Soaking brass cartridges in diluted vinegar

Even the potential of weakening cases is not worth the risk or savings.

I soaked a batch of LC 30-06 brass in straight vinegar for a couple of days (to remove some black tar substance from the casings). Tumbled with baking soda to neutralize and put them in ziplocs. Brass is neither pink nor orange, no spots either. It has been a year. I won't do that again as a precaution but so far I haven't noticed any ill effects.

I read somewhere about a product called Citronox for ultrasonic cleaning. I bought a gallon of it from Amazon for about $40.00. I mix it in a ratio of 1 part to 30 parts of tap water. I have tried a bunch of home made solutions as well as some commercial such as the Hornady. The Citronox solution has been working the best for me. In my opinion the Hornady was awful.

I started using it to primarily remove lubes from turning necks and case lubes which does a faster and more thorough job than tumbling. This process has been working great for me. I will admit that I do tumble after to make them even more shiny. I find it makes them shoot better (LOL)

Each of us has or own way. That's what makes the world go round.

Do try vinegar in chicken BBQ sauce and cucumber salad though!

I've used vinegar and salt water bath on cases I've dragged back from the outdoor range. some of the cases are so tarnished they're essentially black. Never need 15 mins though to get them clean though. at most I've worked them for about 5. Wash them off and dry them and a quick shot through the tumbler and they're just like new.

Have yet to have a case washed in vinegar fail on me. Then again - I really only need to do it once, and only on the ones that tumbling the first time didn't work on.

Don't over-clean your brass.

Your guns will not know the difference unless the brass fails.

Do try vinegar in chicken BBQ sauce and cucumber salad though!

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Quartermaster, hot peppers, my wife's family in south Texas saved all the wild peppers they could find during hunting season and saved them for us. Some of the peppers there are referred to as being ornamental here.

F. Guffey

In case anyone is curious about what's in Lemi-Shine, as I was:


http://www.chemistry-blog.com/2012/05/18/whats-in-lemi-shine/

Half cup citric acid, teaspoon Dawn washing up liquid, half gallon hot water. Mix. Immerse brass for 15 mins. Drip dry, tumble polish. Safe, effective, uncomplicated.

My process:

I can fit 2 600 ml beakers in my cleaner which is filled with water.

One flask has water and crushed asprin USAN (4 tablets) and the other water and baking soda. I rotate batches and do a final run in plain water. It is work but i do it along with other tasks.

I had some rather scarce rifle cases that were brown but otherwise fine. Dunked them in a cup of grocery store white vinegar for ten minutes, then into a fresh water rinse, then tumbled in walnut overnight. Clean and shiny.
Not worth the effort on generic range brass.