Brass corrosion

[Fly-guy]

I have several batches of brass sized, belled, primed and ready to load that are beginning to show signs of corrosion. Has anyone else run into this?

[HeavyMetal]

Are we talking a little green on them here and there?

If so a bath in Birchwood casey's brass cleaner for about 10 minute and then tumble in walnut shell should clean it right up.

[geargnasher]

Happened to me a few times before I started lightly waxing my brass as a final step in cleaning. I have a special, plain corncob media heavily treated with Meguiar's liquid wax diluted with mineral spirits. I run the media by itself for an hour after the initial treatment to get it distributed evenly and let it dry, then it's good to go for four or five runs of clean brass before needing to freshen up the wax treatment on the media. This leaves just a trace film inside and out on the cases which will prevent corrosion for a pretty long time.

Check to see if it looks like your primers have deteriorated, if the brass has corroded enough to make you pause before loading it, you might want to just squib them off and start over or run them through a universal decapper and treat in a citric acid solution, then tumble and toss the ones with pits and copper spots that remain after polishing. There's a sticky on cleaning brass with citric acid, look it up if you haven't seen it, truly the bees knees.

If the corrosion isn't bad enough to look like it damaged the brass, just run them in a tumbler with media that is either super-fine or larger than the flash holes so it won't get stuck in them.

Gear

[geargnasher]

Are we talking a little green on them here and there?

If so a bath in Birchwood casey's brass cleaner for about 10 minute and then tumble in walnut shell should clean it right up.

That bath would be pretty hard on live primers :shock:

Gear

[cbrick]

By saying "beginning to show signs of corrosion" it sounds like it's minor, if so HeavyMetal is spot on, clean it up and shoot it. In addition to Birchwood casey's brass cleaner check out this sticky on citric acid for brass cleaning. Citric Acid (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=83572). Amazing stuff.

Rick

[cbrick]

That bath would be pretty hard on live primers :shock: Gear

Oops . . . Your right, I missed the word "primed" :holysheep

Rick

[pistolman44]

To my surprise after getting in to an old stash of 44 Rem mag cases some had dark spots on the ouside of the brass. I going to tumble them but I don't think it will remove the spots. I guess I'll have to put some type of coating on brass that I store away for lengthy periods.

[cbrick]

I going to tumble them but I don't think it will remove the spots.

Citric Acid!

Rick

[Fly-guy]

First off, thanks for all of the replies and suggestions. I'll try to be more speficic. I had about 40 45-70's that were ready to load and were stored in a plastic container. Twelve of them are corroded pretty bad and I don't think a tumbler will clean them back up. I also have about 100 30-30's ready to load and around 10 or so were beginning to show signs of the green crud.

My question should have been: what is causing the brass to corrode? Do you suppose the primers have anything to do with it? All of the brass was primed with new Winchester Large Rifle primers. If nothing else, it looks like I need to get busy and load everything up!???

Thanks guys.

[geargnasher]

Oxygen. If you don't treat your cleaned brass with something it will corrode. Salt from your hands and moisture/humidity make it worse. The primers aren't causing it.

Gear

[cajun shooter]

Are you shooting black powder or smokeless? The reason I ask is that normal hands on of brass will not take them to being unusable. If normal handling caused enough corrision to ruin a brass case then we would not have any cartridges from the 1800's left. Normal BP firing and then poor cleaning practice will cause the problem you have.

[MtGun44]

I tend to agree that this sounds like BP not smokeless. If smokeless, very strange.

Bill

[Fly-guy]

The only black powder I use is on my ole smoke pole and it's been quite a while since I've shot it. As far as the oxygen theory goes, the plastic containers have lids on them and it has been quite a while since either one of the containers had been opened.

The brass that I have stored in regular ammo boxes look just fine. I have quiet a bit stored in zip lock bags and it all looks OK. I am going to try to find time this next week and clean them with a citric acid solution, hopefully that will clean them up.

It's terrible when a grown man will crawl through a mile of sandburs just to find that last piece of brass isn't it?

[cajun shooter]

I have seen this in one other instance. The guy had a pool in his back yard. The chlorine in the pool got to his brass which was in his garage.

[felix]

Chlorine gas attack makes brass green (copper chloride). Will happen every time around swimming pool chemicals, and it takes only a little chlorine smell in the area to do it. If you have a pool, keep those chemicals well capped up so that there is ZERO "pool" smell, and keep them away from any heat/light, including sun coming through a window. Put black baggies over the chlorine tubs. Copper oxide is either brown or black, depending on the oxidation level (chemical valence). Green roof tops of days gone by are coated with copper chloride because the chlorine from rain (rain smell) is more active than the oxygen in the air. ... felix

[Fly-guy]

I can guarentee that a pool isn't the problem - don't have one and as far as the rain smell, haven't had any of that either. We haven't had any rain for over five weeks now. IT IS DRY!:sad::sad::violin:

[cajun shooter]

You do realize that this problem is almost up to CSI level. Take some very clean or new brass just a few pieces and put them in the area that you store your brass. Keep a very close watch and the first signs of a problem remove all items and log them in to the evidence page. See if you can obtain a test kit for chemical vapors( I am serious). I have been storing brass for over 40 years in used ammo cans, cardboard boxes, glass jars, metal drums and galvanized buckets and have never had a problem as yours. My Dad could never wear a watch that he could afford as his skin would corrode them within weeks.

[Fly-guy]

I tried cleaning the brass with citric acid today and all it did was turn the green spots into rust colored spots. It looks like I need to find my old can of Brasso polish.

Cajun, do you have Jethro's contact information? I'm about ready to have him solve it for me!

[Doby45]

Good reason not to prime until ready to use. You could always just to ss the brass back in the tumbler for a short spin. :)

[Wayne Smith]

A little steel wool always worked for me. Exposure to tanned leather will do the same thing. E.G. ammo left in a belt or leather carrier.

[GSM]

Wear rubber gloves when you handle the brass.

[XWrench3]

the problem is likely the plastic container. seal them up tight in plastic that can not breate, and any moisture that was in the the second you sealed it up has nowhere to go except accumulate on the brass. my brother bought some brass for his 300 H&H that was pretty ugly. green over most of the surface. i polished them up in the tumbler, which took a long time. then, i polished them with simichrome in a drill motor. then, i applied a coating of wax to each of them, let them dry, and buffed off the residue. so far, they look (and feel) great. that was about a year ago. the automotive wax will seal the oxygen out. so it stops the corrosion (oxidation). kind of a pia, but 300 H&H brass is a little hard to come by.

[blackthorn]

Quote: "A little steel wool always worked for me. Exposure to tanned leather will do the same thing. E.G. ammo left in a belt or leather carrier."

+1----Several years ago I was given about 12 rounds of 300 H&H that had been left for a long time stored in a leather ammunition belt. There was a heavey ring of green crud everywhere the cases were in contact with the leather. When I tried to clean them up, I found that in places the green **** had eaten a hole completely through the case! SO---if you have that green stuff on your cases, if it dosent clean off easily, I would break down the rounds to salvage the bullets and toss the cases. Better safe than sorry!!!