# Brass cleaning ?



## nukehayes (Sep 22, 2006)

So, I was at my force protection school shooting all this week and I got to keep all the brass that was shot. Lucky me. I have about 1k 9mm once fired brass, ~600 .223 and about 200 .45 and a handful of .40 I happened to find there as well. Anyway I am in the process of cleaning the .45 brass and after washing the dirt off, drying in the oven and letting the tumbler do its magic for a few hours, the casings look like new.... all except for a few that are still dark. they are very smooth and feel polished and the headstamps are CCI, WIN, and one that looks like this *I* Anyway they only have the slightest hint of brass color. Do you think I have a few steel cases? I'm fairly certain that I threw those out along with the aluminum. There were some casings I picked up that were outside for quite some time and got pretty tarnished. Is it imperative that I get all the cases back to their original shine or is a little discolor OK to reload? I thought that as long as all the dirt and GSR is removed it would be OK. Feedback is appreciated. I plan on buying a 1911 in the next month or so, so I'm gonna need to get some dies, bullets, and large pistol primers until I'm all set, but this is a start at least. I was so surprised they let me have all the brass. Oh well, I am very happy with this week, I learned how to shoot the Thanks for your replies.:smt1099


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## TOF (Sep 7, 2006)

Stains don't hurt the brass. Just remove all debri and crud that might be sticking to it.

I punch out the primer then vibrate them for 3 or 4 hours. I like shine but it is not required. I have tried running stained cases in walnut shell overnight + and still not removed the stain.

I have a big bucket that I throw the real ugly stuff in just in case it is needed in the future.

Enjoy

tumbleweed


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

Years ago, an old Lyman manual advised de-staining brass cases in a solution of glacial acetic acid.
As far as I know, "glacial acetic acid" is white vinegar.
Try soaking a couple of ugly, deprimed cases in some white vinegar, rinse them well under hot water, and let us know what happens.


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## DevilsJohnson (Oct 21, 2007)

I've reloaded tons of funky looking brass. Sometimes they stain is all. It wont hurt anything.


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## Kyle1337 (Mar 22, 2008)

I've reloaded stained .308 and .223 brass that was heavily stained no matter how long I left in the tumbler...worked just fine. I've also used Hornady and S&B black shells to reload, worked just fine, just a bitch to resize not as flexible as brass.


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## clanger (Jan 27, 2009)

Steel cases usually have Berdan primers in pistol sizes. No always though. To weed them out, use a magnet and inspect the primers. 
If they have two flash holes, chuck 'em. Some de-cap dies that do not have a collet on the decapper pin will get broken. Always check for those in order to avoid the *snap!*. 

Never used the vinegar trick, might have to try that! 
Heard of some soaking green brass in orange peel juice to get the tarnish off then tumbling.


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