Toss, retumble, or OK to load.

[z28z34man]

I bought a bunch of 40 brass from a local shop that was quite tarnished. I tried tumbling in corn cob and nufinish 6 hours then some for 12 hours. The tumbling got rid of the vast majority of the tarnish but some of the cases still had darker areas and where spotted. Then I decided to get an HF 2 drum rock tumbler an SS pins. I tumbled 1 lbs of SS pins, 1 lbs of brass, 1/2 tea spoon of armor all wash and wax, .5 cc lemi shine, and water to cover the cases per drum for 3 hours. Some came out completely shiny new but some look like this. What would you do

[3jimbo3]

I would load them up and head to the range. Ugly cases need shooting too.


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[DerekP Houston]

I've shot uglier with no repercussions :D. Looks like just water spots from drying.

[NyFirefighter357]

The HF tumbler needs longer than 3 hrs, do it over night it won't hurt anything. But they look good enough to shoot. I use hot water to tumble and tumble rinse in hot water. I then drain and add a piece of shammy or paper towel and tumble dry for a couple minutes. They come out just about dry and will always be spot free when left to dry on a towel.

[Plate plinker]

Just mail them to me for disposal at your expense . Naturally.

[z28z34man]

The HF tumbler needs longer than 3 hrs, do it over night it won't hurt anything. But they look good enough to shoot. I use hot water to tumble and tumble rinse in hot water. I then drain and add a piece of shammy or paper towel and tumble dry for a couple minutes. They come out just about dry and will always be spot free when left to dry on a towel.
Do I tumble it for several hours then add the lemi shine to finish it off or do I tumble in lemi shine the hole time? I have read too long in lemi shine will turn the cases black.

[JWFilips]

Just mail them to me for disposal at your expense . Naturally.
This post tells you all you need to know! Just shoot them!

[3jimbo3]

Compared to those I'm ashamed of some of mine:bigsmyl2:

[runfiverun]

the pink is just water spots.

I don't get half my brass that clean, and I have the machines to do it.
I just want them good enough to not scuff up my dies and chambers.

[GhostHawk]

I'll trade ya some nice dirty ones for those if you like.

That way you can try again!

I have to admit I have gotten lazy, citric acid wash to get the black gunk off, rinse, dry, and load.

So they don't look like new. I am not ashamed that I cast my own and reload. I neither need nor expect mine to look like new ammo.

[3jimbo3]

I found if mine looks "dirty" nobody wants to "borrow " any of it. How do you borrow ammo? That's like me sayin, hey let me borrow your steak and tater.

I wash mine in hot water and Dawn detergent, run it through the walnut hulls for about 30 minutes, give it a hot water rinse, it goes on the dehydrator over night and I load it. It's clean but don't look it. Shoots as good as new brass.


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[ironhead7544]

Before I had a tumbler, I used the washing machine. Read about it in NRA magazine. It cleaned all the grease and dirt off the cases. The nickel cases came out looking like new but the brass was a bit dull.
Worked just fine.

Those cases look nearly perfect to me. Load em up.

[z28z34man]

Thanks everyone the areas in question looked copper in color. I thought maybe some of the zinc was leaching out of the brass and didn't know if that would effect the case strength.

[NyFirefighter357]

The lemi-shine is used to condition hard water water. 1/8th teaspoon would be good in those small drums. The soap holds the dirt is suspension. 1 drop is all you need in those drums. I use 1/4 teaspoon lemi-shine and 2 drops Dawn soap in my Frankford Arsenal tumbler and half that in the HF double drums. The F/A has double the rpms of the H/F tumbler. As long as your tumbler is rotating your brass shouldn't tarnish no matterhow much lemi-shine. But if the stuff is real dirty i'll tumble about an hr and change the water.

[Half Dog]

I'm for fair treatment of ugly brass.

[Jal5]

the pink is just water spots.

I don't get half my brass that clean, and I have the machines to do it.
I just want them good enough to not scuff up my dies and chambers.

[emoji106]

[Wayne Smith]

Thanks everyone the areas in question looked copper in color. I thought maybe some of the zinc was leaching out of the brass and didn't know if that would effect the case strength.
A good test for that is to see if it rubs off with a little abrasion (0000 steel wool) - if it rubs off it is surface only. If not, toss them.

[mdi]

What are you looking for? Those look better than some virgin factory ammo I've purchased. You could make a hardwood mandrel that is tapered to hold a case tight, chuck the mandrel in a drill and polish the brass with progressively finer steel wool, to maybe 0000 grade. then use a hard wax to finish them off. Or you could just shoot them...

I've related this story a couple time, but once more won't hurt; I was hanging out at a police range in the late '60s when I noticed 2 fellers shooting their 1911s a lot. I eased closer and noticed their targets, after a couple, mebbe three magazines, were just one hole about 2"-3" (range was 50'). I got closer and saw their ammo was brown! They were reloaders and they explained a bit about reloading and did not mention tumbling brass to a high shine. That was before shiny, virgin looking ammo was a "must" and they just cleaned the cases before reloading, no glossy polish needed. I'm kinda in the same camp, I do tumble, but the only brass that gets a shine is my Garand 30-06 and 45 ACP cases 'cause they are easy to find in the dirt where I shoot...:wink:

[tazman]

90% of my handloads don't look as good as your picture but they shoot just fine.

[Wild Bill 7]

I use Lemi-shine, liquid dish soap and hot water. Since I'm cheap I hand toss the brass in the container for a few minutes and let it sit for some time. Then I drain the water off, rinse with clean water and spread the brass on a towel to dry in our hot Florida sun. Usually it's dry in one or two hours. Then if it has water spots, it goes in my tumblers with corn cob and Nu-Finish and I run it for 30 minutes and they are beautiful. I have some brass that has been done for two years and they are still shiny as they were two years ago.