Actually, the first item isn't that small, if your weapon has acres of "cheese grater", like my DPMS SASS. Magpul finally sent out the foliage and OD green XTM two-piece rail covers. With the tan ones, I was able to come up with a decent color scheme approximating the Army ACU colors;
The rifle is one long piece of black, so I'm doing my part to tone down my EBG.
The newer panels have a slight engineering change applies, with rounded corners and a taper added to the central tab to make connections easier. After fiddling with the first couple of panels, the rest went on (and off, if I didn't like the combination) easily.
Then, while looking for something I've now totally forgotten about, I came up with this oddity I picked up (cheaply) at a gun show ages ago. This is Canadian 7.62mm NATO (DA 63) ammo packed in a "scuba weight" bandoleer.
It's made of rubberized fabric with plastic pockets heat-sealed to it. Inside each pocket are 10 rounds of ammo. I'm not sure what the total belt held as far as ammo goes, because it was "demilled" by cutting off the straps.
When I bought it, over 20 years ago, the two center pockets were still sealed, with the rounds still inside. The other pockets had been opened as part of the demonstration process. I think I paid $5 for the thing, including the loose rounds.
So I decided to open the last two pockets and report on what I found. First, they were a bear to open, even with the large pull tabs. Second, a green tarnish had started, probably from outgassing of the rubber or plastic.
Waxed paper lined the pockets, but the green gunk appeared on parts of the brass that didn't touch anything, which makes me think this was a reaction to gas. Here's the 20 rounds taken out of their cocoons for the first time.
I cleaned one of the rounds. Half the green stuff wiped right off with a rag, where it was the lightest. I used a little bit of Flitz (an extremely mild abrasive polish), the the round cleaned up acceptably. The round one the left is the one I cleaned.
I think I should have left the "weight belt" submerged in water for a few hours as a test, since I was going to open the last two pockets anyway, but it never occurred to me until I started writing tonight's edition.