Brass cleaning questions

[R1pper]

So I just spent my Thanksgiving morning by picking through about and inch of mud and was able to aquire two and a half ammo cans of 223/556 and assortment of 45 brass and a good amount of 45 nickle plated brass. Most of what I yielded today was 223/556.

My questions is, being that the brass was in mud, is ok for me to rinse the brass off with water and let it air dry before I tumble it, as it is heavily coated in mud?

I know all of the brass is once fired and from Tuesday night when an adjacent town's dept had thier night qual. A buddy of mine whom used to be my Sgt (with another dept) called and told me about the brass. So after I got out of work today I went and picked it all up.

Thanks for the info

-DM-

[jmart]

Absolutely. Clean brass in soapy detergent, dry and tumble.

[R1pper]

Absolutely. Clean brass in soapy detergent, dry and tumble.

Outstanding! Thank you and have a Great Thanksgiving

-DM-

[markm]

Yeah. Wash the crap out of it. It might not be a bad idea to inspect each case to be sure all the mud is out.

What I do is soak/wash it, then set it in the bed liner of my truck to dry. If the sun is out the black bed liner gets hot and helps dry out the brass.

[R1pper]

What I do is soak/wash it, then set it in the bed liner of my truck to dry. If the sun is out the black bed liner gets hot and helps dry out the brass.

Yeah well has been kinda cold lately here so that idea is kinda shot, it will most likely refreeze. But that is a very ingenious idea!

-DM-

[DesertWarrior13]

Absolutely. Clean brass in soapy detergent, dry and tumble.

That's what I've done with the brass I've found dirty or muddy.
Dish detergent and hot water. Then rinse. If you have a universal decapping die I would use it first because the water will flow out of the brass easier that way. And it may help to clean the primer pockets a bit.

Also you can put the brass on a large cookie sheet (or two), place in oven. Pre-heat oven on a low temp, once pre-heated turn oven off and let the brass dry. Let cool before serving.

[markm]

I can remember wonder WTF people were washing brass for on TOS.

Then it rained here finally.

[zippygaloo]

How do you clean the brass on loaded ammunition? I was given some 20 year old Norma and Remington soft point .270 ammunition that was stored under a house (in a kind of storage crawl area). The conditions were dry, but being under a house I cannot say how much moisture has reached them over the years. There appears to be some spotty corrosion or something on some of the rounds.

1. Can I clean old loaded ammunition?
2. How can I know if it's good to shoot?
3. What will happen if the ammo is bad?

[markm]

You could tumble it. Or clean it up by hand.

If the brass isn't deteriorated to the point of serious corrosion, then I'd shoot it.

[zippygaloo]

What product or method should I use to clean it?