Bought some .38 Spec brass at the gun show yesterday and some if it has a rose/copper hue to it. Ran it thru tumbler for couple of hours and there is a difinite difference in some of the case colors. itg doesnt matter as there are different head stamps affected. Does anybody know what cause this case discoloration ??
Brass color?
- Thread starter gns4me
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NMachine
Member
Too much Lemi Shine used during tumbling. But test them to make sure the odd colored ones aren’t copper washed steel cases.
243winxb
Member
Could be a number of things. None of them good.
ParallelCode
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I've done this to brass via lemishine. Didn't seem to hurt anything.
243winxb
Member
Not good. -
Vinegar. Ammonia from laying outdoors or as a cleaner. More then 2 drops of Dawn, contains 5% ethanol. Alcohol products. Soaking in old NRA formula, containing salt, vinegar, detergent.
Drying in oven at to high a temperature, or forgetting its in there.
Forgetting the tumbler is running, removes surface zinc.
Some fool tried to anneal it..
Let me think, i can make up a few more.
Not an issue in low pressure 38 special loading. My guess. Load and shoot.
Vinegar. Ammonia from laying outdoors or as a cleaner. More then 2 drops of Dawn, contains 5% ethanol. Alcohol products. Soaking in old NRA formula, containing salt, vinegar, detergent.
Drying in oven at to high a temperature, or forgetting its in there.
Forgetting the tumbler is running, removes surface zinc.
Some fool tried to anneal it..
Let me think, i can make up a few more.
Not an issue in low pressure 38 special loading. My guess. Load and shoot.
LiveLife
Member
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc to make it malleable to better contain chamber pressures instead of case splitting/rupturing and expansion/spring back quality of brass case mouth/neck allows easier extraction of spent cases from chamber.
Too much acid in the wash solution can leech zinc from brass expressed by rose/pink hue and this will make brass more brittle and more susceptible to case splitting. And no amount of tumbling/polishing will remove this color.
As others mentioned, for low pressure .38 Spl loads, may be OK but for higher pressure loads like 9mm/40S&W, I would consider tossing the brass for recycling.
I have gotten good quality, mostly range/once-fired brass from several members on the trading subcategory at very good prices - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?forums/buy-sell-and-trade-reloading-components-and-gear.50/
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ParallelCode
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Not good. -
Vinegar. Ammonia from laying outdoors or as a cleaner. More then 2 drops of Dawn, contains 5% ethanol. Alcohol products. Soaking in old NRA formula, containing salt, vinegar, detergent.
Drying in oven at to high a temperature, or forgetting its in there.
Forgetting the tumbler is running, removes surface zinc.
Some fool tried to anneal it..
Let me think, i can make up a few more.
Not an issue in low pressure 38 special loading. My guess. Load and shoot.
Can you elucidate more in regards to the negative impact of alcohol on brass? I've used rubbing alcohol on a microfiber cloth to remove case lube, seemingly without issue.
bluetopper
Member
Yes please elucidate.
PWC
Member
You bought at a gun show....you don't know what happened before then....improperly wet cleaned
243winxb
Member
I google the effect of gas with ethonal years ago. I dug this out from my old post.
And got the photo from the test i read..
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243winxb
Member
I dont know how to link to a PDF file.
Googe to down load 109 pages of the study.
Googe to down load 109 pages of the study.
LiveLife
Member
- Copy pdf link
- Highlight text
- Click "Link" button to the right of font color/size buttons
- Paste pdf link
- Click "Insert" button
N555
Member
I have created and shot plenty of pink or copper colored 223 and 9mm brass cases while I was experimenting with getting wet pin chemicals right. I used the copper color 9mm to designate my supper hot 9mm+p+ sub machine gun ammo after I ran out of "+P" head stamp and nickle cases.
38spl loaded to 38spl pressure is no danger.
38spl loaded to 38spl pressure is no danger.
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