You be the judge...

[Richard Flanders]

Well, how did I do for $40 at the local gunshow today??? All Winchester stamped. Never seen so many in one spot and haven't even counted them yet. Even some 16ga. All the 12ga look once fired and seem to have only some corrosion around the primer holes inside. The two 10ga are a bit rough and likely more than once fired. Surely that was a pretty good price for this pile, eh?

Am cleaning the 16's up as some look to have old black powder residue in them and have what looks like the original primers that are stamped with a small "W" so seem unfired.

[edgarspencer]

Seems there's more than gold in AK. Good score, Richard.

[charlie cleveland]

done mighty good this old boy thinks... charlie

[Richard Flanders]

There's 116 12ga hulls, 10 of which are REM UMC BEST stamped and in excellent clean condition despite having been fired. No internal corrosion. One of the 10ga is stamped U.S.C.CO. CLIMAX. I think I did okeydokey on this one...

[Mark Landskov]

Excellent! White vinegar makes a good 'soak' for cleaning brass hulls. It may take some gentle brushing between dips to remove layers of hard residue. You'd be surprised how nice they come out. Rinse with hot water and you are good to go! If there is any proper patina on them, the vinegar does not seem to be aggressive enough to remove all of the natural aging.

[Richard Flanders]

Thanks Mark. I was wondering how to clean them without screwing them up. Undiluted white vinegar? Will it be ok to soak them for a long time? Any limits on that? I think most will need a gently bead blasting on the inside to remove the corrosion around the primer hole but maybe not. They're pretty clean on the outside and could be used as is. I think I have a jug of white V in the basement as part of my pickling supplies.

Many of them have a coloration line down from the mouth and am wondering if that's an annealing line?

[Mark Landskov]

Extended periods, over an hour, don't seem to yield better results. I just finished cleaning a nasty shell that required some soft brushing after 3 sessions in the undiluted vinegar. I submerged the brass for about 15 to 20 minutes, then hold the shell in a stream of hot water while brushing. The water will come out chunky and black. Sometimes the rough, scaly stuff surrounding the primer pocket is quite tenacious! It would not take much with a blaster and glass beads to clean the bottom of the shell. If you have access to that type of equipment, you could probably just skip the vinegar!

[Dean Romig]

What is that little shell in the 10 o'clock position?

[George M. Purtill]

Gentlemen-
how would you clean up chrome plated shells.
I also have about a dozen that are still loaded- with what i dont know.

[calvin humburg]

Seems like I saw a aluminan :) 410 once marked western may have been a dummy. I'll ask a friend if he remembers. ch

[Russ Jackson]

What is that little shell in the 10 o'clock position?

Good eyes Dean ,I was wondering the same thing ? 410 ???

[Richard Flanders]

It's an aluminum .410 Dean. I think they were military?? The Army Air Corp. used to issue the plastic stocked Stevens .22/.410 O/U as an airplane survival gun. A WWII test pilot friend up here had two from his days as a cold wx test pilot in Fairbanks. The dealer in Anchorage has full boxes of this ammo, the boxes being plain brown coardboard. I have a couple of loaded examples from him. This one had #6 shot in it. Someone must know what they were made for. Shall I send you this one for your collection? I had assumed most folks had seen these before.

[Mark Landskov]

I have seen quite a few of the alu-minium .410s, and they all had the 'WCC 52' headstamp. They were, indeed, loaded for aircrew survival guns. As for the nickel plated shells, I had one that was a bit less than nice, and tried the vinegar approach. It gave typical results as far as the inside crud was concerned, with no effect on the plating. That was my experiment! I cannot guarantee results with your nickeled cases.

[Dave Noreen]

Many of the REM-UMC No 12 BEST and WINCHESTER No. 12 were Viet Nam and later U.S. military 00B rounds. The Remingtons in my collection had some red sealant around the primers but there is nothing that I can see on the Winchesters.

[Richard Flanders]

Interesting. Maybe that's why the REM brass are so clean. I assume they wouldn't have been loaded with BP for Viet Nam.

[Dean Romig]

Not unless you wanted to smoke 'em out of their caves.

[Bob Roberts]

one time during a daylight patrol in Viet Nam in 1966, somewhere northeast of Saigon if I recall correctly, my rifle platoon was fired upon by a single not too bright Viet Cong using some sort of a black powder firearm at a distance of about 150 yards - we heard the bullet pass through some tree branches overhead and then saw the distinctive white smoke off to our left across some paddies in a tree line. As an experienced rifle musket shooter and a participant in the Civil War Centennial I was able to explain to my troops that the “sniper” probably only had one shot and would take a while to reload - this after they were done expending about a magazine, full auto, each in the direction and general vicinity of the telltale smoke.

[Robert Delk]

It wasn't unusual to capture/kill a vc with only a few rounds for some obscure military rifle when I was there.One of our platoons even captured a beat to hell double rifle with no rounds from one defunct vc.

[Destry L. Hoffard]

If the corrosion is on the outside of the nickel plated cases some 000 or 0000 steel wool will clean them right up.

Destry