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Tarnished pistol brass?

Jmccracken1214

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  • Dec 10, 2018
    2,296
    1,045
    Thomasville, NC
    Got a bunch of brass from a friends house that had been laying outside for who knows how long.

    I wet tumbled it twice, lemi shine and dawn with pins... and this is the outcome.

    I threw some shiny brass in for comparison.

    Will this stuff be fine to run through a Dillon press and shoot? Not sure why it came out looking like a bunch of steel cases
    8D4A79AB-DC72-459F-807F-5C1187CE1794.jpeg
     
    I’ve loaded and shot worse looking stuff. If it’s just blasting/practice ammo, it should be fine.
     
    You want my opinion and I’m sure someone will say contrary. I used to never clean my 9mm brass ever. I would shoot, shake to remove any large debris and dump right back in the reload pile. I have picked up range brass that had turned brown form oxidation and it shot great. As long as it is not visibly damaged and your not loading hot stuff, you should be fine using it for anything. My theory in pistol brass is, it will last longer than you can keep up with it as long as you are using moderate loads. With that, reloading is a touchy subject for some people and definitely use your own discretion with it. If you don’t feel safe using it, then don’t. Reloading mistakes are usually expensive and sometimes take things you can’t replace.
     
    Run a batch of 100 and test should be fine though
     
    Shiny brass is got people with too much time on their hands...

    Lol but seriously, like rooster above, I also never bother to tumble pistol brass. Well, I take it back. I have tumbled pistol brass before, but do not normally bother.
     
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    Also clean your pins, run some dawn and some lemi shine for an hour or so with just your pins and then rense we’ll it not what will cure your problem but it helps and they do need a clean depending on how dirty of brass you been running
     
    If it puts your mind at ease toss it in a tumbler overnight with a decent media and wake up to some shiny brass
     
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    So for matches that I run with small plates at 25-50 yards, don’t use it?

    That shit will run in any quality pistol without issue (provided you don't screw up).

    Occasionally some of my cases look like that and I have never hesitated to use them even in matches. So long as it feeds and extracts, the case's appearance is completely irrelevant.

    I do wet tumble all my brass before reloading just because I don't like soot, dirt, and shit being pressed in between the cases' outer walls and the inside of the sizing die. But fuck using pins in the tumbling drum. I want clean. I don't care about shiny and I sure as hell don't want to waste my time screwing around with tiny pins.
     
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    Isn’t Lemi-Shine citric acid based?
    It is but it's also got some other chemicals in there it's not pure citric acid. The definitive thread I believe is over on castboolits. Com. I use the actual citric acid that is used for canning tomatoes.
     

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