Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Cleaning up steamed/burnt cartridges

Anyone have experience cleaning up and then shooting cases/cartridges that have gone through varying degrees of fire/steam damage? My first impression is that it wasn't worth trying to clean up, but I fired some of the .22 and it functioned fine so I'm wading into the idea that some of it may be salvageable. There's rimfire on up to .45-70.

Examples:





Thanks

0000 steel wool too clean up brass.

As far as firing ammo that's been in a fire I am not too sure I would be too fond of it, especially in centerfire cartridges.

Flitz and 0000 steel wool.

I should have added that theres quite a bit of live ammo, so the idea of tumbling it in bulk has appeal, as opposed to hand-cleaning each round. If anyone has experience with this I'd like to hear about it.

I'm with you... not particularly keen on the idea. But, thats why I'd like to hear from anyone with some experience, be it first hand or otherwise.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1012835597?pid=476992

You need the thread holder that chucks up in a cordless drill and appropriate thread shellholder to hold cartridge.

A few fast spins with the drill and some 0000 wool and things will look good. 10 seconds per cartridge maximum between putting it in the holder and taking it out.

That’s too bad, hate to see it go to waste, but I think I would dig a hole and dispose of them.

They used to say that tumbling loaded ammo could change the burning rate of the powder by messing up the coatings.

I have put old WW-2 30-06 ammo in my Lyman, and tumbled it clean, with no problems,it shoots good for what it is. Rio7

When doing this, I prefer a strip off of a ScotchBrite pad instead of steel wool. You can cut it with a pair of scissors. miles

If the brass looks damaged to the point you don't want to fire it, and it's factory loaded, pull the bullets and "reload" the bullet and powder into another primed case. The bullets could be tumbled before loading.

A burst case and the possibility of chamber and/or bolt face damage or injury to the shooter needs to be considered against the value of salvaging a few rounds. I'm a cheapskate, but I'm not stupid. Trash 'em!

^^^^^^This^^^^^^

Powder is a chemical compound and when subjected to temperature excursions beyond what’s predictable and expected, can change in ways we can’t predict. Throw the stuff out

Tumbler with stainless steel pins, Dawn dish detergent and Lemi-Shine.

Pull all of the bullets and deprime then into the tumbler

Those are too nasty for me. Maybe tumble (outside on concrete) then pull. But I wouldn't do it for batches less than 100. Tumbling powder makes me nervous, corrosion makes me nervous, unknown heat makes me REALLY nervous. You could have some fun building a fire over all of it, snap crackle pop, but no shootie for me.

I hear ya. Unfortunately its a lot more than a few rounds or it would be a no-brainer, I'd save the brass and toss the rest. And some of the ammo looks just fine. Look at the boxes in the photos - it just got steamed for a short while. I just don't know where to draw the line.

The only way to know where to draw the line is to cross it. Good luck.

Pull the loaded center fire ammo down and tumble wet in ss media. If the brass got too hot you’ll know when you go to load it and the case collapses. I’d toss the powder.

This is the way I am leaning.