Let's Talk About Brass Tumbling

[JackEllis]

When shooting a couple thousand rounds a month, hassle free is what I'm after. I really don't care how pretty they look.

I mean, as far I can tell, I can load rounds without any case cleaning and I imagine they will run all the same.

I agree. Some people seem to like clean brass for it's own sake. I'd rather spend more time making sure my ammunition is loaded consistently and less time making it look pretty.

I pick up a lot of range brass. Here's how I process what I end up shooting (all rifle brass).

Rinse to get rid of most of the dirt. Might take 3-4 iterations.

Deprime. This allows the cleaning solution to circulate through the cases and it also speeds drying.

Wash in a solution of hot water from the tap, Dawn and Lemishine (anything with citric acid or vinegar will probably work in place of Lemishine). Agitate the cases for a few minutes. Hotter water would probably be better but it's two flights of steps from the kitchen to the shop and I'm not thrilled about carrying containers of boiling water through the house.

If I'm patient, let the contents sit overnight. Otherwise drain and rinse.

Spread the rinsed cases in a pan lined with paper towels to dry. I use old pie pans. The paper towels absorb any residual cleaning solution so the cases don't look like they're diseased. When the weather warms up, I put the pie pans on the deck railing where sun speeds things up

I might tumble them for a few minutes after sizing and trimming to get rid of the lube, but wiping them off is just as good, and it avoids the problem of media getting stuck in the flash holes and primer pockets.

The brass for my reloads definitely doesn't look like factory ammo but it's clean enough for me. Seems to shoot fine.

Except for depriming, I do the same thing for pistol brass I pick up and post for sale.

Maybe getting the insides shiny makes the dies last longer but for what I'd spend in time, money, electricity and cleaning media, I could buy new dies every few years and come out money ahead.

[the86d]

I do only cob, as the lady is allergic to walnuts and such.
Brasso, mineral spirits/denatured-alcohol, and cob for about 2 hours.

I found that mostly damp/moist cob with the solvent works best to strip carbon.

[GeeBee49]

When I was reloading I always tumbled once fired brass. It takes less tumbling time when it's not very dirty. I mostly shot revolvers back then so I didn't have to pick brass up off the floor. After running the brass through the resizing/de-capping die I dumped it into one pound plastic coffee containers (one for each caliber) until there was enough to fill my tumbler.
I used dry walnut shell media and since the brass wasn't too dirty to begin with I tumbled for about two hours. If I wasn't satisfied I would run it for another hour. When you de-cap first you will sometimes get a small chunk of media wedged in the flash hole so I would check for that before reloading.

[divingin]

I agree. Some people seem to like clean brass for it's own sake. I'd rather spend more time making sure my ammunition is loaded consistently and less time making it look pretty.

The two are not mutually exclusive.

I pick up a lot of range brass. Here's how I process what I end up shooting (all rifle brass).

Note: See Jack's post for his process


When I was picking up brass, I would: Decap, dry tumble for 20 min to an hour to get particulates off, lube and size, dry tumble for an hour to remove lube, trim and debur if necessary, wet tumble, dry, and place in storage never to be seen again (which is why I don't up brass anymore.)

Maybe getting the insides shiny makes the dies last longer

Inside clean doesn't affect dies (other than the expander plug.)