How do you clean tarnished military cartridges ??

[pastprime]

I have some 6.5x53R cartridges that I'd like to clean before firing them. What is the best method? They look like brass but I'll check in the morning to make certain they are not steel. What ever the metal is I want to clean them.

Hank

Information

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[Big_Al1911]

I use a bowl type tumbler, with ground corn cob media and a capful of liquid nu-finish car wax, or treated ground walnut shell if really tarnished. I have a 12 hour timer wired to an outlet in case I forget about it being on. 3-6 hours usually has them looking like new. Just be sure to inspect close afterward, and make sure all media is removed.

[dman69]

Are we talking about loaded rounds or unloaded? If unloaded, using a tumbler is fine. Wouldn't recommend on loaded rounds though - the action could possibly chew up / mash the powder with unintended consequences (hope that makes sense!). Least invasive way would be to give them a brush with some bronze wool or fine steel wool....

[Tom in N.J.]

I have tumbled many loaded rounds of tarnished military ammo. I used a friends commercial tumbler with fine sand as a medium.

[jmoore]

For shooting purposes I usually don't bother with minor tarnish removal. If the corrosion on the case goes beyond minor corrosion it gets inspected to see if there's degradation of the alloy. A pitted copper patch usually means the case is significantly weakened. Minor bother at the front end, could be bad at the rear!

As for tumbling, there's some reports that the powder may be broken down enough to raise the burn rate to dangerous levels. Have never done the operation on live rounds, so no first hand knowledge.

For serious cleaning I use Scotchbrite pads followed by fine steel or brass wool.

(pirated wifi isn't running fast enough right now to access photos for before and after photos! Maybe in a couple of days when back in faster realms.... Here's one in the blind, not sure what it shows!)


ETA: Nope, will have to punt and try again later!

[pastprime]

Excellent information. Thank you very much, folks. Sorry I forgot to include that the brass is loaded in my original post so I'll be using one of the rubbing methods.

[Big_Al1911]

To clarify, I had assumed these were empty cases, not loaded.

[pastprime]

Did a quick wipe with steel wool and they look good enough to shoot to me, but I have very little experience with old ammunition.



Here is one each of the different headstamps:



I have no idea what all of the numbers and letters mean except I suspect the two digits are the year of manufacture. But, some have numbers stamped over numbers for some reason. I'd appreciate any thoughts on what the overstamps mean.

Hank

---------- Post added at 10:45 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:41 AM ----------

To clarify, I had assumed these were empty cases, not loaded.

My mistake for not stating that in my original post. Fingers outran my brain again......

Hank

[green]

The overstamp shows that these are Dutch military reloads

[Sentryduty]

For my basic cleaning and polishing tasks I use this product, Nevr-dull it is basically a flannel wadding with a polishing solution in it, does a nice job on everything from brass to chrome to steel.