Do You Shoot Tarnished Range Brass?

[cpaspr]

I don't pick up much brass anymore other than what I shoot, but that's because I have thousands from when I did, all the time. And certain calibers I'll still pick up, even though I probably have way more than enough.

As long as it doesn't have active corrosion showing, splits or dings that won't size out, I'll use it after tumbling, sizing and depriming.

[Texas by God]

Recycledbullet- good eye! It does have a crack starting. But it survived another firing, so it’s a CB only case till it quits.


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[Txcowboy52]

Tarnished, absolutely clean it up and load it . Corrosion is another thing .

[justindad]

No one mentioned we’re crazy for picking up range scrap, so I’ll share these pictures of a failed case I picked up my last time at the range. It has two steps on the inside, and the lower step is not concentric with the rest of the case. That step seems to have created a stress concentration, causing the body to split without the case mouth splitting.

[405grain]

Whenever we go shooting on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) public lands where folks go target shooting, my friends and I call those areas the "Brass Mine".

[atfsux]

I take the darkest and most sun-blackened brass and dunk in Iosso brass cleaning solution. Just a little swirl, and it brightens up quickly. The black you see on very tarnished brass is the zinc, the sacrificial anode component, corroding away. That leaves the copper content. Upon retrieving from the Iosso wash and rinsing it, the heavily blackened stuff has now turned a matte pinkish color, which is the remaining copper substrate revealed by the eliminated zinc that has been removed. (Only a few microns deep, so no need to fear the brass has been weakened.) After throwing these pinkish reclaimed range pieces in the walnut media and tumbling in the polish process for a few hours, the matte texture disappears and the shiny stuff is mostly yellow once again. I have successfully reused the blackest tarnished range brass you've ever seen via this process and it works just fine.

[justindad]

I have noticed this tarnishing happens pretty fast. Maybe I’ll leave a brass mold in the grass for a night & day this spring to see if the dew and sun give it a nice patina.

[Scrounge]

It's some chemical action going on in the dirt that does that. Acidic, alkali--- something.
But its a stain like gun bluing chemicals do to steel. It's not corrosion.

Years ago, I had a source for range brass that sold me the ugly black ones for about 1/3 the price of shiny stuff.
I was getting once fired .45ACPs for $20. per thousand--- shipped.
I'm a dry media guy and the black stains never came off.
It doesn't hurt the brass any more than a tattoo hurts your skin or ink stains 'ruin' your clothes.

As far as tarnished, I had been reloading for a few years before I got a tumbler.
I'd wash the brass in soap & water, dry, size, de-prime, etc. then rinse in Lacquer thinner before loading.

There is only one thing in your post that I disagree with. Bluing is corrosion. It's just a more controlled corrosion, giving a more stable corrosion product than the normal iron oxide we call "rust." Fe₂O₃ is the chemical formula for rust or red oxide (also called rouge). Blue (actually black) iron oxide is Fe₃O₄ also called magnetite, which has a more open structure. Which won't actually protect your firearm or tool unless its open structure is filled with oil. THAT is why after you clean the gun, you're supposed to re-oil it. If your gun is plastic, or coated/painted, all you need to oil is the bearing surfaces where you have metal to metal contact, so not all guns need to be oiled all over anymore. "Back in my day, sonny..."

[jdgabbard]

Recycledbullet- good eye! It does have a crack starting. But it survived another firing, so it’s a CB only case till it quits.


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Depending how much case stretch you get, you might be able to just trim that thing and be just fine.

[Kestrel4k]

I take the darkest and most sun-blackened brass and dunk in Iosso brass cleaning solution. Just a little swirl, and it brightens up quickly. The black you see on very tarnished brass is the zinc, the sacrificial anode component, corroding away. That leaves the copper content. Upon retrieving from the Iosso wash and rinsing it, the heavily blackened stuff has now turned a matte pinkish color, which is the remaining copper substrate revealed by the eliminated zinc that has been removed. (Only a few microns deep, so no need to fear the brass has been weakened.) After throwing these pinkish reclaimed range pieces in the walnut media and tumbling in the polish process for a few hours, the matte texture disappears and the shiny stuff is mostly yellow once again. I have successfully reused the blackest tarnished range brass you've ever seen via this process and it works just fine.

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,

[2TM101]

Topics like this just make me laugh, the whole shiny brass thing. I have my own outdoor range and I pick up the range brass, sometimes I find one that I missed and they are darn near black. They load and shoot just fine. Life is too short to worry about how shiny something is when it doesn't matter.

If it is intact and feels clean, the appearance is meaningless. Its not like I'm going to sell it to someone else. And wet tumbling is so effective even the worst cases come out looking acceptable.

[Winger Ed.]

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,

It's rather pricey, but that's good stuff.

If ya like it, I'd get a part time job, do some overtime, or mow a few lawns and buy more of it.

[Rapier]

If you do not inspect and prepare your brass before you ever use it, you are backing up. Some range brass is once fired, other can be junk, a bit of brass pickup experiance tells you what to toss in the scrap can and what to keep.

[Gav-n-Tn]

I’m tumbling some brass as I type that looked pathetic. Tumbling in walnut for about 5 hours at this point. I’m not concerned about the tarnish so much as it being clean enough and the ability to inspect it. All I care about is whether or not it’s usable.

[Eddie Southgate]

Tarnished , yes . Heavily tarnished , no. If everything tarnished around here got throwed out I'd have been gone years ago , shine neither helps or hurts.

[Eddie Southgate]

Tarnished , yes . Heavily tarnished , no. If everything tarnished around here got throwed out I'd have been gone years ago , shine neither helps nor hurts.

[brokeasajoke]

As long as it is nice and smoother and just blackened/discolored and nothing else yes. I pick up lots of 9mm and the side that touches the ground turns black if it lays too long.

[Shawlerbrook]

Usually I will unless it is really in rough condition..

[atfsux]

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.

[brokeasajoke]

I guess the question is does the black/dark hurt anything or is it purely aesthetics?