium line of RWS. The ones of the R10 plus were dull and with ugly uneven patches of greyish discolouration. Are these oxidation? I always thought lead oxides into whitish powdery stuff. I have yet to test the grouping of these pellets so I don't know how the ugly R10 plus will perform. Does anyone have these experience? Is R10 plus known to have a shorter shelf life if there is one? Or is R10 plus produced differently to the regular 500pc R10?

Thanks.

[crrmeyer]

My anecdotal observations is that German pellets in tins seem to have much less issues with oxidization than individual packs as shown. I suspect that the metal tins I have used are better sealed. The tins also have higher pellet density and thus have less oxygen per pellet than the individual packed pellets. So I suspect they still oxidize, but less so and/or at a slower rate.

[renzo]

My anecdotal observations is that German pellets in tins seem to have much less issues with oxidization than individual packs as shown. I suspect that the metal tins I have used are better sealed. The tins also have higher pellet density and thus have less oxygen per pellet than the individual packed pellets. So I suspect they still oxidize, but less so and/or at a slower rate.

Ditto

[DavZee]

The oxidation difference between the two may be because of the amount of tin
blended into the lead before casting. The loose pellets in the bulk packaging
may have more tin, making them slightly harder and more resistant to deforming.
The pellets in the separated package may be of pure lead, very soft, and the packaging keeps
them from getting bent. Tin would make lead castings shinier, pure lead is duller.

[Hon]

Thank you all for your input. That is interesting. Although I believe the packaging may have something to do with the rate of oxidation, I didn't expect it was so extreme in the case of the R10 Match Plus.

I am curious so I opened another tin of pellets from H&N the Finale Match which was purchased in 2009 and stored in the same place unopened. And this was the result:

As expected these pellets are a bit duller than the R10 in bulk packaging but not too bad. They have only slight discolouration on the head. In comparison, the discoloured patches on the ugly R10 Match Plus were rough to touch while those on the Finale Match are still smooth. Looks more like tarnish than oxidation.

I have also inspected some Qiang Yuan left over from 2009.

This batch was opened around 2011 and have been stored unsealed since then. The pellets are still shinny and with only very slight tarnish, even less noticeable than the sealed Finale Match.

All pellets I am showing in this thread were stored exactly in the same place the moment I acquired them. So they were subjected to the same condition during the storage.