Bullet casings clean up

Gday all , was coin shooting today and what i was hoping was 1/2$ turned out to be a bullet casing .
Any tips / advice on cleaning ? Its pretty caked in dirt .
Area has active WW2 history so would like to take abit of care cleaning it .

TIA

Can you put up a picture of the bullet shell ?

Ive found a 1943 hand gun shell in the same area and a 1942 machine gun shell afew ks to the west . Year the area saw action was 1942 .

Know any fluids / cleaners to break down the dirt to read the head stamp ? The last two i just soaked in boiling water and took the time to scrub the heads with a scower , the handgun shell was very frail tho

That's looks like toast, don't use citric acid I did on one and it sort of copper plated the end around the firing pin :N:
took a while to polish it off with fine steel wool soap pads, maybe vinegar but would still have to polish it

You can still see the pink copperery plate a little
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8vJ7MiHAuI
Not sure about the salt adding like this link, maybe try and soak in vinegar first then polish with the soap pads :Y: don't agitate like he does he's avoiding using a tumbler for reloading
If you had an experiment shell try the salt vinegar method, all depends how clean you want it to be :Y:

I used 50/50 salt and vinegar and flour to form a paste. Came up alright in the end and finished it off with brass. Looks like I haven't posted the final pic but will do tonight.
Jon

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=17692

Nice cheers fellas , not to worried about it looking shiny ( would be nice tho ) just want to get the head stamp nos with doing as little damge as possible.

Can just make then out at the moment but looks like its starting to score up abit . Will soak it some longer and knock up some mixtures

Here's a steel wool soap pad polish job :Y:


Back soon

Less than ten minutes :lol: :lol: :lol: clean but not destroyed :Y:



The first one I did a while ago and was a quick soak in citric acid water mix and it copper plated it a little
The new one was just then with the little soap pads you know the ones I mean, homebrand's best product :Y:
to get brass to show polish evenly a little longer gently
Could go another two minutes, the top one was almost as dirty as yours
Disregard the youtube clip that's for shiny brass for reloading and will kill all the patina

blisters said:

I used 50/50 salt and vinegar and flour to form a paste. Came up alright in the end and finished it off with brass. Looks like I haven't posted the final pic but will do tonight.
Jon

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=17692

Click to expand...

That's a 10x :Y: find Blisters hope I can find one :Y: or more
Mmmm dig the high tones in the right areas

They would be too cool to find :Y: