[LubeckTech]

I have a bunch of slightly muddy 40 S&W range pick up brass (no nickle plated) that I want to clean up before tumbling. I was thinking of sticking them in a wire basket and hosing them with the spray setting on the nozzle while sturring them and placing in the sun to dry. Is there anything better or additional I can do??

[Certaindeaf]

^
You could do that and then submerge in water (perhaps hot) and agitate and then pour them into a collander/sieve. That should do it.

[bds]

If you have any plastic buckets with tight fitting lids, put the muddy cases in with warm water and a squeeze of dish washing liquid. Roll the bucket around to loosen the dirt and rinse well with water.

[JohnM]

Don't know how many you have or how muddy they are, but I think you'd want to be sure you didn't end up with a deposit inside the cases.
Could be a lot of checking and sorting.

[Certaindeaf]

^
True.. I'd let them soak for a good while before agitating the crap out of them. I like that bucket idea.

[Tim the student]

I usually just put it in a dedicated colander I have and rinse well with water. I dry on a baking sheet lined with foil set in the sun.

[Otto]

Put them in a mesh bag and toss into the washing machine.

[rjrivero]

Muddy brass is where wet tumbling has an advantage to vibratory tumbling. You're going to have to dry the brass anyway, so you may as well polish it while you're removing the mud.

[GLShooter]

Take a pillow case. Dump in brass. Go to local laundromat late in the evening. Deposit 3 quarters and a small amount of soap. Push in lever. Get out latest Shooting Times and relax for twenty minutes. Take them home and spread them out on an old sheet next day for a four hour air dry. Tumble as desired.

Greg

PS: My BACHELOR buddy used to just wash all his in the dish washer. He never used it anyway.

[bds]

Take a pillow case. Dump in brass. Go to local laundromat late in the evening.
Put them in a mesh bag and toss into the washing machine.
Mesh bag will probably do a better job of rinsing away dirt/mud away from cases?

Don't most laundromats have disclaimers that won't allow such cleaning of "non-laundry" items?

[788Ham]

Put it in a tumbler, let the machine do the work, a couple of hours, who's to know? Quit making things so hard.

[gamestalker]

Unless they are seriously packed full of mud, i would just toss them in the tumbler until clean. after they're done, check them as you place them in the shell holder for resizing for any dirt that may still be present.
GS

[Walkalong]

If straight walled pistol cases have a lot of mud in them, water is the way to go. Use your imagination there. If it is just some dirt on the inside, I use a nylon brush and motor. I converted a small centrifuge to hold a brush. I run all range brass over the brush before tumbling. It gets out dirt, spider webs, etc.

http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=143423&stc=1&d=1307198330

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=596052

[Taroman]

In Arizona, mud (dried) filled cases were commonly known as:

Adobe wadcutters!

[GLShooter]

In Arizona, mud (dried) filled cases were commonly known as:

Adobe wadcutters!

Amen!!

Greg

[GLShooter]

Mesh bag will probably do a better job of rinsing away dirt/mud away from cases?

Don't most laundromats have disclaimers that won't allow such cleaning of "non-laundry" items?
Mesh is better but the brass shows. You don't want that!!

Greg

PS: You noticed I did say late in the evening, right?

PPS: I don't do that anymore. I pay a little guy to go in and wash it for me.

[4895]

I have never done it myself, but I have seen on YOUTUBE where a man soaked his brass overnight in a bucket with about 2 gallons of water to 1/2 cup of Simple Green. According to him, you can let it set for up to 24 hours without harm to the brass. After that, he rinsed it out with a garden hose a few times and set it out on newspapers to dry. He cautions that after 3 days of soaking the brass was destroyed. If you keep it to overnight, you will be fine.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7Hq9hJNqJc

[Hacker15E]

Wet tumbling takes care of that problem in a single step. If it's really discolored, a little soak in vinegar before wet tumbling makes 'em generally bright and shiny and clean when finished.

[zxcvbob]

doesnt Simple Green have ammonia in it? I wouldn't use it for brass.

Just swish them around in a bucket of soapy water, take them out one-at-a-time and sling the crud out. Then rinse. Next you need to remove the primers because water is trapped in there.

[GLShooter]

doesnt Simple Green have ammonia in it? I wouldn't use it for brass.

Just swish them around in a bucket of soapy water, take them out one-at-a-time and sling the crud out. Then rinse. Next you need to remove the primers because water is trapped in there.
Ammonia – Does Simple Green® contain ammonia?
No, Simple Green does not contain ammonia.

Per their web site.

Greg

[Pacsd]

let the mud dry out good ON the brass then dump your media out of the tumbler. Put the mud caked brass in the tumbler and let er run. It'll come out pretty clean and another W/media tumbling should do the trick.

[1SOW]

I often have this problem with some very tiny stones mixed in the mud.

I toss all the range brass in a 2.5 gallon bucket and blast it with the hose--nozzle set to the 'stun' position. This gets 98.5% of the crud out..

I then let them 'soak' in a gallon of water with laundry soap and about 1/4 cup of white distilled vinegar for 15 mins. Pour off the liquid for re-use next time. Blast them with the hose again until no suds. Put them on an old towel or something similar laying flat and let them dry outside.
They are and clean and ready to load at this point, or tumble as I do.. This has worked very well for over 20,000 9mm cases I have in stock plus what I've shot for several years.

[dragon813gt]

Just put it in the tumbler. I have a batch of media that I use for initial range pickup cleaning. Yes the media is dirtier than normal. But it still cleans perfectly fine. It's also cheap enough to replace if it gets to dirty for my liking.


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[medalguy]

That's exactly what I do. I also add dryer sheets to pick up at least a little bit of the loose dirt. Be sure you label the media as "FIRST CLEAN" or something similar. You do not want to run finished ammo in this media!:cuss: