I use quite a bit of once-fired military brass, and usually have a small number of really dark or discolored cases. They aren't pitted and they look structurally sound, no corrosion. would you use them, or toss them?
Stained/discolored brass
- Thread starter NCHillbilly
- Start date
To me that case looks like it was exposed to the elements for awhile before being cleaned. It just needs some tumbling and is fine.
I do wet tumble, but I normally use just water, dawn, and lemi-shine. I found some brass cleaning concentrate made specifically for cartridge cases. I may try some. It reduces the amount of time needed to tumble.
One thing I forgot to mention in the op. The pictured case had been wet tumbled. It came out looking almost like it had been color case hardened. It was very smooth, but stained.
One thing I forgot to mention in the op. The pictured case had been wet tumbled. It came out looking almost like it had been color case hardened. It was very smooth, but stained.
How about some specifics:
What tumbler are you using?
How much Dawn?
How much Lemi-shine?
How full is the tumbler filled?
Water temperature?
Any media, like SS pins or other media???
How long tumbled?
Thumler's model B (I think, it's the 12lb capacity model).
Approx 1 tsp Dawn
approx 1/4 tsp lemi-shine
Tumbler is about half full
Water is as hot as will come out of the water heater
Approx 5lbs ss pins
The batch that the pictured case came from rolled for about 4 hrs.
Approx 1 tsp Dawn
approx 1/4 tsp lemi-shine
Tumbler is about half full
Water is as hot as will come out of the water heater
Approx 5lbs ss pins
The batch that the pictured case came from rolled for about 4 hrs.
My normal routine with mil-surp brass goes like this;
Tumble in crushed walnut to remove dirt, range grunge, etc.
Decap w/o sizing
Lube, f/l size, expand necks (with turning mandrel)
Wet tumble, dry
Trim, swage pr. crimps, uniform primer pockets
tumble in corn cob/flitz (optional, depending on my mood)
Well after all that work and they still look like that, wow.
Maybe set them aside for setup scrap and foulers?
I'm using the lizzard wallnut media.
It is small enough to pass through flash hole. It is fairly aggressive compared to others.
I deprime dirty add a little mineral spirits and nufinnish.
It partially cleans the primer pockets, not perfect but you can run them.
Maybe set them aside for setup scrap and foulers?
I'm using the lizzard wallnut media.
It is small enough to pass through flash hole. It is fairly aggressive compared to others.
I deprime dirty add a little mineral spirits and nufinnish.
It partially cleans the primer pockets, not perfect but you can run them.
Fortunately, it's only a few that still look like that after the wet tumble. Most come out looking brand new. Since there are so few like the pictured one, I may just use them for setting up the annealer, then toss them in the junk brass bucket, or test the new cleaning concentrate I found.
Sometimes you just have a few that won't clean up. I usually just scrap the popular cartridges like 223 or 9mm. But that one should load and shoot just fine.
That's very close to what I do, including the use of that hot of water, though I fill my tumbler (only slightly larger capacity than your 15lb'er) pretty full, like to about 4/5ths . With such hot water, it takes me less than 1 hr to really get range brass clean. Since you're only going half full, your concentration of Lemi Shine is quite a bit more than my solution, and I do have very soft water, so that small amount of Dawn goes a long ways. If you don't have soft water, the solution you're putting together seems to me to be a little light . . . even when only filling to half full.
The only thing I can think of that might be giving you results like this is that those particular cases have a little different alloy mix that's reacting to the Lemi Shine in hot water for such a long cycle period. The hot water tends to shorten the time one needs to tumble as it makes the chemical reaction more intense on the brass. You might try cooler water and/or a shorter tumbling time and see what you get???
There shouldn't be any good reason you can't use those discolored cases. I'd probably use them to identify a different load from another. Or as mentioned, just use them for setting up the annealer.
