Really Dirty Brass - New Options

[WJP]

I wouldn't worry about it too much. I wet tumble extremely crappy brass. Other than that I just corn cob until the majority is off and I'm good. If I'm going to spend that much time cleaning I'll just buy new brass. I won't buy wet cleaned brass unless it's deprimed. Had way too many primers go off because of ringers.

[XDROB]

I started the thread 'Problems' .
I have always wanted shiny, like new brass. I could achieve that with dry tumbling with #5 corn. But I wanted the primer pockets cleaner. So I started S/S tumbling with drastic results. I reached out to the guys on these forums and had some great advise given, received and used to achieve really clean brass.
A lot of people say you don't have to get it that clean. They are right. It's a personal thing. I think in the long run my dies stay a lot cleaner. And the finished product looks good. I brought a few hollow point 45s to work to show a couple of guys there, they wanted to know where I bought them. With pride I said I reload. Plus as I have said in other threads that shiny brass is easier to find in the grass and dirt at the range.😎

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[308Jeff]

I wouldn't worry about it too much. I wet tumble extremely crappy brass. Other than that I just corn cob until the majority is off and I'm good. If I'm going to spend that much time cleaning I'll just buy new brass. I won't buy wet cleaned brass unless it's deprimed. Had way too many primers go off because of ringers.

If by "ringers" you mean the outside ring of primers that stay in the pocket after decapping, I ran into one today. It was pretty easy to feel that it happened, and I tossed that piece of brass.

[WJP]

If by "ringers" you mean the outside ring of primers that stay in the pocket after decapping, I ran into one today. It was pretty easy to feel that it happened, and I tossed that piece of brass.

Not near as easy to feel on a 1050 if you have the swage rod pulled out. With that in you can feel it easy enough. Problem with the 1050 is it's hard to tell if it's a hard to size case or a ringer.

[JohnH]

I picked up 5,000 pieces of really dirty 40 S&W Brass

Prior to having the rotary tumbler, I would have dumped it in a 5 gallon bucket full of hot water with some Dawn and Apple Cider Vinegar for a half hour, rinsed, dried, and put it in the vibratory tumbler for 8+ hours. Then resized. Pistol brass, I'd be done, but with rifle brass I would have cleaned the primer pockets.

But now that I have the F.A.R.T., clean primer pockets is a big feature. I HAVE to have squeaky clean primer pockets now. In everything.

What I'm thinking I'll do is dump some brass in the rotary media separator and give it a whirl (get the big/nasty/loose dirt out), run it through the rotary tumbler (without pins) for maybe 30 minutes, resize (after it's dry), and then put it back in the tumbler (with pins) for a final clean.

Seems like a lot of work. Am I overthinking/overdoing it?

Yeah. Run it through the tumbler to get the loose crud off, decap it and run it in the F.A.R.T. If the brass is especially tarnished, run it longer, 3 hours instead of 2. I find that 2 hours will do everything I need done. once fired gets a nice polish, tarnished polishes even though it is still bronze colored. Over time that will change but who cares, the brass is clean, in the way it matters, it runs smoother in the dies and feeds in the guns better too.

[retread]

I deprime with a Lyman decapping die then wet tumble with SS pins, dawn and lemishine. I do get shinier than new brass but the real reason I do it is to get clean primer pockets. I started reloading in 1960, cleaning primer pockets to me was the only "work" I felt I had when reloading. Now I don't have to do that chore and have better looking brass to boot.

[JohnH]

I deprime with a Lyman decapping die then wet tumble with SS pins, dawn and lemishine. I do get shinier than new brass but the real reason I do it is to get clean primer pockets. I started reloading in 1960, cleaning primer pockets to me was the only "work" I felt I had when reloading. Now I don't have to do that chore and have better looking brass to boot.

It is surprising how much smoother priming is when the cases have been through a wet tumble. Try Mothers Carnauba Wash and Wax instead of Dawn, it's better yet.

[308Jeff]

Not near as easy to feel on a 1050 if you have the swage rod pulled out. With that in you can feel it easy enough. Problem with the 1050 is it's hard to tell if it's a hard to size case or a ringer.

Ran into another one today.

I'll bet I've resized/deprimed 20,000 pieces of 40 S&W prior to this weekend and never had it happen. Now twice, in two days. This time it took out the decapping stem in my die. Gonna have to call Hornady on Tuesday and order a new one.

FWIW, both pieces of brass that gave me ringers are Federal, of all things.

[JohnH]

Federal crimps the primers on their "Match" ammo

[RGrosz]

Several years age (about five years now) we got flooded at least the basement did for several months. Lost about everything in the reloading bench and what passed for the reloading room. Salvaged what I could and stored it away. Moved it out to the garage and started rebuilding my bench and things from there. Had buckets of brass get tarnished and need disassembled to start over. Well when I got time now I'm up to deprime with a Lee deprime die. Wet tumble with SS pins, vibratory tumble in walnut then ready to load. After get sized for the bottleneck rifle shells tumble again to remove the sizing lub and finish loading. for the straight wall pistol just keep going.
Rob

[308Jeff]

A couple of things I learned this weekend:

-I'm forced to believe there is an association between wet tumbling brass and ringers. I know that I have processed/decapped at least 50,000 pieces of brass and never had a ringer until this weekend. Two in two days, and I have 2,500 more pieces yet to resize/decap. I'll see if I run into more of them. On a related note, I pre-washed 2,000 pieces of military 308 brass a few years ago, and had a local guy do the processing (resize/decap, swage, trim) on his 1050 for me. He had several ringers in that batch, and swore he hadn't had a problem with that before. Thoughts?

-Lanolin based lubricants and wet tumbling don't mix. What a mess that was. Had 2,500 pieces of brass that were clean, but left with a dull greenish-brown appearance. A toss in the corncob media and then back in the wet tumbler fixed that. Lesson learned.

[ulav8r]

A couple of things I learned this weekend:

-I'm forced to believe there is an association between wet tumbling brass and ringers. I know that I have processed/decapped at least 50,000 pieces of brass and never had a ringer until this weekend. Two in two days, and I have 2,500 more pieces yet to resize/decap. I'll see if I run into more of them. On a related note, I pre-washed 2,000 pieces of military 308 brass a few years ago, and had a local guy do the processing (resize/decap, swage, trim) on his 1050 for me. He had several ringers in that batch, and swore he hadn't had a problem with that before. Thoughts?

-Lanolin based lubricants and wet tumbling don't mix. What a mess that was. Had 2,500 pieces of brass that were clean, but left with a dull greenish-brown appearance. A toss in the corncob media and then back in the wet tumbler fixed that. Lesson learned.

De-prime BEFORE wet washing.

[Bayou52]

Seems like a lot of work. Am I overthinking/overdoing it?

In short, yes. I'd say you're overdoing things. You've got a SS rotary wet tumbler, so just use it. If you have super muddy brass that needs a bath to get the dirt out, that's one thing. Otherwise, just throw the stuff in the wet tumbler and tumble it for however long it takes to get that level of shine you want.

If you want to cut you wet tumbling time by at least half, pre-soak the cases overnight in laundry detergent and hot water.

To tumble, I use auto wash and wax and Lemi-Shine.



All the Best!

[XDROB]

Oh man that's sparkly!!

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[308Jeff]

In short, yes. I'd say you're overdoing things. You've got a SS rotary wet tumbler, so just use it. If you have super muddy brass that needs a bath to get the dirt out, that's one thing. Otherwise, just throw the stuff in the wet tumbler and tumble it for however long it takes to get that level of shine you want.

If you want to cut you wet tumbling time by at least half, pre-soak the cases overnight in laundry detergent and hot water.

To tumble, I use auto wash and wax and Lemi-Shine.



All the Best!

Thank you.

I'm getting the same level of result, and I'm loving it.

Just wasn't sure how to get the brass clean enough to decap it before giving it the full wet tumbling treatment. I've got it figured out now.

Thank you to everyone who participated in this.

[retread]

In short, yes. I'd say you're overdoing things. You've got a SS rotary wet tumbler, so just use it. If you have super muddy brass that needs a bath to get the dirt out, that's one thing. Otherwise, just throw the stuff in the wet tumbler and tumble it for however long it takes to get that level of shine you want.

If you want to cut you wet tumbling time by at least half, pre-soak the cases overnight in laundry detergent and hot water.


To tumble, I use auto wash and wax and Lemi-Shine.



All the Best!

I use just a couple o drops of Dawn. How much wash and wax soap do you use?

[Bayou52]

Hi, Retread -

That brass in the photo was tumbled in 1 ounce Turtle Wax Zip wash and wax with 1/4 TSP Lemi-Shine. Using a Thumler's Model B tumbler.

Good luck!

[David2011]

Assuming here that "ringers" are crimped primer pockets. It's a new term to me. I've decapped about 4000 milsurp 5.56 and a few thousand .45 ACP with crimped pockets without issue. I've either swaged the pockets with a Dillon Super Swage or cut the crimps out with Hornady primer pocket reamers. I've broken a few decapping pins over the years but none that I can recall due to a crimped primer pocket. Usually the problem is a rock or other debris in the case.

Bayou 52,

You should be ashamed (NOT!) for posting those disgustingly beautiful buckets of like new polished brass. It just makes the rest of us feel inferior. They sure are purty!

[308Jeff]

Assuming here that "ringers" are crimped primer pockets. It's a new term to me. I've decapped about 4000 milsurp 5.56 and a few thousand .45 ACP with crimped pockets without issue. I've either swaged the pockets with a Dillon Super Swage or cut the crimps out with Hornady primer pocket reamers. I've broken a few decapping pins over the years but none that I can recall due to a crimped primer pocket. Usually the problem is a rock or other debris in the case.

Bayou 52,

You should be ashamed (NOT!) for posting those disgustingly beautiful buckets of like new polished brass. It just makes the rest of us feel inferior. They sure are purty!

The very first brass I got my hands on was 1,000 pieces of once fired LC 5.56. The next stuff was 2,000 pieces of LC 7.62. I don't know how many additional pieces of crimped primer brass I've processed since then, but it's gotta be over 10,000. Never had a ringer. Two of them last weekend, in 40 S&W of all things.

I'm convinced that the water/acid/detergent from wet tumbling with the primers in place causes a mild corrosion between the primer and the pocket and that's why ringers started happening. It's a logical conclusion once you add up the facts.

Lesson learned is always deprime before wet tumbling or soaking.

I bought a Black and Decker Work Station bench to set up a portable depriming station. Just going to take the dirty brass, decap, and drop them straight into the tumbler. Should be problem solved.

[308Jeff]

FWIW, this is how the brass turned out. My photography isn't as good as Bayou52's, but I'm happy with the results.