Brass Cleaning

[Chiefbart2k5]

Have a couple bras cleaning questions:

1. Does the cleaning media and color matter?

2. Can I use a large rock tumbler or is a vibrating cleaner needed?

3. De-prime prior to cleaning or after?

Thank you.

[Sarge]

Just type in "brass cleaning" with quotation marks in the search window. It will yields 70 pages on the topic.

But

1. no

2. yes

3. after

[Chills1994]

Just to throw a wrench into the works... Those stainless steel pins and wet tumbling. It seems like a lot guys like to deprime first and tumble with the SS pins and water + dawn + lemishine . Supposedly the pins clean primer area at the bottom of the case. You also have to get the right size pins that are small enough to fit through the flashole.

EDIT: for now, wet tumbling with SS pins seems to be more of a rifle shell casings sort of thing.

Edited January 29, 2014 by Chills1994

[Steve RA]

The standard pins or the XL pins will both fit thru the flash hole, once in awhile the standard size will jam two in a flash hole. The XLs won't. Also the XLs are easier to keep track of.

I prefer to deprime prior to serious cleaning, if you use the stainless method you really should and if you just tumble or vibrate in walnut hull, Harbor Freight has a small size that doesn't hang up in the flash hole and does a really nice job with Nu-Finish.

[ttolliver]

On (3), there are dirt in the machine implications on to consider.

If you deprime dirty brass with your depriming/sizing die you're going to get grit into the die. Not the end of the world as long as your brass is pretty clean to begin with. But something to avoid if you get a lot of dirt and grit coming along for the ride.

So depending on your personal level of OCD over your dies and such, you may choose to clean then deprime, or possibly deprime with a universal depriming die that has no sizing component then clean.

[ZackJones]

I de-prime before tumbling. I use a mixture of 50/50 corn and walnut and works like a champ for me.

[HOGRIDER]

Just to throw a wrench into the works... Those stainless steel pins and wet tumbling. It seems like a lot guys like to deprime first and tumble with the SS pins and water + dawn + lemishine . Supposedly the pins clean primer area at the bottom of the case. You also have to get the right size pins that are small enough to fit through the flashole.

EDIT: for now, wet tumbling with SS pins seems to be more of a rifle shell casings sort of thing.

Ummm.......for now, I thoroughly enjoy the results of wet tumbling all my pistol brass:

YMMV............

[a matt]

Clean in & out. It looks almost new. But I don't need them that clean. IMHO. But that's also because I don't have the equipment to make my brass look that new. Lol cheers..

Edited January 30, 2014 by a matt

[stick]

Just type in "brass cleaning" with quotation marks in the search window. It will yields 70 pages on the topic.

But

1. no

2. yes

3. after

+1 on what Sarge said

[Nimitz]

Not really sure what all that effort gets you WRT to the necessary performance and accuracy we need for USPSA style shooting ....?

Now if we're shooting high power rifle matches on the 600 yd range then I get it ....

With my brass prep routine of:

Pick up at the range and throw in a bucket

Dump into tumbler with crushed walnut and capful of NuFinish every couple of loads

Tumble for 3 hrs

Spray with homemade lube

Load

Shoot

Repeat

I just don't have the time to dedicate to all that other stuff and luckily it does not seem to be necessary ...

My philosophy is simple: minimize the time required to complete all shooting related activities that don't actually involve shooting and maximize the time you actually spend pulling the trigger ....

[HOGRIDER]

Having been very active in IPSC many years ago, I've been through the corncob/walnut media cleaning with a vibratory tumbler. Dealt with the dust; and also tried many combinations of NuFinish, etc, to enhance the cleaning which for my senior eyes makes inspecting/prepping the brass much easier. Once it built the wet tumbler, and experienced the ease of cleaning, I was sold on this technique. And IMHO, I don't think it involves a lot more effort to produce exceptionally clean brass and their primer pockets. My procedure is similar:

Pick up the brass

deprime and sort by caliber and/or headstamp.

Dump cases into tumbler that contains correct amount of SS pins, water, dawn liquid soap, and a few 45acp cases of LemiShine.

Tumble for 3-4 hours, rinse, and towel/air dry.

Ready for inspection and reloading.

Again, for my use, the wet tumbling is more convenient and the media never wears out. My humble setup:

Just another option............YMMV.

HR

[BeerBaron]

for me I have tried a bunch of media and found lyman green corncob to be the best. it's a bit expensive but it lasts ages. like 300 cases a week and it'll last a year.

for me the wet tumbling seems like a fair bit more work.

mine is literally a couple of min and best of all the lyman media gives practically zero dust unlike some others I tried.

pick up brass.

chuck into tumbler which has the lyman media in there.

put lid on

turn on

come back 40min to 2hrs later (depending on how old the media is)

put bucket on top

turn upside down and shake for 30 seconds.

take lid off tumbler and tip shells into a box

tip media back into tumbler

ready to go again.

[ckfarris]

I second the Lyman green corn cob media. Put in a cap full of nufinish every couple of runs. I usually let mine go for 4 hours just because I like my brass to really shine. I change media at the 1st of every year.

Along with the corncob, I also put in about 2 cup fulls of long grain rice. The rice does a suprisingly good job of cleaning the brass while the corn cob polishes.

That is my secret recipe and it has worked for years so I don't see me changing.

[jayhkr]

spray with homemade lube

.

Can I ask what you use?

Pick up the brass

deprime and sort by caliber and/or headstamp.

Curious about sorting by headstamp. Is there a reason? I understand sorting by caliber, but not by headstamp.

[DDustin]

Different brand cases are made to different interior specs. Some chrono with some decently drastic differences.

[ttolliver]

Okay, I'll admit it. The real reason I sort by head stamp is that reloading brings out my OCD nature and I can't sleep at night until my brass is sorted and cleaned

Sorting by head stamp is a little like cleaning brass to be shiny as new. We mostly do it because we're bent that way to begin with. There are arguable benefits, but we'd do it anyway.

Seriously though, you sort to gain consistency as DDustin said. I don't know if you feel it as much on a progressive press where you're driving multiple operations, but on a single stage the variations in neck tension can be like night and day between different manufacturers. And any variations in case length will affect your crimp.

Of course it's entirely fair to challenge exactly what level of accuracy loss you get if you don't sort. Maybe it's only a half inch bigger group at some typical distance...which is probably entirely acceptable for most shooters in our sport. I don't really know. But that is the other side of the argument.

[chirpy]

I would think that you get lot to lot variation of the same head stamp brass which would cause other variations. Also it would seem that variations pop-up based on the number of firings for each case within the lot....especially when you use range pick-up.

Just wondering...

Richard

[DDustin]

For me when loading longer bullets like 75gr Hornadys with extruded powder like Varget, the same charge would fill the case normal in some and be compessed in others. So I'd end up with random hot loads even though the charge was always mid range.

[jayhkr]

Ok, just curious as I'm JUST now beginning to build my reloading equipment (just buying a few things at a time as money rolls in) so I was curious if there was any difference as far as the actual reloading aspect went. So actually I could load then separate after the case was finished and keep them sorted in the boxes after all is done, instead of before I reload them.

Thanks for the replies everyone!

[ttolliver]

jayhkr -- If you're going to sort at all, no reason not to do it before you load to help maintain your ideal crimp as much as possible.

The adjustment on the crimp die will occasionally vary for me between different head stamps. Not sure how much it's due to variances in case length vs case thickness. But changes in those dimensions will increase or decrease your crimp if you don't check it and tweak it with each batch. It never needs much, but it's just one of those things you do. Or at least one of the things you can do if you sort by head stamp.

[HOGRIDER]

jayhkr -- If you're going to sort at all, no reason not to do it before you load to help maintain your ideal crimp as much as possible.

The adjustment on the crimp die will occasionally vary for me between different head stamps. Not sure how much it's due to variances in case length vs case thickness. But changes in those dimensions will increase or decrease your crimp if you don't check it and tweak it with each batch. It never needs much, but it's just one of those things you do. Or at least one of the things you can do if you sort by head stamp.

+1!

And if your having to tweak that crimp setting due to different brass, bullets, etc., then this might be one of those must have tools:

http://www.redding-reloading.com/media-center/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=151%3Amicro-adjustable-taper-crimp-dies

[Nimitz]

Homemade case lube ....

1 8oz jar of pure lanolin (on-line)

1 bottle of 99% Isopropl alcohol (CVS)

Melt the lanolin like you would if you were melting candle wax

Add the alcohol and mix until room temp. You will have a yellowish liquid with some lanolin settling to the bottom that won't go into solution. Decant the liquid into a spray bottle and you're good to go. Save the remainder for making another batch.

Makes a ton of lube ....

[0099]

The wet tumbling gets cases very clean. But I still use dry media, I'm not ready to add that much more time to reloading.

You can get a decent vibratory cleaner from Harbor freight.

[Snapcap]

Different brand cases are made to different interior specs. Some chrono with some decently drastic differences.

Good information about sorting brass by maker. Probably important for major or sanctioned matches but not so much for local club shoots. Matter of fact, I'd likely want new brass for a really big match.

[BeerBaron]

there is no doubt at all that wet tumbling gives much cleaner brass. particularly on the insides. however, there is also no doubt that it costs more (even if DIY) and takes much longer.

I can tumble 500 9mm cases with literally about 2 minutes of personal intervention and under 2 hours total time (including the time the tumbler sits running un-attended).

the lyman media is very low dust as to be so non-existant I am happy to run it with the slotted lid.

given the tumbler itself (with slotted lid) enables you to seperate media and brass you don't need a seperator (and it's faster this way anyway).

but the biggest advantage is not getting stuff wet and having to dry it. I can tell you i've seen lots of guys who wet tumble struggling with water marks on their brass...

if I was shooting rifle stuff I'd probably go wet. for pistol stuff the cost vs benefit doesn't stack up for me. but I will bow down and recognise that it gives the cleanest brass.

for a newbie, just buy the lyman 1200 tumbler with slotted lid. that will give you clean brass for a year and cost about $70 USD. it can handle up to 500 9mm at a time. it includes everything you need for brass cleaning except a bucket and a collander. so for $80 max you'll have the complete set-up. in a years time you'll have to fork out $15 again on some new lyman green corncob media.