The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Is there a way of cleaning brass chemically? eg: without wet or dry tumbling?
I'm nearly sure I heard someone at the club saying that WD40 cleans them up but I was eaves dropping so could be way off the mark!

I would never let WD40 get within a mile of a firearm , ammunition or even reloading dies .

Any water displacing fluid like WD40 is a great asset when it comes to cleaning BP firearms which need a water based cleaner to remove the fouling, so it has its place.

Never had a need to use it on smokeless guns and of course everyone knows it neither a lubricant nor a rust preventer.

Never tried it as a case cleaner but then I try and avoid any form of wet cleaning like the plague, tumbling in walnut media is more than sufficient for my smokeless cartridge needs. For the black powder cartridges then I wet tumble in ceramic media, life is too short to be buggered managing stainless steel pins, as I need to ensure the insides of the cases have all the BP fouling removed each time as I don't want the case capacity reducing each time they are used.

Many years ago I used to use this stuff. it works well on brass but is obviously a wet process.

http://www.coleparmer.co.uk/Category/Co ... lution/504

Last year I was sent a small bottle as a free sample.

Just email them and ask for a sample, you might be lucky.

Citric acid in warm water will also work well but again is a wet process.

Don't use Micro-90 to clean brass. It is a highly effective cleaner, but due to containing ammonia-based chemicals, it will weaken brass. Might be OK for low-pressure calibres and BP loads, but avoid for full pressure centre-fire rifle calibres.

A brief anecdote regarding chemical cleaning. A neighbour popped a load of 22-250 brass into a bucket with some drain cleaner, it seemed to go OK until the necks started falling off when fired, or when re-sizing them. I ended up pulling a load of them for him with a collet puller.

Drain cleaner is best avoided :)

I just put the dirtiest couple of cases I could find in hot water with a high dose of citric acid and they seemed to clean almost instantly but not shiny, an acid etched type of clean and one turned orange

If you lay a load of cases on a towel, spray the outside with WD40 and then rub them it puts a lovely shine on them.

Brasso.

Blackstuff wrote:Brasso.

Might be a task cleaning the insides