Care And Maintenance Of Black Powder Brass

[Guy La Pourque]

Hi Guys - just wondering how often you guys trim your brass? And how many reloads do you get out of it with black powder?

Here's the deal - I am shooting a Uberti 1876 in .45-75 and brass up here in Canada is like hen's teeth - unless you are willing to pay 90 bucks for twenty of them...fortunately I lucked out; I bought the gun used and it came with about 150 brass. Yes, I know you can make it from .50-90 but that is grossly over priced too...and nobody has .348 Win brass around here these days.

I tried to buy the more reasonably priced Jamison brass from Buffalo and Track but they can't ship empty brass over the border because it frightens the liberals and their milk curdles ... or something...

Any canuks on this board with any ideas on getting brass up here?

[bigted]

i know not a bit about the 45-75 however ... i do know about care and cleaning of my brass. from 43 spanish to 45-120.

as for cleaning ... i clean in soapy water and allow to set in the water for awhile with shaking them around in this wonderful solution. then i rinse em completely to remove the soap in hot water. after this i dry em on a towel for a few minutes followed by a tumble in my Lyman vibrator with corn cob media. this gets em very clean and shiney n ready for the next loading.

i have yet to lose a brass case that i shoot bp in. i anneal them when i see that they are getting "lose" upon loading ... meaning that the brass is losing its memory indicating to me that it is getting ready to crack.

i do not full size my brass nor do i over crimp it and when i do crimp i use a Lee factory crimp die so it seems a bit easier on the brass. i bet i have a hundred or more loads thru any of my brass and as mentioned before ... i rarely lose 1 if im paying attention to them in their reaction to my use.

so im not a canuk but i do know some about keeping expensive brass going for the long run. others will undoubtedly pitch in with further ideas for you.

[country gent]

I deprime at the range and drop them into a mix of lemi shine dawn dish soap ( usually after every ten round string) while the barrel wet with balistol water mix. I mix 2 tablespoons lemishine to 1/2 teaspoon dawn in 1 gal of water. They soak until I get home then hot water rinses ussually 3. Brass comes out on a towel for couple hours and thewn into vibratory cleaner and corn cobs. About 45 mins to an hour and they look like new. I also anneal every 4-5 loadings . I have 45-90s loaded 6-7 times and going strong, 45-70s that are 14-15 loadings and fine. I think the faster you can get the dirty brass into soap water the better, fresh fouling is easier to clean or dislove. I trim only when needed. I only neck size normally and that is controlled with a bushing die and bushings. I normally crimp very little and then its a taper crimp.

[hickstick_10]

You'l wear out the primer pocket before the brass fails. I lost count of the amount of time I reloaded mine.

As far as brass, that chambering is expensive in the states as well. So you'l have to bear down and pay the price, but the brass will outlast you most likely.

[montana_charlie]

Hi Guys - just wondering how often you guys trim your brass?

And how many reloads do you get out of it with black powder?
My cases are 'adjusted' to an exact fit in the chamber, and they never grow longer. But, they are straight walled cases.
I have no experience with bottlenecked brass such as yours, so I can't shed any light on that for you.

I have thirty cases separated into two 'batches' which I use only for testing loads. They are all exactly the same length and the same weight, so (I presume) they have the same internal dimensions.
They have been annealed twice, and they are always reloaded without any resizing of the brass.
According to my load development record, I have fired 951 rounds from those thirty cases, and they show no signs of giving up the ghost.

CM