What Color is Your Brass?

[MarkInNashville]

I shot at an outdoor range yesterday and was picking up brass and it got me to thinking. Does anyone know if it is safe to use discolored brass casings? I'm not talking about some with a bit of dirt on it - I understand what polishing takes off but ones that have been in the weather for so long that they have turned that deep, dark bronze color. I even picked up one that had turned blue or purplish... like it had seen a very high temperature. Found a nickel plated case (the chrome silver ones). The interior of it had the plating peeling out. (Interestingly enought this ones primer was rusting too).

 

I'm not a terrably picky person but I tossed all the above examples, what do yall think?

[Raoul]

I've shot discolored and nickel plated with no problems.

[leroy]

Mark:____________

If it's brass it will clean up.  There may be some pits or scratches.  They dont mean much. As Rauol said; it will load ok.  That bein said; beware of the steel cased stuff (...check with a magnet...).  It will stick in your reloading sizing die.  Probably cant get it out without ruining the die.

 

Hope this helps.

leroy

[bikertrash2001]

I've been keeping a close eye on the nickel cases. If they peel, I toss them. I don't have enough that it makes that big of a dent in my pile.

[Jonnin]

the nickel stuff I reload and leave it; I have had terrible luck using it more than 1-2 times before it has a problem.  Its not as stretchy as brass and in short order your primer hole is too big and your mouth will split.  It works great those first couple of goes, and possibly a few more depending on caliber in question.

 

Most of my brass is brass colored, most of it the darkish color that you get after exposure to air for a decade or so; I do not care to clean it to the point that it looks like gold.  A little of it is reddish high-copper color, and those work just fine. 

 

I use a strong magnet from an old hard drive; it can suck the steel cases out of a pile from 6 inches away and I think it can hold about 30 pounds of highly magnetic steel against gravity.  They don't make them as strong anymore, but if you have a 1990s era disk .... get the magnets out!

[peejman]

I shot at an outdoor range yesterday and was picking up brass and it got me to thinking. Does anyone know if it is safe to use discolored brass casings? I'm not talking about some with a bit of dirt on it - I understand what polishing takes off but ones that have been in the weather for so long that they have turned that deep, dark bronze color. I even picked up one that had turned blue or purplish... like it had seen a very high temperature. Found a nickel plated case (the chrome silver ones). The interior of it had the plating peeling out. (Interestingly enought this ones primer was rusting too).

 

I'm not a terrably picky person but I tossed all the above examples, what do yall think?

 

 

The colors that you see in brass are just varying degrees and types of corrosion.  Brass doesn't "blue" like steel does when it gets hot, mostly it just turns gray-brown (which is really just hot corrosion).  The discoloration can usually be polished out pretty easily.  While the consequences of a case failure are usually low, I'd be fairly conservative. 

[RED333]

They got wissed on, sorry I could not help my self.

I have no idea.

[Dolomite_supafly]

They got wissed on, sorry I could not help my self.

I have no idea.

Exactly. If a piece of brass has a nice blue color to it then it has been urinated on or some component of urine. I have seen them that were a nice royal blue color.

 

As far as discoloration I shoot them all. Even if they will not clean up they are safe unless they have pitting. You need to be careful with nickel cases. If they peel on the outside and you try to size it the nickel may scratch the inside of your die and ruin it. One a die has been scratched ever case that goes in the die will have a scratch as well.

 

Dented cases are fine as long as they will hold the bullet, hold enough powder and chamber after they have been sized. The dents will be ironed out when firing.

 

Although you can reload steel cases it really isn't worth the effort. Once sized they generally stay pretty stabile other than the neck. You can size the neck and reuse the cases several times and they do not grow after the first 2-3 loads. After someone said it wasn't possible I loaded a steel case 12 times. And even then it was fine. I did anneal the case neck ever thrid loading though. But as I said it isn't worth it because rust is not anyone's friend and they rust really quick.

 

Dolomite

[Caster]

Just leave them in the tumbler till they shine. Pull them as they shine and add more. I have a couple 243 cases in my tumbler I use as a control to judge newly added ones by. I'd say these cases are no longer safe to load though. They been in my tumbler over a year. Red seen 'em, they sure are shiny yeah!?! Edited March 5, 2013 by Caster

[MarkInNashville]

They got wissed on, sorry I could not help my self.

I have no idea.

And yet, apparently ya did know!

 

My theory is that if they shine after a few hours in the tumbler fine, if not I toss them. I realize about the dents (I have even purposefully bent them to show my son), wasn't concerned there.

[RED333]

Smarter than I know, O well, ya win some, some ya dont.

Yep. them cases at Casters are almost mirror finish,