Cleaning brass
- Thread starter tbrwlf
- Start date
Many moons back I came across a WWII garbage dump on what was listed on the maps back in the early eighties as an emergency runway about 1.5 kliks long. This runway was located just north of Wonhowon, about 50 kliks. I was playing around with an early metal detector that looked more like the old time mine detectors and had a huge/heavy battery pack.
There were some crumbled foundations of different sizes and a few concrete slabs that had been left in place. Nothing seemed to be left. Then we decided to check out some of the game trails and tracks we found in the mud on the game trails coming out of the brush. The runway itself was gravel and free of grass or any other obstruction. It actually looked like it was being maintained to a minimum standard as indicated on the map for emergency purposes. all along each side of the facility was a relatively clear area where natural grasses and brush grew and it was an obvious feeding area for the fauna.
We walked through the bush until we came across what was left of the debris from the facility. Crumpled up WWII trucks, huts and a few aircraft bits and pieces. IMHO nothing was salvageable as the bulldozers had crushed everything together. We searched but found nothing of value. That is until we found where they dumped the spent casings from the weapons used on the base or maybe in some of the aircraft machine guns. They just threw them all together in a big trench and covered them up with the clay/gravel mix that is normal for that area.
303Brit/30-06/50bmg was what we found with surprising amount of 30-30Winchester. Nothing else as far as casings went. There was another dump which was obviously their main GARBAGE dump. It was filled with rusty everything that contained food at one time, broken glass containers, kitchen utensils, twisted and crushed metal chairs/bedframes, etc.
When we got back from that otherwise unsuccessful hunt I told Allen Lever about what we had found. He wasn't interested in any of the brass other than the 50BMG.
Understand, we're talking about a couple of pickup boxes full of brass here, actually close to four pickup boxes full once we sifted them all out of the clay/gravel.
After 30+ years the brass was still shiny albeit a bit stained because of the sealant qualities of the clay. Some of it was crushed to bad to save but the vast majority of it looked like it had been fired a few days before and left out in the rain.
OP, as you mentioned we needed something to clean a lot of brass well and quickly. I had seen a similar situation in Belo Horizonte', Brazil where a company called Mannesman was cleaning millions of rounds of range brass for the different militaries of South America. They used mixers that looked like they should have been on Cement Trucks. They would fill them with Gypsum sand which is quite common there and mix everything together in these giant tumblers dump them onto relatively fine mesh screens then wash them with fresh water. They came out of this surprisingly clean. The cases were then sorted for defects etc.
When we went up to the airport to pick up the brass the next summer, we took along a generator and an old cement mixer that we had picked up at an equipment auction. There was a lot of clean sand, not as good as the Gypsum but good enough for the project.
That darn clay up there is the proverbial SH!T sticking to a blanket type. We had to take the empty casings to a the nearby Beatton River where we sunk them down in the current in bags to wash away the goo overnight. We set up the camp beside the river because it was easier to get everything clean and the water was drinkable. Then that darn Moose showed up and threw a snag into the works. He got all tangled up in the rope holding the bags of cases but luckily didn't hurt himself or cause any losses. Just a lost day of vacation time that was needed to get it all cleaned. To bad hunting season wasn't open.
Anyway the cement mixer with river sand worked fine for our purposes. We filled up both pickup trucks with clean casings and three feet deep on a 15 foot, double axle trailer. I managed to snag a few thousand 303Brit and 30-06 cases as well. Everything had boxer priming so being the scrounger I am I just had to save a thousand or so of each. I still have some of those cases. Good brass, albeit a bit heavy walled.
Alan Lever gave us 20 cents per 50BMG case. He sold them for 50 cents each in his store and maybe to a distributor. It took him a few years to get rid of it all but there was a lot of it. Alan weighed several cases and figured out how many cases were there, give or take a few and we weighed the vehicles/trailer full then again empty. Worked out very well for us. We made more money in those two weeks than we each would have made at our place of work in two months and that was after paying all expenses.
We went back in 2008 but everything had been cleaned up during the big rush for the Alaska Highway anniversary and later. They must have had a hell of a time because there were full barrels of oil that were almost rusted through. Some of it had never been opened and just set out in the bush on their ends. They must have had to pump them out individually. Even the wrecks and garbage were taken out and that included all of the stuff in the trench where we found the cases.
There were some crumbled foundations of different sizes and a few concrete slabs that had been left in place. Nothing seemed to be left. Then we decided to check out some of the game trails and tracks we found in the mud on the game trails coming out of the brush. The runway itself was gravel and free of grass or any other obstruction. It actually looked like it was being maintained to a minimum standard as indicated on the map for emergency purposes. all along each side of the facility was a relatively clear area where natural grasses and brush grew and it was an obvious feeding area for the fauna.
We walked through the bush until we came across what was left of the debris from the facility. Crumpled up WWII trucks, huts and a few aircraft bits and pieces. IMHO nothing was salvageable as the bulldozers had crushed everything together. We searched but found nothing of value. That is until we found where they dumped the spent casings from the weapons used on the base or maybe in some of the aircraft machine guns. They just threw them all together in a big trench and covered them up with the clay/gravel mix that is normal for that area.
303Brit/30-06/50bmg was what we found with surprising amount of 30-30Winchester. Nothing else as far as casings went. There was another dump which was obviously their main GARBAGE dump. It was filled with rusty everything that contained food at one time, broken glass containers, kitchen utensils, twisted and crushed metal chairs/bedframes, etc.
When we got back from that otherwise unsuccessful hunt I told Allen Lever about what we had found. He wasn't interested in any of the brass other than the 50BMG.
Understand, we're talking about a couple of pickup boxes full of brass here, actually close to four pickup boxes full once we sifted them all out of the clay/gravel.
After 30+ years the brass was still shiny albeit a bit stained because of the sealant qualities of the clay. Some of it was crushed to bad to save but the vast majority of it looked like it had been fired a few days before and left out in the rain.
OP, as you mentioned we needed something to clean a lot of brass well and quickly. I had seen a similar situation in Belo Horizonte', Brazil where a company called Mannesman was cleaning millions of rounds of range brass for the different militaries of South America. They used mixers that looked like they should have been on Cement Trucks. They would fill them with Gypsum sand which is quite common there and mix everything together in these giant tumblers dump them onto relatively fine mesh screens then wash them with fresh water. They came out of this surprisingly clean. The cases were then sorted for defects etc.
When we went up to the airport to pick up the brass the next summer, we took along a generator and an old cement mixer that we had picked up at an equipment auction. There was a lot of clean sand, not as good as the Gypsum but good enough for the project.
That darn clay up there is the proverbial SH!T sticking to a blanket type. We had to take the empty casings to a the nearby Beatton River where we sunk them down in the current in bags to wash away the goo overnight. We set up the camp beside the river because it was easier to get everything clean and the water was drinkable. Then that darn Moose showed up and threw a snag into the works. He got all tangled up in the rope holding the bags of cases but luckily didn't hurt himself or cause any losses. Just a lost day of vacation time that was needed to get it all cleaned. To bad hunting season wasn't open.
Anyway the cement mixer with river sand worked fine for our purposes. We filled up both pickup trucks with clean casings and three feet deep on a 15 foot, double axle trailer. I managed to snag a few thousand 303Brit and 30-06 cases as well. Everything had boxer priming so being the scrounger I am I just had to save a thousand or so of each. I still have some of those cases. Good brass, albeit a bit heavy walled.
Alan Lever gave us 20 cents per 50BMG case. He sold them for 50 cents each in his store and maybe to a distributor. It took him a few years to get rid of it all but there was a lot of it. Alan weighed several cases and figured out how many cases were there, give or take a few and we weighed the vehicles/trailer full then again empty. Worked out very well for us. We made more money in those two weeks than we each would have made at our place of work in two months and that was after paying all expenses.
We went back in 2008 but everything had been cleaned up during the big rush for the Alaska Highway anniversary and later. They must have had a hell of a time because there were full barrels of oil that were almost rusted through. Some of it had never been opened and just set out in the bush on their ends. They must have had to pump them out individually. Even the wrecks and garbage were taken out and that included all of the stuff in the trench where we found the cases.
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Yep, lots of vids. One of my favs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5y_dsP3dsM
