Gunk inside tumbled brass

[vmwerks]

I bought a lot of brass from a forum member that had been tumbled in stainless steel media with brasso and detergent. The brass looks beautiful on the outside and for the most part in the inside. I setup my Dillon to do .45's again, dropped some powder into one of the casings. The powder stuck like glue inside the casing mostly around the ring as seen in the photo... what the hell is it? It seems to be located where the bottom of the bullet was seated.

I ran a few through my corn cob media and the stickiness is now gone but WTH?

[Ken Woodford]

Yep. It will come out when you de-prime it.

I've had that happen but I rarely tumble any brass anymore.

Ken

[Revoman]

The ring looks like it might be lube/wax from the seated bullet. I doubt that the SS would use Brasso to clean, prolly just detergent, water and Lemi-Shine. That's what is recommended anyway.

I'm a little surprised that the SS didn't remove the lube though, it does a great job on all of my brass, inside and out. Maybe didn't tumble it long enough?

[Maltese Falcon]

I'm a little surprised that the SS didn't remove the lube though, it does a great job on all of my brass, inside and out. Maybe didn't tumble it long enough?

I agree, my stuff comes out super clean @ about 1 hour with dish washing detergent.

.

[Revoman]

Looking at the pic again, I'm assuming that the media that is stuck in the flash-hole is from the initial cleaning and not yours?

If that's the case then who ever claimed that they cleaned with SS did not. They used media.

I believe that SS media would have evacuated the lube without a problem.

[bfoosh006]

Brasso should NOT ever be used to clean cartridge brass, "the Ammonia actually solvates the copper, not tin or zinc, in the alloy. In theory, this can lead to corrosion cracking; in practice, this theory may or may not be relevent. Sort of like work-hardening your brass in your tumbler." I woulde strongly advise you to use a "polish" specifically made for cleaning cartridge brass.

[bill_k_lopez]

Yeah - that brass was tumbled with media (thats whats in the flash hole) the gunk inside could be from the brasso or any other liquid added to the media.

I spilled some polish in my media while it was running with a bunch of brass and figured so what, it will get mixed up - wrong - without allowing the media to run with the polish first and distribute evenly before adding the brass, what I got was clumps of media and polish stuck inside some of my cases. I had to wash everything out and inspect them one by one to make sure that crud got out, it was dried, hard as rock and almost glued to the inside of some of the cases.

[bruce381]

I do not wet tumble but maybe other than the boolit seal ring you have some detergent residue making them sticky a hot water rinse is in order.

[morrow]

Probably should quit using brasso.

[ireload]

Looks like your brass was not tumbled in s/s media. Having a walnut stuck in the flash hole is very unusual unless the tumbler itself was not cleaned out completely before the s/s was put in. The Brasso and detergent most likely caused that dirt ring inside the brass.

[Munk]

Lubed lead ring from a round that was pulled. I'm guessing it was tumbled, THEN the guy started to load a few and changed their mind.

For me, ALL brass coming in gets run through the tumbler for a while. This helps me to know that I get rid of all old residues, dusts, gunks, and finger-grime.

[vmwerks]

Sorry I didn't recheck this thread.. that's my media in the flash hole. I tumbled them for a while to see if it would get rid of the ridge of gunk.

I tumbled for about 2 hrs and they all load just fine...

[Dutch Henry]

From the photo it looks like the black ring inside the case is asphatum, a sealing compound commonly used to seal the bullets on military ammunition. To remove it, you might try using a small cloth whetted with camp fuel (Coleman Fuel), Naptha or lighter fluid.