Why clean your brass?

[resortboarder]

I started reloading just a couple years ago and have loaded 50K+ rds without tumbling a single round. I just use Oneshot before dumping rounds in the collator, and I've never had a single "brass-cleanliness" related issue. 

Is it purely the *bling* factor?

I barely have enough time & money to reload the way it is. I couldn't imagine having to buy a tumbler, media/pins, shine, drying, etc... I'm always open to trying something new if someone can make a good argument for it though. 

[Absocold]

Dirt and debris in the case can give excessive or at least varying pressure. Dirt and debris on the exterior can cause scratches and wear in the chamber leading to difficult extraction. And the catch-all "why introduce more dirt to a precision machine than you have to" argument.

 

Some people are meticulous about precision and cleanliness. Some find they never need to clean brass and only clean their gun once a year by swishing it around in a mud puddle. At the end of the day it's your time, energy, money and satisfaction of the results.

[Jmoreno88]

If it wasnt simply for just being dirty I probably wouldnt tumble either but Im a desert shooter where brass gets covered in dirt/sand and i try to keep my dust/dirt build up to a minimum

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[M1A4ME]

The less dirt I introduce to the reloading process and the guns, the longer they last/run.

If you bought a box of ammo from a store and brought it home, only to find out it was covered with powder residue, some tarnish on the brass, etc. - would you smile and load it in your magazines and trust it?  Or would you take it back to the store and demand a different box, or your money back?

I clean my guns, too.  And oil them.  And sometimes, even when I haven't shot one for awhile I field strip it, wipe it down and lube it before putting it back together.  It's amazing how dirty my EDC gets just carrying it around all the time.

When I rebuild and engine/transmission I try to make things as clean as possible before putting it back together.  I've, not yet anyway, had to tear one down again and go back through it.  On the other hand, I used to know a guy who didn't bother to make sure his hands or his parts were clean when he rebuilt engines and transmissions for his cars/trucks.  On average his rebuilds would last about 3 years before he had to repeat his work.

I only wet tumble the really discolored stuff I pick up at the range.  I run the better looking brass through the vibratory cleaner once before resizing.  If it's rifle brass I run it through again to remove the case lube.  So far I've not done the car polish thing but I think I'm about to try it.  Bought an extra vibratory cleaner just for trying that out.

[v1911]

I'm guessing you buy your brass. If you do, that would explain you're not needing to clean it before loading. There's no way my press would run with the stuff I pull from an outdoor range.

 

Do I need to be sure it's polished to the shine that I do? Probably not, but it does make for a smoother lever pull and that helps me identify any issues. 

[Hi-Power Jack]

1 hour ago, v1911 said:

I'm guessing you buy your brass. If you do, that would explain you're not needing to clean it before loading.

^^^^    This, or you're loading for a revolver ???

Tumbling doesn't take too much of your time - dump brass & media into machine,

turn it on, walk away.    When finished, dump brass into separator - Voila, all done.    

[resortboarder]

2 hours ago, v1911 said:

I'm guessing you buy your brass. If you do, that would explain you're not needing to clean it before loading. There's no way my press would run with the stuff I pull from an outdoor range.

I pick up brass either same day it's shot or I buy it unsorted from indoor ranges. Through the shake-sorting process the cases tumble together, so I guess my brass may start out cleaner than others. 

3 hours ago, M1A4ME said:

When I rebuild and engine/transmission I try to make things as clean as possible before putting it back together.  I've, not yet anyway, had to tear one down again and go back through it. 

I'm usually a meticulous person as well, but once I stopped putting oil where I DONT need it and found load recipes that don't leave unburned powder in the gun, I only field strip my 1911's for cleaning every 1,500rds or so. All I do after every match is rub the carbon off the feed ramp before I put it away so it doesn't dry or start caking. 

51 minutes ago, Hi-Power Jack said:

Tumbling doesn't take too much of your time - dump brass & media into machine, turn it on, walk away.    When finished, dump brass into separator - Voila, all done.    

I'm reloading 500-1K rds/wk (2-3hrs minimum including 100% chamber checking), and I can currently do it all in my home office in a well-organized ~15 sq.ft area and keep it pretty clean. I've heard dry tumbling releases dirt/carbon into the air. Is that true? Is it a garage/shop task?

[Absocold]

Most dry tumblers these days have a cover to keep down dust. Adding a couple dryer sheets to the media cuts dust, so does using a little Nu-Finish car polish to slightly moisten the media and help bring out the shine. But yes, long story short, there's dust. And there's lead in that dust. Don't do it in your house. If you can't do it elsewhere or dust is an issue, wet tumbling is your answer. Works better too.

 

Ultrasonic is another option, but at the volumes you're loading it would be tedious as even the biggest one is still pretty small. And the big one isn't cheap. Some like it, some don't. But almost everyone who tries wet tumbling becomes a true believer.

 

The Frankford Arsenal Rotary Tumbler (FART) can be had on sale for $135. A Midsouth rotary sifter is $20. A bottle of Armor All car wash with wax is $4. A bottle of Lemi-Shine is $8. Total $162. This is enough supplies to last you two years at 1k brass a week. My FART will comfortably hold at least 1,200 9mm per run. Hour and a half in the tumbler, an hour in the oven drying, bright shiny CLEAN brass. 

[lefty o]

2 reasons to clean brass, #1 it doesnt run crud in your dies possibly scratching the dies. #2 it doesnt run crud into your firearms chamber, possibly scratching the chamber . a bonus of it is, clean looks better, and the shinier it is the easier it is to find on the ground.

[Steve RA]

Besides, it just looks better !

[M1A4ME]

MIne's in the garage with all my reloading stuff.

I put a batch of .45 acp brass in it just before lunch (finished up priming almost 300 .45 acp cases and 200 .223 cases) and was going in to the house to eat.  I turned on the cleaner and shut the doors.  At around 5 PM I went out to the garage to walk to get the bikes (pedal bikes) out for an evening ride and I turned the cleaner off.  In the morning I'll separate the brass from the media and get ready to resize it/bell it.  Then I'll add another batch to the cleaner and head into the house again.

I seldom run the cleaner when I'm at the bench reloading.  I have to turn the radio up too loud to hear it.

[9x45]

There are lots of recipes for prepping brass. The one I have used for decades is a 2 step process. First in walnut loaded with 2 teaspoons of mineral oil, and  then in corn loaded with 2 teaspoons of NuFinish car polish. Both tumblers run overnight. With the media additives, there is no dust and they run without the top. Turns nasty range brass into happy, ready to reload, brass

 

[mikeinctown]

So lets get this straight, you clean your gun on a regular basis but complain that you can't possibly clean the brass that goes in the gun? Even indoor range pickup stuff gets dirt on it from people's shoes and who knows what else might have been tracked in. Outdoor would be far worse. Dirty brass with contaminants can scratch the dies or leave dirt on the press which can cause issues going forward. Plus as others said, the dirt goes through the magazines and into the chamber. As mentioned you can also have inconsistent pressures if the case volume has variance from debris.

 

And last, if you are loading 1k rounds a week, I find it very, very difficult to believe anyone when they say that thy can't aford a tumbler to clean their stuff. All it would take is to go from shooting 1,000 rounds a week to 500 a week for like 1 month and you would have been able to buy the necessary equipment.

[resortboarder]

5 hours ago, mikeinctown said:

So lets get this straight, you clean your gun on a regular basis but complain that you can't possibly clean the brass that goes in the gun?

Dirty brass with contaminants can scratch the dies or leave dirt on the press which can cause issues going forward. 

And last, if you are loading 1k rounds a week, I find it very, very difficult to believe anyone when they say that thy can't aford a tumbler to clean their stuff. All it would take is to go from shooting 1,000 rounds a week to 500 a week for like 1 month and you would have been able to buy the necessary equipment.

Not sure where I asked for criticism, but you could at least quoted me correctly  

I don't see where I said I clean my guns on a regular basis. I actually clean pretty infrequently by at least my own standards (probably only every 1,500rds or so, so every 4-6 wks might be optimistic with the different guns I shoot).

I also didn't say I "can't" clean my brass, I've just never started or felt the need. I've never had dirt build up on my press, nor had any issues from scratched dies. 

I aso have no desire to skip half my shooting events for a month just to open up funds for tumbling supplies, unless I can see a valid arguement for doing so. 

On 10/18/2016 at 6:19 AM, 9x45 said:

Turns nasty range brass into happy, ready to reload, brass

If my brass looked as dirty as this, I'd probably invest in a tumbler as well. As of now, my uncleaned brass looks like this. 

[mikeinctown]

Quote

I only field strip my 1911's for cleaning every 1,500rds or so. All I do after every match is rub the carbon off the feed ramp before I put it away so it doesn't dry or start caking. 

Hate to tell you, but that is maintenance on a regular basis.

[resortboarder]

1 minute ago, mikeinctown said:

Hate to tell you, but that is maintenance on a regular basis.

Fair enough.

[9x45]

resort, that's some clean brass. But I still like shiny and happy brass. Doesn't take away from my time, it runs overnight.

[Edge40]

I almost feel like your trolling lol.  Asking a question like that on this forum is looking for criticism.

[Scott Steele]

I almost feel like your trolling lol.  Asking a question like that on this forum is looking for criticism.

+1



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[dannyd]

I do it because I love my brass.   It looks so nice clean.  I use a FART and Dillon 500.

[resortboarder]

Thanks for your feedback everyone. I never realized people actually picked up and could restore such dirty brass. 

[RDA]

1 hour ago, resortboarder said:

Thanks for your feedback everyone. I never realized people actually picked up and could restore such dirty brass. 

I have cleaned some extremely gnarly brass, black and dirty, some with dirt/mud inside or filled with a liquid of some type, bugs that have nested inside, etc.  I get great results wet tumbling.

[v1911]

That's 1 advantage of the wet tumblers that vibratory tumblers can't do. Get the dried mud out of cases.

 

Some of the brass I pulled from IDPA nationals this year were caked with mud. Even after 2 hours, the clean brass still had what looked like a concrete plug in it. 

[9x45]

v1911, we don't have a mud problem in the desert..... But wet tumbling does produce the absolute best results with a lot more work. My kid runs a wet tumbling process.

 

[v1911]

5 hours ago, 9x45 said:

v1911, we don't have a mud problem in the desert..... But wet tumbling does produce the absolute best results with a lot more work. My kid runs a wet tumbling process.

 

Where's the LIKE button for that brass?