Do You Shoot Tarnished Range Brass?

[wilecoyote]

My experience exactly, and I confess this routine is very rewarding just by itself.

Question for the forum; I have just about used up my quart of Iosso case cleaner, what cheaper (liquid) methods are people using for this sort of thing, vinegar or ?? Thx,

iosso works thank to diluted ammonia mixed with some fine abrasive powder_
vinegar (mildly acid) works_ the cheaper and the hotter, the better_

[ih772]

This is the way the stuff turns out after using the Iosso product.

Before:



After:



As I have previously described, the pinkish color is the copper being revealed after the zinc (sacrificial anode) that was corroding and producing the tarnish has been eliminated. Although looking distinctly non-brasslike at first, after being tossed in the tumbler with polish and polishing media for a few hours, they buff out shiny and yellow again.

I have ss-pin tumbled and reloaded brass like you have in your pictures. My experience with the pink colored cases is they will split the next time they are fired.

[atfsux]

I have ss-pin tumbled and reloaded brass like you have in your pictures. My experience with the pink colored cases is they will split the next time they are fired.

Well, that has not been my experience. I have reused those many times.

[HWooldridge]

Tarnish is to brass what rust is to steel, i.e., oxidation - and sulfur compounds will hasten the process. That’s why brass framed BP guns tend to turn brown after being fired a few times (with real BP, since it contains sulfur).

Any tarnish which has not markedly damaged the case integrity means nothing aside from cosmetic appeal and the color can be any color from green to black, depending on which chemicals are attacking it. I personally don’t worry about any amount of tarnish unless the case is clearly compromised or it’s so dirty that it can’t be reloaded.

Shotgun hulls fall into the same category - I’ll pick up and reload them unless there are obvious flaws evident that would jeopardize safety.

[Kosh75287]

It also depends on the round of interest, and the usual chamber pressures at which they operate. I'll shoot almost any tarnished .45 ACP brass, though I may refrain from pushing the upper edge with them. Rounds like 9mm, .38 Super, .40 S&W and 10mm get tossed, if they look really bad. Brass that is more rare, like .45 Colt, .44 Special and the like usually get cleaned up and used for no more powerful than factory performance.

[kevin c]

My experience exactly, and I confess this routine is very rewarding just by itself.

Question for the forum; I have just about used up my quart of Iosso case cleaner, what cheaper (liquid) methods are people using for this sort of thing, vinegar or ?? Thx,

I’ve used white vinegar, but citric acid (pretty inexpensive as sold on line for home canning), car wash and wax, and stainless steel pins will get most brass looking literally like new and is my go to.

If you’re a magpie like me, in a large rotary tumbler like the Frankford Arsenal version that’ll hold up to 1500 9mm cases, 5# pins, 1-2 tablespoons of washn’wax, 1-2 teaspoons of citric acid run over two hours will make you happy. If you decap the brass first, even the primer pockets look pristine.

[GONRA]

GONRA sez - just make SURE "range pickup brass" hasn't gone thru the burn barrel !!

[bimus]

I have never had any problems with ss pins and dish soap the brass is clean and smooth is all I'm after

[ulav8r]

I do not shoot tarnished brass. It tastes bad, is hard to chew and does not satisfy my hunger. ��

[Bluefink4895]

I shoot a lot of range brass (rifle mostly). The run & gun folks leave piles of 1-fired for the picking. I also process large amounts for our Jr team (223). Badly tarnished and weathered brass no...into the scrap bin along with the cases that are full of mud or otherwise unserviceable. Recycle to save the earth and stuff.
In the meantime, everything else gets de-primed and into the SS tumbling process...really large batches go into a harbor-freight cement mixer. 90% of tarnished brass gets cleaned up good w/o issue. A final post processing tumble in corncob and car wax makes everything super pretty. Anything that doesn't (remaining discoloration) gets used for practice if serviceable. As a final caveat...anything suspect gets chunked after post SS cleaning.
Unlike other components, brass (for common calibers) remains relatively plentiful. The mall ninja's give me a constant supply. So no issue being picky with final product.

[upnorthwis]

I shoot the grungiest brass I can find on purpose. This is so I can rub their noses in it of the people that are so insufferably anal that they do things like count out kernels of powder, and trim brass to .001, thinking they are going to beat me. They aren't.

[gnappi]

Short answer for automatics? No, not since I had multiple issues with "Glocked" brass in my autos.

Long answer, for revolver brass waaaayyy back there was some once fired to be found, but not for a long while.

Even then the owners of the two indoor ranges I shot at frowned at shooters "stealing their brass" left by shooters. So, when shooters were using new boxed ammo, I'd ask them if they were keeping the brass to reload or sell and if not they gave it to me. I got more than one frown and glare afterwards by the owner.

Nowadays if needed and available I order new brass from Starline or if not available I try to buy used for a new gun in a caliber I do not load for. oncefirebrass and R3 brass are good resources.

[TheGrimReaper]

Yeah I shoot tarnished brass

[MUSTANG]

Well; yesterday was consumed with cleaning brass that was all green, blue, brown, and black. Last week I picked up 1/4 of a 5 gallon "Brass Bucket" containing .223 and .308 really nasty brass. (I shamefully have provided 5 or 6 "Brass Buckets" at each of the Ranges I belong to and find it my duty to keep them emptied when I go to the Range - I hang my head in shame each time and say a "Thank You" to my fellow Club members)

Run the brass through an HF Ultransonic Cleaner with Dawn and LemiShine. Dry in a colander over the wood stove; then into the Brass Tumbler, 1st with a corn cob polish/cleaner that can be fairly disgusting - then a 2nd run through the Corn Cob media with clean corn cob. For those that still have stain - some 0000 still wool and battery powered drill to rapidly remove the Tarnish.

Presto-Zappo; I now have brass that looks like it was just taken off the LGS new ammo shelf. Same goes for Brass cases picked up off the ground after the Spring Thaw and Rain is over; or the Brass I find in the Desert left there for years.

[ebb]

I shoot range brass all the time, in todays world I don't see how a person could walk past a piece of brass that could be used. I spend lots of time sorting to like headstamps with my rage brass, not sure its worth the effort with pistol cases. But I do not shoot it as is! I will not let dirty corroded brass go in my dies, but even worse than that it will not go in the chamber of a rifle with a high-quality match barrel. I have a vibratory tumbler (at Dillon getting an upgrade), a rotary tumbler with SS pins, and bought citric acid after reading about it here. With a box of only 50 to reload or for my 6PPC I will turn them one at a time on a lee holder used for trimming brass and clean with 0000 steel wool. I do not want dirt from the ground, oxidation from the brass or unburned powder or carbon from dirty brass in one of my firearms. I have been worrying about foreign stuff in my dies so I deprime with a lee deprime die and clean before sizing. My daughter gave me an ultra sonic cleaner, but I have yet to use it. This may seem extreme to you but the other site I visit my cleaning and reloading steps are crude in comparison to many of the others.

[lightman]

I don't shoot it but I pick it up. I goes in the scrap brass bucket.

[Kraschenbirn]

Pick it up, run it in the tumbler for a while, inspect and sort by headstamp, reload, and shoot. Not much more to it. Last week, I picked 102 lightly-tarnished, once-fired Hornaday .308s out of the grass alongside our 100-yd rifle line. Couldn't even offer a wild guess of how much brass I've collected off that range in the 42 years I've been a member but there's a bucket of .45 ACP under my workbench that I haven't even bothered to deprime and clean 'cause I've already got twice that much prepped.

Bill

[ebb]

What do i have that you would swap for that bucket of 45ACP?

[Charlie Horse]

Yes. Hell yes.

Tarnished but not dirty.

There's a difference. Soot is OK. Grit is not.

[Recycled bullet]

Why would you shoot dirty tarnished brass? Consider the alternative.

The difference between 500 pieces of NEW Starline 357 Magnum brass and what I have in a cardboard box that's on its second or third firing is that I don't have brand new brass in that box but if I handed it to you to make a visual inspection you would need a Jeweler's Loupe and make case head micrometer measurements to tell that it's not new.


I have so much time saved and frustration averted with wet tumbling car wash wax with stainless steel pins to clean my brass. It works even better than Dawn and it costs less and it smells better and it eliminated the water spotting problem I was having for the longest time thank you for many of you guys for recommending that to me.

I can put the grimiest range brass in the wet tumble bucket and 3 hours later it looks brand new. The only downside of grimy range brass is sometimes the primers get stuck in the pockets and it just punches out the bottom of the cup. I don't have that problem ever with any of the brass that I am regularly recycling for my shooting through my guns. I wonder if the stuck primer pockets is because they corroded from being outside for years. Literally it goes in the bucket looking like Mad Max cast off trash and it comes out looking like Starline brand new brass.
Considering that grimy range brass is free...