darksiders

[Chickamauga Charlie, SASS #47963]

after the stage what are your steps for preserving and processing the brass?

[Flying W Ramrod]

At a multi-day shoot, I'll drop them in a jug of simple green and water. Once back at the casa, I'll deprime and run through the tumbler with ceramic media and liquid cleaner.

After it comes out of the tumbler, one more rinse cycle and into the oven at 200 for 20 minutes to dry it and back in the "load me now" box.

[Prairie Dawg, SASS #50329]

For local shoots, I put it in a canvas bag until I get home.

Then dump into a jug of water with a squirt of dish soap.

Shake it around & let sit a day or three.

Rinse & tumble.

--Dawg

[Rye Miles #13621]

For local shoots, I put it in a canvas bag until I get home.

Then dump into a jug of water with a squirt of dish soap.

Shake it around & let sit a day or three.

Rinse & tumble.

--Dawg

 

 

Yep that werks fer me too!

[Cowboy Rick, SASS #49739L]

Same process as above for a local or multi day. Rinse with very hot water, spread on a towel to dry for a day or so, tumble til yer happy.

 

A jug with a handle makes it easy to tote to and from the unloading table.

 

CR

[Ranger Sgt. Jake McCandless #3368]

Yep that werks fer me too!

Make that three of us. Adios Sgt. Jake

[Virgil Ray Hality, SASS# 37355]

I just drop them in a jar of hot soapy water and shake it up a bit, then rinse, then dry on a table top, the tuble till shiney. its easy.

[Cliff Hanger #3720LR]

In my gun cart I have a Gatorade bottle with about 3 caps full of Simple Green. By the time I get home the brass has bee bouncing around in that bottle. I shape it for about 30 seconds then dump it out over a large rag. The bundle it up and turn it all about to get most of the solution out of the cases.

 

Next step is to toss rinse it with hot tap water until the water runs clean. Dump it out on another rag to get most of the water out of the cases. Summer I set it out in the sun. Winter I set it on top the stove. (I still have pilot lights on my burners)

 

I stopped leaving my brass in the solution over night or days due. Makes it much easier to get the light darkinging from the solution than the days worth.

[Hondo Dan, SASS #45041]

Bag brass until we get home. Throw brass in a solution of half water and half white vinegar for about five minutes to neutralize the BP residue. It will fizz until it is neutral. Rinse well and throw into tumbler wet. Leave lid on for about half hour. Take lid off and tumble for another half hour. Brass will be bright, shiny and dry.

 

Hondo Dan

[Gunner Gatlin, SASS 10274L]

Have a container of soapy water, dump the brass in it after a stage.....forget about it for the rest of the day. The drive home agitates 'em ( ). Next day they are removed from the soapy water and get sprayed down with regular water...they air dry for a day or so....then tumble for a few hours.

 

...off to the reloadin' procedure.

 

GG ~

[Driftwood Johnson, SASS #38283]

Howdy

 

No need to drag a jug around from stage to stage all day. My brass goes into a canvas bag at every stage. At the car I dump it into a jug of water with a squirt dish soap in it. I don't allow vinegar anywhere near my guns or my brass. Leave brass in vinegar for too long and the acid will begin to leach the copper out of the brass, making it brittle.

 

The brass rides home in in the jug on the floor of the car. You can talk about 'neutralizing' acids or bases until the cows come home, but the real name of the game is diluting the fouling with plenty of water. Diluting simply means watering it down, not changing the pH. As long as the black stuff stays stirred up in the water, it ain't going to settle out on the brass again.

 

Then like every body else, I rinse the brass out real good with fresh tap water and set it out to dry. I have my own sieve that I bought at the super market just for rinsing my brass. I used to heat it in the oven at about 200 degrees, these days I just let it air dry for a day or too before tumbling it. I spread out a couple of paper towels on a cookie sheet and let the brass air dry. Heating it in the oven tended to stain it a little bit.

 

My brass never comes out super shiny again, it is always a dark brass color. But shiny brass does not shoot any better than stained brass, it is just easier to find in the grass. Not even a consideration with pistol brass unless you throw it on the ground.

 

I have found that if I don't soak my brass within about 24 hours verdigrs (brass oxide) will form inside the brass and gets a little bit difficult to remove. But the end of the match is plenty of time.

 

I sometimes rinse out my brass the same day, I have also left it in the jug for weeks on end. It gets pretty black after a few weeks in the jug, and never gets nice and shiny again, but it still shoots just fine.

 

One nice thing about rinsing your brass is it rinses away any grit the brass may have picked up off the ground. Grit can ruin your dies. The other nice thing about rinsing your brass is it rinses away any nasty lead styphnate or other nasty residues left behind by the primers. Tumbling alone will not do that, the nasty stuff winds up in the media and you breathe it as dust. In fact, after rinsing and drying there is no necessity to tumble brass at all, it can be loaded up again after rinsing and drying. Tumbling just helps it get shiny again.

[Chickamauga Charlie, SASS #47963]

hmm okeydoke,

zacly what i do; half water, half windex w/vinegar jug at the match, shake it out the next day, throw it in the tumbler with a little dillon polish and as always, they come out black! since i only go black once a year or so, figured i must be missing a step. maybe i never rinse em out enough, maybe i dont let them dry enough. never used the oven, just time and paper towels. polly always says i ruined her pretty brass.

thanks for the help.

CC

[WEEDY SASS#653]

For local shoots, I put it in a canvas bag until I get home.

Then dump into a jug of water with a squirt of dish soap.

Shake it around & let sit a day or three.

Rinse & tumble.

--Dawg

 

I do this but with one difference. Rinse DRY tumble. Believe it or not I once help a pard clean out all his brass that he dumped into the tumbler WET. What a mess, corn cob or whatever it was stuck in all the brass. He felt kinda dumb at the time. We just laugh about it now

[Driftwood Johnson, SASS #38283]

hmm okeydoke,

zacly what i do; half water, half windex w/vinegar jug at the match, shake it out the next day, throw it in the tumbler with a little dillon polish and as always, they come out black! since i only go black once a year or so, figured i must be missing a step. maybe i never rinse em out enough, maybe i dont let them dry enough. never used the oven, just time and paper towels. polly always says i ruined her pretty brass.

thanks for the help.

CC

 

You have to rinse the brass several times until the rinse water runs clear. If the rinse water does not run clear, there is still fouling on the brass.

 

Go to the supermarket and buy a sieve. Pour the brass directly into the sieve, allowing the rinse water to pour out with it. Completely empty the jug. Pour in fresh water. Dump the brass back into the new water. The water will turn dark, but not as dark as it was to begin with. Pour it through the sieve again. Dump the brass back into fresh water again.

 

Repeat until the brass is sitting in clear water in the jug. It will only take three or four cycles. You have now washed away all the fouling.

 

Like I said forget about acids and bases and pH. Think about diluting with plenty of fresh water. Once the rinse water is clear, the brass is clean. Then you can dry it and tumble it. Once you have rinsed all the fouling away, the brass will not get any darker. Leave some fouling on the brass, and you will get more staining.

[Dirty Chris]

I do this but with one difference. Rinse DRY tumble. Believe it or not I once help a pard clean out all his brass that he dumped into the tumbler WET. What a mess, corn cob or whatever it was stuck in all the brass. He felt kinda dumb at the time. We just laugh about it now

 

If you let it tumble longer, eventually it will dry and all that mess will come out of the cases on it's own. I don't dry my brass before tumbling. Rinse, drain, dump on a towel and roll it around to get as much water out as I can, then toss it in the tumbler for a few hours.

 

To answer the OP, I put my brass into a water/dish soap jug immediately after each stage at the range, rinse and tumble when I get home. It looks shiny and new afterwards.

[Smithy]

I just continue to bag the brass as the day goes on, one day shoot or two. At the end of the shoot after depriming, I put the brass in HOT water with Dawn soap into Zip lock bags. That way I can turn the bags over and agitate it somewhat. I then use a sieve to strain the brass out and put the brass into clear hot water in a bucket.

Repeat until the brass is sitting in clear water in the jug. It will only take three or four cycles. You have now washed away all the fouling.

After the brass water comes up clear I put the brass into the tumbler and tumble for 30 to 45 minutes and I'm ready to load. Smithy.

[John Boy]

The brass stays dirty and dry until I get home. Decap the primers when they are dry - less messy. Then hot tap water + a dash of Dawn. Next, into the rotary tumbler with the media and burnishing solution. Two minute drying with a hair dryer and into a can for the next reloading session

[Prof. Fuller Bullspit]

I think that vinegar contributes to blackening of the brass. I won't use it. I leave the brass dry until I get home and then use dish soap on it. The brass doesn't go black, but really never gets shiny again.

[Chickamauga Charlie, SASS #47963]

prof.,

missed you sat! thought you'd a been there.

CC

[Cliff Hanger #3720LR]

"zacly what i do; half water, half windex w/vinegar jug"

 

1/2 and 1/2 is way too much windex/vinegar.

It was said before. It will make your brass brittle and turn it helps turn it black.

 

Quart of water and 2 or 3 caps full of dish soap or Simple Green will do it. And if you don't have those..plain water will do just fine.

[Brasspounder]

All my BP brass just gets bagged until I get it home, don't need any special attention until

then.

 

Then I decap 'em and put 'em in a large jar with warm to hot water and a

capfull of Mr. Clean, or ordinary dish soap. Getting the spent primers out first

lets the flash holes and primer pockets get flushed too.

 

Shake well, then let 'em sit while I clean up the guns, or overnight completely immersed in the

water until I get to it the next day or so.

 

Then I rinse 'em with several rinses of clean water, and hang 'em mouth down on a drying rack I made

out of a board with a whole bunch of tall screws in it, enough for sixty cases at a time.

 

After a day or so they are plumb dry and ready to resize, expand, reprime and reload.

 

The brass gets dark, but what the hell, it is clean and that is all that really matters.

[Gunner Gatlin, SASS 10274L]

Howdy

 

No need to drag a jug around from stage to stage all day.....

 

Pard, having a small jug of soapy water in the cart isn't isn't any more effort to drag around than the cart iteself. You make it sound like a chore - far from it....Nothing wrong with starting the cleaning process right then and there. It's simple - and effective.

 

GG ~

[Slowhand Bob, 24229]

On the cart is a small canvas bag, inside the bag is a Metamucil tub and inside the tub is a mixture of purple Kaboom with water. I like to use the small bored through wood blocks for loading ammo at the table and my block is fitted and attached by thong to a leather pouch which it can ride in while loaded up with ammo. After loading at the table I just let the wood block hang out to allow me to drop my empty brass into the pouch at the unloading table. When I return to the cart, the brass gets dumped into the cleaner solution until it gets home. At home I use two plastic colanders to toss the brass between after it has been well rinsed, wait a couple of days to dry and tumble. My cleaning solution is mixed weak, my media is old and so, my brass isnt the shinyest at the match but my hat catches most of it anyhows!

[Noz]

The brass stays dirty and dry until I get home. Decap the primers when they are dry - less messy. Then hot tap water + a dash of Dawn. Next, into the rotary tumbler with the media and burnishing solution. Two minute drying with a hair dryer and into a can for the next reloading session

 

Yup!

[Gunner Gatlin, SASS 10274L]

The brass stays dirty and dry until I get home. Decap the primers when they are dry - less messy. Then hot tap water + a dash of Dawn. Next, into the rotary tumbler with the media and burnishing solution. Two minute drying with a hair dryer and into a can for the next reloading session

 

I actually tumble with the old primers in to keep the media out of the primer pocket....after tumbling I then deprime, size, etc..

 

GG ~

[Cowboy Rick, SASS #49739L]

Ya gotta put yer brass somewhere - just as well handle it once and put it in a small jug of water/Dawn with a handle. Next time you see it is at home in the gun room sink, rinsing in a seive 'til clean. lay 'em on a towen until tomorrow, into the tumbler on a timer. Piece of cake.

 

CR

[Fairshake]

I take a small one gallon bucket to the range in the bed of my truck. It contains about 1/2 gallon of water with a ounce or so of Dawn/Oxy and Lemon juice. I dump the brass in after the match is over and with about a 1 hour drive home in the bed of the 3/4 ton, it receives a good washing action. When it is opened at the house, the water is very black. I take it and put it in a stainless wire mesh collander(Wally World)and rinse it until the water runs clear. Then I put it in my Model B with ceramic and a squirt of that Dawn/Oxy. About three hours later it looks like it is brand new brass both inside and out.The other media will clean the outside of black powder cases but not the inside.

[Hondo Dan, SASS #45041]

I used to put brass in a Crown Royal bag or empty shot bag at the range and found that the BP residue would eat holes thru the cloth bags, indicating to me there was something acidic or caustic in the BP residue. Whatever it was needed to be neutralized in order not to damage the brass. Found that vinegar when applied to the BP residue on the cases, fizzed and foamed and would do so until the residue was neutralized. As stated in my original post, this takes no longer than 5 minutes. Stand there and watch it. When it stops fizzing, rinse thoroughly, shake off excess water and throw directly into tumbler. If brass are left in vinegar much more than 5 minutes, they will darken.

 

I have been using this method of cleaning brass for 3 years and it has not made the cases brittle. Been using the same brass for about 5 years.

 

The guy with the cases full of tumbling media just didn't leave it in tumbler long enough. Another reason I take the lid off the tumbler for the last 20 minutes or so, is to let the media dry out.

 

Got a leather brass bag from Doc Noper. BP residue won't eat holes in leather.

 

Bottom line..... use whatever method you think is best. This works for me and takes the least amount of time.

 

Hondo Dan

[ol poke SASS 57567]

I used to carry a large plastic coffee can in my cart, half full of warm soapy water. After each stage, I'd dump my brass in there. When I got home, I'd dump the water out, fill with fresh water and shake. Repeated until the water came out clean, then dumped on the patio until they dry, then tumble and reload.

 

After a few matches where the soapy water leaked into my guncart, I had to find a better way.

 

I now leave the coffee can half-full of soapy water in the back of the truck. My dirty brass goes into a canvas money bag until after the match, then I dump the brass into the coffee can for the ride home. Rinsed, dried, tumbled and reloaded as above.

 

The soap for my water is whatever the squirt handsoap (not sanitizer), dishsoap or whatever they have in the clubhouse. If there ain't none, I'll just use the hose water.

 

ol' poke

[Prof. Fuller Bullspit]

prof.,

missed you sat! thought you'd a been there.

CC

 

 

I was camping with the cub scouts. It is just as noisy and even messier than shooting black powder!

[Driftwood Johnson, SASS #38283]

Pard, having a small jug of soapy water in the cart isn't isn't any more effort to drag around than the cart iteself. You make it sound like a chore - far from it....Nothing wrong with starting the cleaning process right then and there. It's simple - and effective.

 

After a few matches where the soapy water leaked into my guncart, I had to find a better way.

 

My logic exactly. Mr Murphy being who he is, whenever I mix guncarts and liquids, something always spills. Easier for be to keep them dry until I get back to the car.

[Gunner Gatlin, SASS 10274L]

When one already has a container that doesn't spill the 'better way' has been found.

 

GG

[Gunner Gatlin, SASS 10274L]

(blackberry doesn't make it easy to respond lol) anyway...if one does spill a little in the cart..big deal. I have shot in the rain and the cart gets wet anyway. My container is exposed outside of the ammo box so any internal spillage worries are non existent.

 

GG

[Rex M Rugers #6621]

Nothing new here , I do same as several others , bag the brass at the match , deprime when I get home or the next day , rinse it off with dish soap and water , the tumble in wet ceramic media. Rinse the black stuff off brass and out of tumbler , pour brass onto screen that I built to dry it on. In our climate , drys pretty quick.

Keep em smokin , Rex

[Jed I. Knight, SASS #36423]

I just rinse 'em off real good when I get home, throw 'em in the oven to dry for a bit and then tumble 'em for a couple of hours.