Cleaning Brass

[kstrongsyj]

So I am curious, how well do you guys clean your brass each time you reload. It seems like I spend hours upon hours cleaning, swabbing the shell, depriming, then cleaning the primer pockets. Do you do a full cleaning every time or just inspect and clean when really dirty?

[EastBayRidge]

Rifle brass I'll clean more thoroughly, esp for my precision rifle. .45 ACP just get tumbled with a quick spray of flitz, with primer pockets given a quick twist or two of the Lee cleaner after depriming.

[sammy]

I just tumble them in a walnut shell-corn cob blend, inspect and run on the 650.

[C.G.]

I use an ultrasonic cleaner on all my brass.

[grywlfbg]

.223 brass I tumble in walnut shell w/ some Nu-finish car polish. Then I inspect and run through my 650 once (w/o the powder funnel and pulling the cases before the seating die) to resize and deprime. Then I trim, swage, and then load. I don't bother w/ the primer pockets. But then I'm shooting tactical competitions - 300yds or less so I don't need super accuracy.

Not sure what I'm going to w/ my .308 when I start loading that - may have to start paying attention to the primer pockets a bit more.

[Wulf]

Pistol brass gets tumbled with nu-finish, then run through the Dillon.

[guimus]

I generally don't clean my brass at all between loads. If primer pockets look too gummy or primers aren't seating well, I'll use the lee tool. Otherwise nothing.

*all I'm loading right now, though, is .454, .45colt, and .357mag, all just for plinking. When I load .308 or x54r, I clean a tiny bit more.

[Paratus et Vigilans]

Frist stage, tumble them in a tumbler with walnut shell media for a couple of hours.

Second stage, run them through a media separator, then tumble them a second time in a second tumbler with corn cob media, for a finer level of polish.

Thrid stage, run through media separator, then inspect each one for deformity, tiredness, cracks, etc., as they get separated into storage bins by caliber for later loading.

Fourth stage, pull from storage bin, toss in a dedidicate lube bin, spray on Dillon case lube and rattle them around some, then dump into Dillon case feeder on my XL650. Load.

Fifth stage, take loaded rounds from press and tumble 30 minutes in corn cob media for that factory-new look, and to clean off any remaining case lube. (I used to to this with a rag as I put them into labled boxes for use, but that was a drag and hard on the fingers! I only hand wipe them now if they're moly coated bullets because a final tumble tends to take off the moly coating, too!)

Sixth stage, run them through media separator one last time, dump into a sorting bin, and then place them one by one in ammo boxes to be labled for use, and check each primer in the process to be sure it is seated straight and deeply enough. Rejects get set aside for disassembly.

Seventh stage - - go shooting!

[packnrat]

seeing as i pick up a lot, i have a "dirty" clean, sort, then deprime, and a polish clean, then scrape the primer pockets and prime up for reloading. and this is for pistol target loads,

rifle i do go a bit better.



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