Coloured rings in brass tumbler

[toxic]

Hello CGN,

I wet tumbled a bunch of once fired 9mm brass (primers still in the brass) and I ended up with these curious little coloured rings after tumbling.

Thinking this is probably some kind of primer pocket sealant but curiously I'm not seeing any of that when I'm reloading (none on the case or the old primer). Either the wet tumbler and pins did a 100% job of removing it or it's something else.

Anyone ever seen this before?

 

[Canuck65]

That's what it is. Federal brass?

 

[toxic]

That's what it is. Federal brass?

I'll have to go back and look. Tumbled a while ago but just noticing this mixed in with the now dry pins.

 

[4n2t0]

Pretty cool. I've never seen anything like that before. Can you tell what they're made of? How large are the rings? Did a previous loader use some kind of substance to mark the cases near the primers? Similar to marking them with a marker? Maybe to identify a particular load?

I like mysteries...

 

[stubblejumper]

Primer sealer.

 

[toxic]

So the brass is nickel and is a mix of Federal, Winchester and Speer. Funny thing is that I didn't notice anything different about the brass when I put it in the tumbler (as in I didn't notice any sealer). It's once fired so that's a factory sealer.

As for what it's made of.... I don't have my pocket GC/MS with me.
But it's kind of like a weak elastic band sort of material so I'm guessing some kind of polymer resin. Did that sound smart? Cause I'm totally talking out my butt here now.

 

[4n2t0]

Very interesting. I've tumbled brass with sealed primer pockets and have never gotten any cool rings, but I must defer to stubblejumper as he seems to have encountered this before.

 

[toxic]

I briefly speculated that maybe there was a gender reveal connection an hadn't noticed loose rings in the bucket of brass. Being a simple old man, I was hoping if that was the case it was twins...

 

[UR2X3M4ME]

Interesting. I did find a couple of these on rare occasions (wet tumbling), mostly incomplete rings. Did not dig further but always assumed they were primer sealant. Eye balling it, they appeared to match small primer diameter.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[.30/06 FTW]

Yup, 100% primer sealer. I've noticed it more on nickel brass.

 

[ted_dent]

I briefly speculated that maybe there was a gender reveal connection an hadn't noticed loose rings in the bucket of brass. Being a simple old man, I was hoping if that was the case it was twins...

OK, I confess, that made me laugh.