Clean-up factory loaded ammo
 

Iam looking for help to clean-up the brass on some factory loaded ammo, it was stored in a cool dry place, but after some years (10??) I inspected it and found the brass had discolored, may have some oxidation on it kind of dirty finish on it, tried some brass case cleaner I had and removed a bunch, then steel wool. Its Nosler factory loaded stuff and shot some today, they grouped well, just like to clean them up. Thanks, I do reload and would like to salvage the brass for future loading. !!

Shoot them then clean brass...wet tumble, dry tumble with flux, or sonic cleaner depending on the level of clean wanted.

Do not use any brass cleaner (like Brasso?) that contains ammonia,
as it can leach alloy and cause the brass to be brittle and weak.

Steel wool can leave small iron particles embedded in the brass, which could rust and/or scratch dies.

The Lee shell holders from their basic case length trim system work great in a small drill press to spin the case and clean the worst of the tarnish off with Scotchbrite before tumbling & polishing in walnut.
If you do not have a tumbler just finish with Scotchbrite and polish.

Good Luck, YMMV.

Scotch brite pad , can get different grades

Tumble them
 

Works like a charm.

If you are close and don’t have a tumbler I can help you out.

If you don't have a walnut/corn type tumbler Hoppes 9 on a piece of cloth. They don't need to be shiny you just need to take the dirt off and Hoppes won't hurt the brass or your gun.

Cleaning loaded ammo.
 

Thanks for the idea's, will sonic clean and tumble in media after firing them. All good. !!

Oops, misunderstood the question. I thought people were talking about tumbling loaded ammo, when I missed reading the part where the op noted they 'grouped well'.

The ammonium hydroxide in good old Hoppes #9 will react with brass and copper, no way should you be wiping cartridges down with it.

Scotch brite/Brilo pads for nasty goop, a soft cloth for the rest, fire them and get them into a tumbler.

Many suggest that it is a bad practice to vibratory tumble loaded rounds, as it may cause removal of graphite coating on some powder grains which may change the burn rate.

Good Luck, YMMV.

That's what I was going with, a possible change in burn rate due to powder disintegration, but I edited it out as it wasn't what was being discussed.

It also doesn't happen, at least with stick powders like H and IMR. I tested this myself, half filled some 460 Weatherby cases with quite a few different powders like Benchmark, Varget, 4895, 4350, 4831, 7828 SSC etc. and capped it with a seated bullet. Put them in RCBS vibratory cleaner for 2 to 96 hours. They were nice and shiny after 2 hours. Absolutely no dust of any kind or visible change to the powder granules.

Tumbling loaded
 

How do you thing the manufacturer gets them so shiny????

Looks like I am doing everything wrong. My brass gets well used but I am not a “volume” shooter in the sense of shooting large lots of brass in a single outing. Typically, I load a dozen pcs of brass ... shoot a fouler or two ...then two five shot groups....and repeat 4 - 5 days each week. Once home, I wipe the carbon blowback on the necks, using a bit of RCBS case lube 2 on a piece of Kleenex > a couple of turns gets most of it, but over a couple of weeks it builds up (brass has been reloaded about ten times) > > so I decide to make the necks shiny again with a wipe of brasso. Wipe the brasso off and it is good to go again. The end result of this “cycle” is that most of my brass goes through 25 - 30+ reloads. Sometimes I anneal but not as often as I did a few years ago. I also spin brass on occasion using steel wool (neck only). I have never tumbled brass!
This is what works for me. I have no reason to suspect that cleaning with brasso has had any noticeable detrimental affect on the service life of the brass, or it’s performance. Perhaps that is because the brasso is only in contact with the brass for about 5 minutes before being wiped of? My opinion...clean brass shoots well...clean, shiny brass does not shoot any better.

Fir stubborn Verdigris on brass cases I squirt a bit of Amzoil Injector cleaner on a rag and rub them , works great
G96 and Mercury Quicksilver Power Tune also work .
A couple well known match shooter acquaintances of mine also dry tumble loaded rounds to get the case lube off them.
I never did try it personally , I just use a rag.:)
Cat

Here’s a step-by-step of what I do.
First, brass after firing 20 times.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...6896ec0f4a.jpg

Step 2 ... neck wiped with RCBS Case Lube 2
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...99c97625c9.jpg

Step 3 ... only when I want them shiny. Brasso
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...1f181f767b.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...0f013908fb.jpg

The “lot”.... this 308 brass has 20 reloads.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...98df87f58a.jpg

Looks like I annealed this lot at 11 reloads. I will probably not anneal again, shoot it another 10 times and trash it. After 30 reloads, it owes me nothing:)

cleaned factory brass.!!
 

Thanks to everyones input here, got some fine scotch brite and cleaned majority off, fired them and then soaked in Hornady Sonic cleaner- then tumbled, good to go..! bright and shinny !! KPCRK !!

I use to tumble,resize, tumble again. If I wanted really shiny brass I used 0000 steel wool with a Lee holder in my variable speed drill.

Now, I tumble in Walnut, quick wipe to remove dust, inspect, resize, tumble in a wet tumbler with or without SS pins inspect again. Also made a board with about 150 small finishing nails in it to hold the brass for drying, reload shoot repeat.