Best way to clean plated brass?

Tumble it just like any other brass.

It will come out looking like new.

rc

yup, what he said

I tumble it in stainless steel and it doesn't affect the plating

I use a vibratory machine, some corn and walnut media and a little polish - come out slick and clean like new

GaryL said:

I always thought tumbling it would remove the plating. But if not, in the tumbler it goes.

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Over many shooting, resizing and tumbling cycles, the nickel plating may begin to wear off exposing the brass case underneath. The operative word is may.

No big deal, just keep using them until they crack or get lost.

If you want the bling for your carry loads, set these cases with the thinning nickel plating aside for pratice.

I have some nickel plated 38 Special cases that look they have a nickel wash instead of a real plating job.

Occasionally, a case, or a few cases in a batch were not plated correctly and the plating may flake off. But this is very rare and not worth worrying about. I cannot remember the last time I found a case with flaking off plating, maybe in the 1990s but I have certainly slept since then.

FWIW I have a pile of 38 SPL plated brass that has been shot and cleaned so much the only place the plating is left is in the headstamp and around the rim groove. Also some of it the headstamp is almost gone as well. As above clean as usual and load. If cleaning a bunch of plated only in corn cob or walnut the time to clean them is about 1/3-1/2 that of regular brass for complete cleaning in my tumbler.

FROGO207 said:

FWIW I have a pile of 38 SPL plated brass that has been shot and cleaned so much the only place the plating is left is in the headstamp and around the rim groove.

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Yes, I have some 38 Special nickel plated cases that have been tumbled so much that they look like brass cases when mixed with nickel plated cases but look like nickel plated cases when mixed with brass cases.