Best way to clean REALLY dirty brass?

[snuffy]

I am going to have to disagree on this one. Lyman, RCBS, and Lee just to name a few have devoted. Numerous products devotes solely to cleaning primer products. So your saying they make these products for those of use that are just waiting our time. I think not.

First, I did not say my way was best. Just good enough and quicker. Second, point to a test where cleaned primer pockets were more accurate than uncleaned. Whether in rifle or handgun. Third, the carbon inside a case is of no bother to a loads accuracy. In smokeless powder loads, it does NOT "build up", nor does it affect the performance one bit.

[/QUOTE]I was going through 50 to 60$ a year on media not including polishing compounds. That brought my total to close to 100$ a year. [/QUOTE]

Tumbler media just does not wear out. It does get dirty, but there are many ways to combat this. Used dryer sheets take a lot of crud out of, or off the chunks of media, so do cut up paper towels. media additives/polish last a lot longer than you think. I don't add any until it stops polishing, sometimes not even then if all I'm doing is cleaning the cases.

If you read my earlier post, I said I've used my US cleaner to clean brass. The ONLY reason for that was the brown tarnish that does not come off in a vibrator. It too does not affect load performance, it is just unsightly. Then I stick them in an oven @ 250 to boil the water off. Total time around 6 hours, and a lot more energy costs.

A 40 pound bag of drillsspot 20/40 media should last a person at least 3-4 years. To explain, the 20/40 grit is VERY fine. it WILL NOT get caught in primer flash holes, and because it's finer, it polishes faster. 3 years into under 30 bucks, means less than 10 bucks a year.

[MikeS]

Personally I like to clean my primer pockets, if for no other reason than that it makes it easier to seat a new primer, and it seats fully. I see lots of progressive presses that will size/deprime in one station, then prime in the next. How do you clean your primer pockets in an operation like that? Having said that, uncleaned primer pockets must work, if they didn't, then the progressive presses would have some way of cleaning the pocket before it's primed. If I ever do get a progressive press, I'm still going to preprocess my brass the way I do now. I deprime using a universal de-priming die, then clean the brass (either using a vibratory tumbler, or washing the brass in the washing machine, or both). Then when the brass is done, I could run it thru the progressive press, and it's de-priming pin could be used to remove any corn cob stuck in the flash hole. At the moment I'm using a turret press, and take the pre-processed brass (and pre-primed) and then it goes from being a case to being a fully loaded cartridge before it leaves the press.

Somebody mentioned that the Hornady liquid cleaner uses acidic acid, I wonder if I could use photographic stop bath, it's just acidic acid with an indicator in it to show when it's no longer acid (neutralized by the photographic developer). I could water it down some, and add in some detergent (I wonder if using D-Lead hand cleaner would help any?).

[snuffy]

I see lots of progressive presses that will size/deprime in one station, then prime in the next. How do you clean your primer pockets in an operation like that?

Mike, the answer is--- you don't. That is exactly my point in my rant above, when loading auto handgun brass on my 650, I don't clean a single primer pocket. I have never cleaned pockets in handgun brass, even when doing them on a single stage press, long before getting a lee turret, then the dillon. Pre-prepping brass for a progressive press is like carrying an anchor while running a marathon.

Rifle is a different story, if I'm doing a match reload, or hunting rounds, I'll clean the primer pockets. Often, I'm using a primer pocket uniformer to really get to the bottom of things. I use a RCBS case prep center for that and inside-outside chamfering and uniforming flash holes.

Run-of-the-mill rifle does not get the PP cleaned, especially if they're running through the dillon. People have done side-by-side tests trying to see an improvement in consistency between cleaned pockets and uncleaned. There wasn't any. As long as the flash hole wasn't blocked by tumbler media.

I did a test once to determine if a chunk of tumbler media in a flash hole would make a difference. Thoughts of most said it wouldn't. Like when tumbling lube-sized cases to remove the lube, with the normal corncob 14/40 grit. Some of the media ends up stuck in the flash hole. I purposely sorted 50 cases with and 50 without then loaded them with an established accurate load. .223 with a 60 v-max Hornady, wc-844.

Running them over my pact chrono AND on a target @ 100 yds, showed almost double group size, and increases in ES.

[montana_charlie]

First, I did not say my way was best. Just good enough and quicker.

Does it strike you as odd that 26 people have replied to the thread, and you are the only one that thinks truly 'clean' brass is wasted effort?

CM

[snuffy]

Does it strike you as odd that 26 people have replied to the thread, and you are the only one that thinks truly 'clean' brass is wasted effort?

So, because some people are OCD with their brass, everybody that isn't is flawed?

What about those that have never even tumbled brass at all? Some of their brass is so dirty that it can't be found on the ground if dropped. But they shoot good groups and kill game.

If you use the wrong solution, you can leach the zinc from the brass, leading to weak cases. Pink brass is an indication the zinc is gone. When I first got my US cleaner, I got some shooters choice aqua clean.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/311...-gallon-liquid

I used it to clean some .223 brass. I posted some pics on a forum, a guy chimed in that the aqua clean would destroy brass, leaching the zinc out. I stopped using it for brass, it's remarkable how well it cleans gun parts though. I confirmed the brass eating properties by soaking some junk 30-06 brass in the solution for several weeks. It came out as pink as a baby girls bonnet! It also crushed way easier than UN-soaked brass!

There's no safety issue here, just personal opinion and experience. Dirty, un tumbled cases are not safer than cases that have been fussed over for hours. That's my final answer Regis, I won't waste any more time on this one.

[John Boy]

Either ceramic media for the straight walled cases or SS pins for the bottleneck cases

2mm ceramic triangles, Strat-O-Sheen burnishing solution and small squirt of Dawn will spotlessly clean 220 Swift bottlenecks up to 50-70 straight walls. Why buy 2 different medias when only one will do both types of brass?

And don't exclude these 2mm or 3mm triangles as an excellent cleaning media compared to the SS pins...
I forgot and left 20 black powder spent 45-70 cases in the box for over a year. Put them in the rotary tumbler with the above media and burnishing solution - ran the tumbler for 6 hours. I defy any to tell the difference between these cases and new ones: primer holes, inside and outsides of the brass. In fact, they are brighter than new cases.

[fredj338]

Does it strike you as odd that 26 people have replied to the thread, and you are the only one that thinks truly 'clean' brass is wasted effort?

CM

I like clean brass, super shiney doesn't impress me but if someone else wants to agonize over it, fine with me. I typically just tumble in walnut/corn cob mix w/ NuFinish until clean & some shine, maybe 2-3hrs. For really dirty stuff, Lemishine does a great job then follow up in the tumbler for shiney brass.