Case cleaning advice

[daekken]

To beat a dead horse:

- I dry tumble my brass for 60-90 mins in a mixture of corn cob media, rice, and cut up (used) dryer sheets (the dryer sheets get changed every time)
- I don't tumble it again unless I end up being heavy handed with lube somehow which is very rare
- I clean the primer pockets manually on all rifle brass, never on pistol brass

That's about it. When I first started reloading I actually used water and dish soap and shook the cases in a gallon jug and let them air dry after washing them...they still worked fine. It was just tedious and time consuming. I got my tumbler for 50% off on a Black Friday deal and never looked back.

In the end, it's about doing enough not to mess your dies up and making sure the rounds function, which isn't really a high bar to reach. I still don't understand the people that say they tumble for 12 hours and/or multiple times, etc. Just wasting time and electricity in my book since the brass is gonna get dirty again immediately.

 

[Quite_Exasperated]

When you're reloading thousands of rounds of 9mm, it gets annoying without using lube. The resistance from resizing 9mm brass gets old when you're cranking out thousands. I just finished loading almost 4k rounds of 9mm last week and I give the brass a light spritz of hornady gun cleaner/lube and WOW what a difference. Makes reloading that much more enjoyable.

It just leaves a VERY light dry film so no need to clean the rounds afterwards.

But other pistol rounds I load - 357 and 44 magnum, I do not lube as there's not much resistance when resizing that brass.

Did he just say “spritz”?

 

[allen-1]

Did he just say “spritz”?

Yup, he did.

So did I.

 

[dp2983]

I've got a can of Lyman Quick Shot. I dump a couple of handfuls of the brass into a cardboard box, tip them so they're laying on their sides, quick spritz, shake the box and toss them into the casefeeder.

I'm using Dillon carbide dies, and I started using the case lube when I started loading .357Sig. Makes the process significantly easier, press runs much more smoothly. So I lube all the brass, it's easy, it's cheap.

I did just that, as an experiment. I did notice just a slight difference in effort needed to resize. Much of this is an experiment, so far. lol

 

[dp2983]

This procedure is for 9mm, 45 and 38spl. I use carbide dies so I never lube the cases.

Tumble my brass enough to take off most of the dirt etc.
Resize and deprime them.
Clean them again using whatever cleaning solutions I got on sale. Usually the Iosso solution. This is done primarily to clean the primer pocket.
If I want them to look all nice I can send them through the tumbler again with some case polish. I use the Cabelas Corn Cob media with included polish.
Then I send them through the 650 where they get resized again and loaded.
My percentage of cases failing at case gauge check is basically 0 when they are resized twice.

I have 2 tumblers. One is a Lyman Turbo Tumbler that I bought new back in the 80s that keeps on working. The second is a MidwayUSA tumbler that was included with a bunch of reloading stuff I bought second hand. For cleaning I throw the brass in plastic buckets, let them soak a while, shake the crap out of them. Repeat this a few times and done.

Of course if I need some ammo fast then I tumble to take off the dirt, toss them in the 650 and crank them out.

I did the same , soak and shake, with my first few hundred rounds of brass to clean them up for my resizing die. Then, I tried the US with Simple Green, and it did clean the primer pockets really well. I am depriming on a universal die, so resizing is done after I prime off press.

 

[dp2983]

Clean enough is clean enough

Yes

Nope

Thats a bit much for 9 or any handgun cartridge

Nope

Thats the route I go, except not with loaded ammo.
1 dirty shaker, 1 clean shaker. Everything goes through the dirty, gets de-capped, then through the clean one.
I'll have 2 goin at once. I think it'll hold 300 or so 38 spl? Maybe 400 .45 acp?

Its about o.c.d..
Or some kind of bookface sales pitch because retard out there sellin brass was trying to out-retard the next guy.
It was a tard fest. Probably still is. The ads used to read something like............

" I have for sale, only the finest once fired range brass, that was carefully hand selected, gauged with my super secret gauge, and cleaned using only the finest detergents made from a near extinct plant extract found in the caves of the amazon. Blessed by Shamans, this oil and detergent combo gently massages the brass in an ULTA-ultra-sonic cleaner designed by N.A.S.A. I even go the extra step and play classical music while the brass bathes, while wearing overalls and rubbing tea-tree oil on my always erect nipples. Asking $75 per 100. P.M. for info (and a good time)"

Or at least thats how I remember it.
Anyways. Don't overthink it.

Epic. Thanks for the breakdown and the laughs.

 

[gerrycaruso]

I wet tumble. I don't do it because it makes the brass cleaner and shinier which it does. I do it because it's so much faster.

 

[greencobra]

i use to clean my cases until they looked new. then one day i realized no one ever complimented me on my like new cases. in fact, the only person that cared was me, no one else gave a shit. so i stopped. i tumble them for an hour after a range outing and take them out. done! and you know what...a case with a little powder burn on it works just as well as a shiny one.

 

[Road_Clam]

I shoot a lot of black powder cartridge. Casings get FILTHY compared to smokeless. I SS pin wet tumble , and use a food dehydrator for drying. Brass comes out looking like brand new. Wet tumbling is more steps, but better results IMO from dry vibratory method.