Cleaning cases

[smkummer]

So I shot a sample batch of 45 colt and 44-40 blackpowder cartridges for vintage blackpowder colt single actions. I immediately put them in a container of water. 45 minutes later when I got home, they soaked in a solution of dish soap/water. After rinsing, they soaked in a solution of vinegar/ dish soap. They are clean but have a copper colored tinge to them. Maybe that’s as good as they can get OR now would tumbling them with corn Cobb media return them to shine brass? Thanks for your experience.

[414gates]

There's clean and there's clean.

To shine them up, use the corncob media, but the media must be clean. If it's old and discolored, you'll just dirty the brass again.

Thin strips of damp cloth in the tumbler absorbs all the dust, and over time cleans the media. Wet wipes do the same job.

[jdfoxinc]

Used dryer sheets. The copper coloring is from the vinegar leaching a small amount of zinc from the surface of the brass.

[Castaway]

Skip a step or two. After shooting, punch the spent primers and put them in a capped container of water with a couple drops of Dawn. Shake vigorously a few minutes, then rinse and dry. Sometimes I use my ultra sonic cleaner but there’s no real need. If I want it pretty, I’ll tumble but don’t find it shoots any better afterwards. The vinegar isn’t necessary if you give the initial bath in water and Dawn

[Don McDowell]

Case will discolor if you soak them after firing. Really no need to immediately put them in water and leave them. Matter of fact they won't be harmed if you wait a day or 3 before washing , and drying.
Drop a dollop of Brasso into your corncob media and run the cases for a couple of hours they should come out looking close to new. Biggest problem using corncob and other dry media's it tends to linger in some cases , especially the flash holes, so it's best to store them with the mouths down for a while before loading again.

[nuclearcricket]

I wet tumble my cases with cermic media after I punch the primers out. I use the medial sold by Shiloh Rifle. It is 1/8 by 1/4 with angled ends. It does a good job of getting the crud out of the corners. Many also use SS pins to acomplish the same thing. I run them wet with a bit of Lemi shine and probably a table spoon of Simple Green. About 2 hours or so and them come out nice and clean, I then dump them wet into a vibrator with cracked walnut shells for a while to dry and put a final polish on the cases. I have come to the conclusion that putting too much soap in the mix isn't a good thing.
I have not shot any BP rounds for a while but my mix should work for that, I do know with smokeless it has done a super job on the brass I have recently acquired. Also for an inexpensive source of cracked walnut shells, I picked up a box full from Harbor Freight. 25 pounds for about $30 locally seemed to be a good deal. Volume wise, thats about a 5 gallon bucket full. I got the coarse stuff and it seems to do a pretty nice job so far. Seems a bit big to fit into the flash hole.
Sam

[Lead pot]

We all have our way cleaning brass.
When I head to the Quigley Match I'm away from home 8 weeks a lot of time shooting the Q and the Mt 1000 as well as the Big hill shoot and I take 1500 to 2000 rounds for a couple rifles of different calibers and most generally I get them all shot empty.
The empty cases I put in a 40# cat litter bucket with a lid that is tight sealing and I usually have two buckets for the empty brass like you see in the photo with the rifle on it.
I don't presoak the fired cases, never seen a need doing this and in the bucket with a lid it keeps the cases dry and I never seen a green case doing this. When I get home I deprime the brass and soak the cases in a in hot Water er for an hour or so and reach in and lift them and let them drop back in to rinse the fouling out, I don't shake them in water this just peans the case mouth. I pour the water off and it's black refill since again and then they get put in a wet tumbler that has 3mm ball ceramic and I use a pad of Cascade and a little lemishine and I tumbled them in a Frankford Arsenal and a Reble Supreme for an hour.
When I take them from the tumbler I rinse them in hot water twice to get the soap off and drop them on a towel to wipe them dry and just let them dry on the floor out of the way someplace till they dry.
They come out clean inside and out looking like new.
I used to use a mix of ceramic and set pins to get the primer pockets clean but I stopped doing this and just use these little balls. They work a lot better than the long angle cut ceramics do.
Here is another thing I do, and it's not for economy reasons.
I have a screen that has small mesh that will hold set pins and these little 3mm balls from falling through.
When the cases get done tumbling I empty the drums in the screen on a 5 gallon bucket and save the black water. The water will clear up in a day or so and when that bucket gets 3/4 full I don't add any more muddy water from the cleaning. In a day all that mud will settle down and I will have a clear, mostly blue colored liquid that has several loads of the cascade and lemishine diluted and when I clean the next load I just dip a coffee can in the bucket slowly and fill the tumbler.
I recycle that sometimes for a couple seasons with just pouring off the clear liquid in another bucket and cleaning the mud out of the bottom of the bucket.
This just works better than getting the commercial cleaning concentrate.

[smkummer]

Thanks everyone for their time, great advise. Going to clean my media, then put them to polish. No more vinegar solution but in all fairness, I left them in for maybe 2 days.

[ragnar]

We all have our way cleaning brass.
When I head to the Quigley Match I'm away from home 8 weeks a lot of time shooting the Q and the Mt 1000 as well as the Big hill shoot and I take 1500 to 2000 rounds for a couple rifles of different calibers and most generally I get them all shot empty.
The empty cases I put in a 40# cat litter bucket with a lid that is tight sealing and I usually have two buckets for the empty brass like you see in the photo with the rifle on it.
I don't presoak the fired cases, never seen a need doing this and in the bucket with a lid it keeps the cases dry and I never seen a green case doing this. When I get home I deprime the brass and soak the cases in a in hot Water er for an hour or so and reach in and lift them and let them drop back in to rinse the fouling out, I don't shake them in water this just peans the case mouth. I pour the water off and it's black refill since again and then they get put in a wet tumbler that has 3mm ball ceramic and I use a pad of Cascade and a little lemishine and I tumbled them in a Frankford Arsenal and a Reble Supreme for an hour.
When I take them from the tumbler I rinse them in hot water twice to get the soap off and drop them on a towel to wipe them dry and just let them dry on the floor out of the way someplace till they dry.
They come out clean inside and out looking like new.
I used to use a mix of ceramic and set pins to get the primer pockets clean but I stopped doing this and just use these little balls. They work a lot better than the long angle cut ceramics do.
Here is another thing I do, and it's not for economy reasons.
I have a screen that has small mesh that will hold set pins and these little 3mm balls from falling through.
When the cases get done tumbling I empty the drums in the screen on a 5 gallon bucket and save the black water. The water will clear up in a day or so and when that bucket gets 3/4 full I don't add any more muddy water from the cleaning. In a day all that mud will settle down and I will have a clear, mostly blue colored liquid that has several loads of the cascade and lemishine diluted and when I clean the next load I just dip a coffee can in the bucket slowly and fill the tumbler.
I recycle that sometimes for a couple seasons with just pouring off the clear liquid in another bucket and cleaning the mud out of the bottom of the bucket.
This just works better than getting the commercial cleaning concentrate.

Kurt, where do you get the 3mm ceramic balls? The inside of my cases never come out bright and shiny no matter what I’ve tried.
Mike

[indian joe]

Kurt, where do you get the 3mm ceramic balls? The inside of my cases never come out bright and shiny no matter what I’ve tried.
Mike

Mike
Citric acid and a ultrasonic cleaner! the innards will be squeaky clean (no crud) not shiny just spotless clean. I run each batch about fifteen minutes after depriming and rinsing in plain water with a drop of dish soap. this is so easy its ridiculous.

[Don McDowell]

ragnar google up ceramic polishing media. There's be quite a few links for it. There was some of the ceramic balls on Amazon a while back.

[Soundguy]

Used dryer sheets. The copper coloring is from the vinegar leaching a small amount of zinc from the surface of the brass.

Agreed... IMHO.. I'd skip the vinegar myself.. though I know some do use lemishine soap for a similar effect..

[Dhall_37]

I like to use a chemical method when cleaning my brass. I deprime, place the cases in water or diluted simple green and add over the counter hydrogen peroxide. It'll fizz and react with the back powder neutralizing it and having some float to the surface.

[Lead pot]

Kurt, where do you get the 3mm ceramic balls? The inside of my cases never come out bright and shiny no matter what I’ve tried.
Mike

Sorry for the slow reply Mike, been out of town.

Mike I got it from Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Ceramic-Porce...08QH6JQPB&th=1 . I ordered two packs of the 3mm because I use a Frankford Arsenal tumbler that has a larger capacity than the Rebel Supreme to the tumblers tumbler.
The 3mm will clean a lot, not all, of the primer pockets and fall freely from the pocket. I also have the 4mm but it's a little to large and sticks snug in the pocket but it will clear from it with a slight tap.
There is also 2mm out there that might be better for the primer pockets but this is getting close to the flash hole diameter with it's .078" diameter makes it pretty close to the flash hole diameter, but the 3mm does a very good job with the cleaning mix I mentioned.

Kurt

[ragnar]

Sorry for the slow reply Mike, been out of town.

Mike I got it from Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Ceramic-Porce...08QH6JQPB&th=1 . I ordered two packs of the 3mm because I use a Frankford Arsenal tumbler that has a larger capacity than the Rebel Supreme to the tumblers tumbler.
The 3mm will clean a lot, not all, of the primer pockets and fall freely from the pocket. I also have the 4mm but it's a little to large and sticks snug in the pocket but it will clear from it with a slight tap.
There is also 2mm out there that might be better for the primer pockets but this is getting close to the flash hole diameter with it's .078" diameter makes it pretty close to the flash hole diameter, but the 3mm does a very good job with the cleaning mix I mentioned.

Kurt

Thanks Kurt!

[FrankJD]

Mike
Citric acid and a ultrasonic cleaner! the innards will be squeaky clean (no crud) not shiny just spotless clean. I run each batch about fifteen minutes after depriming and rinsing in plain water with a drop of dish soap. this is so easy its ridiculous.

Yup, me too, ultra sonic cleaner, Hornady with their solution. Never tried citric acid, might have too!

[greenjoytj]

Does the 3mm ceramic balls get permanently stained black after cleaning cases that were fired with black powder?

I clean my cases with the stainless steel pins and Cascade dishwasher machine powdered detergent. It works fine.
Lately I have reduced my cleaning time by not striving to get the stains off the inside of the cases just remove all loose fouling.
I found a little carbon staining inside the neck reduces the amount of brass that gets bonded to the neck expanding plug.

[Rapidrob]

I've been shooting BP firearms for 55 years now. As soon as the match or shooting session is done I use my LEE hand press and de-prime the cases ( Lee Universal De-capping Die fits anything ) and drop them into a soapy water container and shake them up.
As soon as I get home the dirty water is flushed out and the cases are put into a rock tumbler with a few drops of Dawn dish washing detergent with stainless steel tumbling media.
In one hour they come out looking like new. The primer pockets are shiny. Being this clean any cracks at the mouth of the cases are clearly visible as well as any case stretching / bulging.
A few years ago a friend gave me several hundred 6.5 Swede cases,you know the surface discolored ones than came in as loaded ammo. The tumbler really cleaned them up after two hours .

[FrankJD]

I drop just fired brass into a water jug that's had a shot of Dawn. I like how that keeps the bp residue soft. I'm more interested in the interior cleanliness of the case than its exterior.

[Rapidrob]

The cases using the ST tumbling media cleans the insides as well. Cases i cleaned years ago are still clean with no signs of corrosion.