Cleaning BP Brass

[Dick Dastardly]

Great report Bunk,

I'll be waiting for your observations.  Clean brass is key to good shooting.  Show me one champion shooter that brags about how dirty his ammo is. . . .

DD-MDA

[Noz]

I need something to get my brass shiney.. Dark 32-20s like to hide. I rarely get more than 50% back on a stage.

Ran them in the Scrubbing Bubbles and Lemishine until they were clean but dull. Dried them than ran them thru walnut until they shine.

[Dick Dastardly]

Ho Noz,

Yer on the right path.  With those adjuncts add SS pins, tumble, drain & separate then do it again with DD CP media.  I guarantee the brass will sparkle.

DD-MDA

[Lucky R. K.]

Hey Noz,

I use walnut media with about a tablespoon of mineral spirits.  I put the fired brass into soapy water after shooting each stage.  When I get home I pour off the water and dump the brass onto a towel and blot off the excess water.  I then put the wet brass into the tumbler and run it overnight.  It comes out looking like new.

Lucky 

[john boy]

Sparkling Brass in 15 Minutes ... http://sassnet.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=229895

[Bibbyman]

I didn't see anyone mention vinegar in their brass cleaning recipe.   

Back in the old days before tumblers,  we would dump brass in a plastic jug with water, a good glug of vinegar and a squirt of dish soap.  Shake and let set a couple of hours. Drain off black water and maybe repeat. Then rinse and let dry in the sun if warm weather or by the wood stove if cold weather.  If the stain really bothered you, one could use Brasso and rough cloth to shine them up.

I'm still doing about the same soak and rinse but now have a vibrating tumbler I run the cases through using corn cob media.  I just got a Lyman Turbo 2500 ultrasonic cleaner to clean gun parts.  I've not tried it on brass yet but I'm impressed at how it works on gun parts.

[sharps4065]

I use ceramic in a ROTARY tumbler NOT a vibrating one - painful learning curve there.....!!!! I shoot 50/90, 45/120, 40/65, 50/95, 56/50, 12x44R, 44/40 (with black) & 12g brass hulls so a large tumbler is necessary. I use a Thumlers Model B.

Before putting the cases in there are 2 ways I use to prep them for it depending on how cruddy I've let them get (being lazy and not cleaning within a few days of using them). I decap before both methods and I do use a primer pocket cleaner. Anyway, the easiest is just dropping them in a container of water along with a dishwasher tab and let them soak for 24 hours. The more effective (smelly and costly way) is to buy a sonic cleaner big enough to take a good few cases. You can get the Hornady one over here (the UK), not badged and in pretty colours, a lot cheaper. I use ordinary malt vinegar in it and it really does remove the crud, even verdigris around the mouth of any case (I said I was sometimes lazy  ). 20 minutes is usually more than enough.

In the tumbler I put sufficient water in to cover the cases, too little and you'll get marking and probably peening of the mouths. I add half a teaspoon of cream of tartar - NOT tartar sauce as one of our members did :grin: very messy...! A few drops of a good lemon dish washing liquid, a good squirt of dishwasher rinse aid and good squirt of lemon juice. Switch on and forget for 5 or 6 hours... The cases come as clean on the inside as on the outside, looking like new.

Sounds a bit of a rigmarole maybe, and setting up isn't that cheap. But when my cases can be £3 or £4 a piece (4$ to 6$) IF you can get them in this country (UK) then I look after them as well as I can. My 45 x 3.25" are over 10 years old and showing no signs of distress (Shooting heavy loads with very dirty case interiors WILL make the cases stretch)

Or perhaps I'm just OCD... 

Clive