Recently dug out some .223 rounds I loaded about 9 years ago and they show some tarnish/corrosion from me handling them during the final stages of loading and boxing them up.
It’s pretty clear that my skin oils are to blame.

Should I expect this to be an issue some day? Should I move these rounds to the front of the rotation?

If it’s simply cosmetic, I can live with that. But if it’s something that will gradually degrade the quality and safety of the ammo, I’d like to know what y’all think. I’ve shot old surplus.30-06 that looked way worse, FWIW, but I guess it’s different when I’m the one who put in all the work and effort.

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Just tumble them for a bit and that should go away.

Damn.

Kicking myself for eating like a campground raccoon all those years in my mid-late 20s.

I had the same issue with some 9mm cases.  I had sized and primed them maybe 6 or 7 years ago.  They tarnished quite a bit while sitting.  I recently loaded them up and have been shooting them.  They shoot just fine.  

The tarnish bothers my OCD, but at this point I'm not worried about it affecting the ammo.  I shoot range pickup .223 brass and have loaded and shot some cases that were likely sitting outside in the weather for a couple decades or more.  If it bothers you, tumble it in some corn cob for 15-20 minutes.  

I started wearing gloves for any steps after the last tumbling of my brass.  I'm sure if I just tumbled my loaded rounds before putting them away that it would work just as well.

Thats the main reason I always wear nitrile gloves when loading anything I intend to put back for storage.

Try some nufinish car wax (cap full) in your polisher.  I've only done it with crushed walnut shell media but it leaves the brass much shinier/brighter than without the wax and leaves a bit of surface protection on the brass as well.

Hey Dan,
    I sweat like a horse so put salt/oil on everything I touch. It is so extremely bad, I dare not handle a blued gun with my bare hands without cleaning it afterwards. Decades back, I cleaned a WW2 TSMG 50rd. drum and put it away. When I pulled it out a year or so later, my thumb print had rusted right on the face of the drum thru the gun oil. Barricade by Birchwood-Casey with its "finger-print protection" works great on guns/parts/etc. even with my salty touch. As previously mentioned, gloves are a good solution for our problem. Nitrile gloves work fine but do not breath. The thin Gorilla grip gloves have a rubberized palm but are breathable on the other side so work perfectly when reloading/handling polished brass. I used a cap full of the Nu-Finish car wax back when I was still using corn cob tumbling media and it worked great just as mentioned. Not sure it will work with SS pin wet tumbling though but will try it next time. I don't see how it could hurt and it may leave just enough protection on the brass to help with this problem. Good luck & HTH!

double!

I'm also pretty bad at rusting/corroding stuff.

So far, TAC, ARCOMP, LilGun, and m118lr (RE-16?) don't care about being tumbled.

I have some Big Game that I tumbled, but didn't get to shoot yet.

I started tumbling all my finished rounds. Especially the bulk. 150 5.56 is about what fits in my tumbler, and it takes about 45 minutes to charge and seat 150. Perfect for a tumbler rotation. I use NuFinish in corn cob. Walnut cleans better but I don't like the rough/dull finish left on the cases.

Run some test rounds and see what happens.

Usually when I go to bag up the rounds out of the tumbler, I rub some media between my fingers to get some polish on them for the couple rounds that I drop or otherwise have to touch. When reloading a lot, I'm also washing my hands every time I get up from the bench to do something else, so I don't get those nastys on my drinking cup, cigarettes, door knobs, fridge, etc. Wash my hands before I piss too... Definitely don't want that junk on my junk. Drys my hands out a lot, but keeps the oils down

All factory ammo is tumbled before boxing.  I am just pointing that out.

Doesn't look that bad. But looks like the neck has a split in it.

Whenever I am done loading up a batch and am about to pack all the loaded rounds up, I wash my hands really good before handling. Be sure they are totally dry.

Good catch on the neck split.

I always wear gloves when handling my rounds after tumbling.

Also looks like you have a split neck and the bullet is not seated deep enough. I would seat to the middle of the crimp groove for 223 regardless of what the book tells you to do.

For instance, for 55gr Hornady fmjbt I seat them to 2.190" rather than the 2.200" the book calls for because that puts me at the middle of the crimp groove.

If you don't seat it deep enough the brass is not able to actually dig into the crimp groove and thus doesn't serve its purpose.

Regardless, they are fine to shoot like that, but you need to trash the split neck brass.

Thank you all. I’ll give the gloves a try from here on out and see if tumbling helps also.

And yeah, the spilt neck round is already pulled down. Good eye, fellas.

As far as the seating depth is concerned, I don’t crimp them anyway and this recipe is quite accurate through my ARs. All feed and function fine through my rifles and mags.

I had something like this happen recently to rounds in storage.  It wasn't finger prints but it was unexpected and disturbing.  The cases corroded everywhere they touched the black plastic cartridge holder inside the 100 round MTM box.