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As you all may know, I'm a Brasshore & I've been picking up range brass at a small pit that I frequent. I've been in there quite a bit lately, daily in fact and there has been some really funk-dirty brass so I know it hasn't sat out in the elements and gotten nasty like that. I'd seen a lot like that years before and figured it had been out in the elements for a while.
I do not know why but I assume that it is from being fired in a suppressed weapon,
pistol brass too... What else could it be?

These cases have been in my corn cob with car wax for 2 hours, this media generally spiffies up brass like new... or close to it.

4CAD8BB4-8035-4831-A1D0-C9254A8DE1A5.jpeg

These cases were in the same tumbler for the same amount of time and they look great!!!
:eek::eek::eek:

28B301A5-9118-46F8-8EC3-7D0D4B79C0B2.jpeg
 
Interesting. Time to switch over to wet tumbling? :D



I was just waiting for the first person to mention this, yeah yeah yeah.
This thread is about how they got that funky in the first place, I know how to get them cleaned I'm just wondering WHY...:D

I do have a body that will wet clean my funky brass when I need it. While I don't have a sink in the shop..... YET. I'm not going to make a mess in the shop or my yard.
 
Might be time to change your media. As for what makes the brass dirty, could be too slow of powder with too light of bullet, could be cheap ammo made with the lowest cost surplus mil spec powder or maybe it just started out that way.
 
Maybe someone reloaded a bunch of dirty, grungy brass that they picked up, that had been left out in the elements for a while, then fired them and left them lie?

I've actually done that, in the past. I'd set aside the worst brass from scrounging, but instead of tossing it in the scrap bucket, I'd figure it was good for one more load, and leave it in the dirt.
 
I use walnut and Flitz for initial cleaning, the corncob is used post-resizing to clean off any case lube residue. This works just fine for me, I see no reason to spend the coin to switch over to wet tumbling. No clue as to why/how that brass got so funky, I've never shot a suppressed gun, so no idea if that's the cause. Later.

Dave
 
I use walnut and Flitz for initial cleaning, the corncob is used post-resizing to clean off any case lube residue. This works just fine for me, I see no reason to spend the coin to switch over to wet tumbling. No clue as to why/how that brass got so funky, I've never shot a suppressed gun, so no idea if that's the cause. Later.

Dave

Thanks for that Dave, I have two yugeee Thumlers setup with corncob in both and that has worked well for years but may convert one to walnut and flitz and give it a go.

I did tumble the dirty brass for another 2 hours after I reapplied more wax to the mix and 3\4 turned out to my satisfaction (4 hours of cleaning was needed).:eek::eek::eek:
 
As you all may know, I'm a Brasshore & I've been picking up range brass at a small pit that I frequent. I've been in there quite a bit lately, daily in fact and there has been some really funk-dirty brass so I know it hasn't sat out in the elements and gotten nasty like that. I'd seen a lot like that years before and figured it had been out in the elements for a while.
I do not know why but I assume that it is from being fired in a suppressed weapon,
pistol brass too... What else could it be?

These cases have been in my corn cob with car wax for 2 hours, this media generally spiffies up brass like new... or close to it.

View attachment 702155

These cases were in the same tumbler for the same amount of time and they look great!!!
:eek::eek::eek:

View attachment 702156
2 hours? I will many times tumble dirty brass like what you have there overnight or 12 hours.:eek:
 
Brass could have been "lacquered " over or some type of coating applied at some point in it's life.
Dry tumbling media will not cut thru lacquer...
jmo,
:s0092:
 
2 hours? I will many times tumble dirty brass like what you have there overnight or 12 hours.:eek:

I check them after two hours and they were still dirty so I don't alter allI checked them after two hours and they were still dirty so I let them them run for at least two more hours, so four hours is not bad.
I have, in the past forgot to turn the Tumblr off before I went to bed so it went for over 12 hours.:p
 
Brass could have been "lacquered " over or some type of coating applied at some point in it's life.
Dry tumbling media will not cut thru lacquer...
jmo,
:s0092:

I don't think they were because after 4+ hours of corncob cleaning 3/4 got more shiny. I'll run the dirtiest brass for a while today and see if they will have to go into the "Need wet tumbling bucket"...:D
 
...I did tumble the dirty brass for another 2 hours after I reapplied more wax to the mix ...
I long ago switched to wet tumbling and never looked back, but back when I did use dry I kept two batches of media. One without wax for the initial cleaning and another with wax for the final polish. I found my media lasted waaaaay longer and I used far less wax this way. I'm guessing that adding wax to dirty brass pretty much caused the wax to coat the dirt more than the brass.

So I kept two plastic tubs (with lids) for the media. After the initial cleaning I'd pour the cleaning media back in it's tub and then refill the tumbler with the wax bearing media and run for a short final cleaning / waxing cycle.

Once the cleaning media got dirty enough to need tossing I'd switch the wax bearing media to cleaning duty (as it was barely dirty) and start with a fresh batch of clean media to apply the wax.

It took me longer to type this than it takes to swap media. I found it worked really well for me, I hope this may help you too.

Cheers.
 

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