Cleaning brass

[Rockindaddy]

Would love to hear from experience some preferred methods to clean brass that has been fired with black powder. Most of my large caliber guns (40-65, 45-70, 45-90, 50-70, 50-95, 50-100) are loaded with smokeless (4227, 4198, 4759, 5744, Reloader No.7). Some of the long range clubs require shooting black powder. I tried it! what a mess to clean up. The guns require a little hot soapy water but what to do with the fired black powder cases???? Other than soaking the fired cases in hot soapy water; would like to hear from some experienced big bore long range shooters their preferred method of cleaning up cases. I dump my smokeless cases into a vibrator or a tumbler with walnut shell & polish media and then wash them with a mild soapy water solution and stainless steel pins in a large tumbler. They come out gorgeous! The black powder cases pose a challenge! What chemicals do I need??

[Winger Ed.]

I shoot a few .45-70s with holy black more for the novelty of it than anything.

I have the cases marked so they don't get mixed in the smokeless ones.
I'm not sure what sort of chemistry is going on, but they just stink.
I drop them into soapy water a day or so until I get around to running a nylon bore brush in them and do a rinse.
After they lay out and dry, a day or two, maybe a few months,,, then I dry tumble them and let it go at that.

[herian67]

I use a tumbler with stainless pins. A squirt of dish soap and hot water. I run it for 2 hours then change the water. I add a squirt of dishwasher rinse aid and 3 oz. of lemon juice and run for 1 hour. Cases look brand new and shinny.

[GregLaROCHE]

I clean 45/70s in warm soapy water using a 45cal brush. I then rinse and put them into citric acid for a few minutes, rinsing well afterwards. Sometimes I déprime first, sometimes not. I tried running them in ultrasound with dish detergent, but have gone back to doing them by hand. I don’t have a great volume. It doesn’t take me long to wash twenty cases at a time. My hands get clean too!

What BP are you using ? If it’s reenactment type powder and is like over here, it’s a lot dirtier and fouls more than regular BP today.

[Deadeye Bly]

It sounds like you have a tumbler. Deprime the cases, run them in the tumbler with SS pins covered with water for an hour with a little Dawn dish soap. That is all that is necessary. If you want them to look like new, dump out the water, refill and add a little Lemishine and run for 45 minutes to another hour. They will look new. You don't need hot water or even soap to clean up with black powder. I use a solution of water soluble oil and water and my rifles are clean with 3 wet patches then a dry patch followed by an oily patch. I've been doing this since 1992 and have never rusted a bore.

[Castaway]

Deprime at range, put cases in water with a little Dawn, shake, dry, load and shoot. If desired, put in an ultrasonic cleaner but not necessary. You may tumble but not necessary. My primer pockets are clean after soaking in soapy water on the way from the range to home. Most times I do run an ultrasonic cycle but after 30 minutes, the water has barely any fouling afterwards. Brass is tarnished but doesn’t affect performance. Don’t confuse shiny with clean. Shiny doesn’t shoot any better.

[nuclearcricket]

for BP cases, I poke out the primers and wet tumble with a squirt of Simple Green and ceramic pins. I kind of feel that your water will make a bit of difference on how well what soap works best. A little lemi shine seems to help as well. I tumble for a couple of hours, rinse and knock out the media and then toss them in a vibrator with coarse walnut hulls. Couple of hours and I got nice clean bright shiny brass. An expensive source for cracked walnut hulls is Harbor Freight. A 25 pound box is about $30 or so. I got the coarse to help to keep it from getting stuck in the flash hole. A little squirt of superfine auto polish will really make things shine. I have read that the 3mm round ceramic balls will do a good job of cleaning cases but will not get into the corners of the primer pockets.
Yes cleaning BP cases is a bit of extra work but with the cost and limited availability of brass these days, I think its well worth the extra work to keep your brass clean and usable.
Sam

[Rockindaddy]

Thanks Ed:
Will try your fix!

[Rockindaddy]

Cricket:
Good idea on the coarse walnut media from the Harbor Freight and car polish. Many thanks!!

[Rockindaddy]

Hey Greg:
I will try the citric acid wash. I am a dinosaur as I am still shooting Dupont FF

[BLAHUT]

I deprime, I use a teaspoon of lemi shine and a few squirts of simple green in water covering with SS pins and run for about 1 hour, wash , lay out to dry for a day then into the corn vibrator for about an hour with some brash polish.

[marlinman93]

I don't do much special with BP cases. Keep a milk jug of soapy water with me at the range, and just drop them in after I fire them. When I get home I deprime the cases, and dump them in my wet tumbler with water and dishwashing soap. I use ceramic media and tumble for about 90 minutes, and they come out looking new again.
If I'm shooting far from home I wont drop the cases in soapy water, and instead just put them back in my boxes. Occasionally it's several days to a week before they get cleaned, and never a problem. I deprime them and go straight to the tumbler without any soaking, and they also come out great.

[Lead pot]

:D You don't have to do a dance around a cast iron kettle hanging over a fire chanting while brewing up a witches brew cleaning brass shot with black powder. :D

I just pre rinse the cases for a few minutes in water before putting them in a wet tumbler that has some 3MM ceramic ball media https://www.amazon.com/s?k=3+mm+ceramic+ball+media&i=industrial&crid=14PGC0ZN3VYRC&sprefix=3+mm+ceramic+ball+media%2Cindustrial%2C104&ref=nb_sb_noss just covered with water and a packet of Cascade dishwasher stuff you find under the kitchen sink and tumble it for 30 or 45 minutes and it will come out like you see in the photo's below.
After dumping the cleaned brass in a screen separating those little balls :D I catch the drained water in a 5 gallon bucket and let the dirt settle and when that bucket is 3/4 full I never use a new mix again. I just reuse the settled clear stuff over. The fouling will settle and the water with the cascade is just as clear as not used after a couple days. I shoot black a lot and I will have an inch or so of mud on the bottom I dump after draining off the clean water.

308365308366308367308368

[Chaparral66]

I pre-soak the range pickup in water as I sort by caliber. I have found that a squirt of Dawn dish liquid with warm water and stainless steel pins, run for 20-30 minutes gets the brass clean. Do I need factory new sparkle... nope, just dirt free.

[country gent]

I use a simple mix of lemishine dawn dish soap and water, I take this in the range with me and cases go in it right from the chamber. after each string or group I put the cap on and give a few good shakes. cases soak on the ride home while the guns are cleaned and gear put away. I then pour the mix out leaving the cases in the jug. I then run the water till hot and cover cases with a couple inches of hot water and agitate by shaking I do this 3-4 times. I then lay them out on a screen to dry. From here they go into a vibratory polisher with corncobs I add a small amount of iosso brass polish and mineral spirits added. Takes an hour or so for a good polish.

RHe big thing with BP fouling is to keep it soft, when it drys and gets hard it is much harder to work with

[FrankJD]

To each their own. What's key for me is keeping the BP residue soft, so whilst at the range or afield, all spent .45-70 cases go into a jug of water that's been blessed with a good squirt of Dawn. Back at the ranch the cases are rinsed of the soap, drained, go into the ultra-sonic for 30 minutes, quick rinsed, into the case drier, then off to the annealing machine, after a cool down they're primed, compact drop charged with weight scaled Swiss 1-1/2F to fill the case (81 grains), LDPE wad added, slightly compressed on the press with a BACO compression plug in a Lyman die, 527 grain PPB pushed 1/10" into the case mouth, slight taper crimp on the press with a modified Lyman die, ready to go bang! Ain't all this stuff fun? Can I get an Amen, BP bruthas??

[ScrapMetal]

I'll give that an amen!

Deprime at the range and drop them in a jug with water and a bit of Windex non-ammonia. Shake a bit when I get home and only tumble if I'm in a "sparkly" mood.

-Ron

[doulos]

I used to shoot nothing but blackpowder out of my Shiloh Sharps. I used a Thumblers Tumbler with ceramic media and water with a squirt of Dawn. Now I use stainless pins and the same tumbler. You could clean them adequately just depriming them and dumping them in a bucket of water and brushing them. Water is the key to dissolving black powder. Not the soap. Soap helps carry away some grime because its a surfactant. So you need very little soap. But the water is really what breaks down BP fouling and cleans it.

[Rockindaddy]

Wow! You guys are an amazing wealth of knowledge! I very seldom go to a range but shoot with friends that show up on my farm. The drop in a soapy water container really gets it. Dissolve the fouling right after the cartridges come out of the gun. Thanks for all the great info. Going to try the citric acid pickle rinse too.

[Beerd]

Hey Greg:
I will try the citric acid wash. I am a dinosaur as I am still shooting Dupont FF

Dupont? I think you must pre-date them dinos. :)
..