Necks... Dirty or Corroded?

[CptnAwesome]

Okay these are 22-250. Fired maybe a year ago, H380 powder. They've been sitting in my "to be processed" lot but I'm just now getting to them. After depriming/resizing and going around the necks with Scotch Brite, vibratory tumbling for about 6 hours in walnut media, they look like this. Some came somewhat clean, others look to be corroded. I tried to scrape the "black" off with a needle to see if I could get through it, but no go. I think they have corroded and I'm leaning towards tossing them.

And experience with this? Thoughts? Input?

 

[Walkalong]

Dirty

 

[Yankee1986]

I recently tumbled approx. 2000 .223 Rem. cases in Lyman Turbo tumbler corncob green media for 2 hrs and then fine walnut media for another 2 hrs.

I'd say 10% of the necks looked similar.

I'm loading them, looks like stained brass to me, not corrosion. IMHO.

 

[AJC1]

Brass corrosion is green.... sailors call it vertigree

 

[243winxb]

Try steel wool 0000

 

[rocirish]

I think they will come clean with a little tumbling.

 

[TEXASJD]

Just dirty

 

[mdi]

In my opinion "corrosion" is etched, eroded away metal. Usually with a rough finish. The case in the pic appears to be just dirty or carbon stained...

 

[troy fairweather]

Load them up.

 

[Cheesemaker]

Wet tumble them with pins

 

[lordpaxman]

.22-250 was the first cartridge I learned to reload. I couldn’t afford a tumbler back then so I just used steel wool to remove what I thought was carbon on the necks. It’s a PIA to get rid of but didn’t affect the rounds if left there. Wet tumbling will get rid of it.

 

[Howa 9700]

Can't recall where it saw it, but reference was to the dirty case necks. Was a sign that the freebore area of the chamber was also dirty and was not allowing the cartridge necks to fully expand to the chamber wall to seal the chamber, allowing the potential dangerous condition of gas flowing back at you......among other things.

Solution was to give the chamber / throat area a good scrub. I am working with a rifle that had that condition, had dirty case necks. Have worked the chamber throat area over pretty good, but have not yet shot it again to find out if that helped. FWIW.

 

[lightman]

I'm going to say that its dirt, probably carbon. Wet tumbling will clean it up pretty quick. Dry tumbling will take much longer. Steel wool works well if you only have a few to do but would get old if you're doing a lot.

 

[AK Hunter]

I use a Lee jig in my hand drill to spin the brass as I hold 0000 steel wool against the brass to remove that black residue.

 

[CptnAwesome]

Awesome. Thanks for the advice all!!! That's good to hear, because most are Remington cases which most of my load data is for.

I'll try steel wool to get off what I can. Sounds like what doesn't come off will be fine.

 

[mdi]

Add a bit of oil to the steel wool when spinning a case. You'll get a better finish on the brass.

 

[Scout21]

I've found alcohol or paint thinner works great at cleaning carbon off of all but the dirtiest of cases. I've seen where some people throw a dash of paint thinner in their vibratory tumblers to keep the dust down while simultaneously cleaning up carbon.

 

[W.E.G.]

Your rifle does not care that the necks are dirty.

I tumble my brass in dirty walnut-shell media for about 4 hours. Most of my brass comes out looking like that. Been using the same RCBS sizing die since the 90's. So I can safely say dirty case-necks "don't hurt" the die. Probably sized a good 50,000 cases (that looked just like that) in that die. The gun doesn't care.

If you like squeaky-shiny brass, there are ways to turn the most disgusting, dug-out-of-the-mud cases into stuff that will blind you with shine. That clean, it also might cold-weld the bullet to the neck, and the primer to the primer pocket.

There's a certain procedure and rigmarole to prepping brass to get it super-duper shiny. I don't care for that either. Probably because I'm so used to my "old ways."

My brass gets tumbled (in the dirty walnut shells), then tossed on a (dirty) towel to get a lot of the dust off the tumbled brass. Then lubed and sized/deprimed all at once. The looby-reszized brass gets washed in a bucket (3 quick rinses in hot water) in the bathtub. Then it gets tossed on a different (but also dirty) towel to get some of the water off it. Then it gets laid out in old boxes (been using same boxes for over 20 years) in the basement to dry for two days. Then it gets bagged/canned and labeled.

The walnut shells get topped-off in the tumbler as some of it gets spilled during the process of fetching the dirty brass in and out of the tumbler. The dust probably isn't good for you. So, wet-tumbling does have that going for it, on account of you ain't gotta breathe tumbler dust. I been breathing it since the 80's. Probably due for some cancer from the exposure. I'm OK with that. I already done all I set out to do in this life. Well except those cases on the bench that need to be primed. I gotta get that done.

 

[AK Hunter]

Add a bit of oil to the steel wool when spinning a case. You'll get a better finish on the brass.

Most steel wool has a little oil on it to start with to keep it from rusting.

 

[Show Me]

I've found alcohol or paint thinner works great at cleaning carbon off of all but the dirtiest of cases. I've seen where some people throw a dash of paint thinner in their vibratory tumblers to keep the dust down while simultaneously cleaning up carbon.

window cleaner on a paper towel takes off one shot and carbon plenty for me

 

[Scout21]

window cleaner on a paper towel takes off one shot and carbon plenty for me

Just the standard blue Windex stuff? Do you rinse it off afterwards? Will have to try that. Thanks!