This page is to document the bad .50 cal BMG HSM ammunition I got from someone on Biggerhammer.   HSM refused to do anything about it, although the seller did make good on it.

Here are pics of one of the HSM rounds.  These are all pics of the same round.  I didn't pick out an especially bad one; I just grabbed one.  This is definitely not the worst; probably average or maybe a bit better than average.

I have about 15 boxes of HSM ammo, all like this.  The boxes themselves all appear to be in excellent condition, so it isn't like this stuff got left out in the rain for years, or stored in a damp basement, or something like that.   It isn't very feasible that someone took the rounds out of the boxes, stored them in bad conditions for years, then put them back into the boxes.  The person I bought these from said they have been in New Mexico, so I can't imagine that they've been kept in a humid environment.

I pulled the bullets from 6 rounds from one box.  The powder charges in each were pretty consistent, but there was a lot of corrosion inside the cases and on the base of the bullets.  The taper of the base is quite tarnished.  The part of the bullets that protrudes from the case is not corroded or particularly tarnished.

  As you can see, the boxes are in perfect shape; no moisture damage.

  These are the 6 rounds I pulled.  There was a lot of corrosion inside the walls and on the base of each bullet, so I'm still concerned about these being pretty marginal rounds, even if I clean up the outside with a fine Scotchbrite wheel, as I did with the round on the LT.

 Here is a pic showing all the corrosion inside the case: