Verdegris (sp?) on brass

[Mike504]

Guys,

Last year before I deployed to Afghanistan a friend gave me a bunch of once fired 5.56 and .223 brass. I stowed them in the shed, as it was only a couple weeks before I got on the plane and I had a lot of other things on my plate. When I came back last week, I took a look at the brass and a lot of it has verdegris on it. Now, I will be the first to admit that I don't know much about reloading. I haven't reloaded in quite a while, and I don't have any reloading books handy. I'm not sure if this stuff will just get cleaned up by a tumbler and I can move on with reloading it when I get the time, or is it something that I ought to toss this brass over.

Mike

 

[MitchAlsup]

Re: Verdegris (sp?) on brass

The only way to recognize if the brass is OK or not, it to clean it up. For this task I would dump them in my tumbler and schedule about 24 hours on them.

Then after they are shiny, inside and out, you can inspect them. Walls that are straight and smooth will be safe to shoot. But be sure to check for wall thickness down at the web before expending a lot of effort on the case.

A little bit of unsmoothness is acceptable, so why not shiine up a batch, take a picture, and let us advise you?

 

[Victor N TN]

Re: Verdegris (sp?) on brass

I agree with the above. It needs to be clean before you start trying to load it. A rule of thumb I use is every time I pick up a case I do a quick inspection inside and out. I have seen dirt dobbers and spiders build nests in cases. The dirt dobbers leave a hard dirt chuck inside. It could really raise havoc with a decapping rod of a die.

When you get it cleaned you'll be able to see the surface better to look for defects.