Clean brass everytime before reloading match?

[Vamike9]

I have a question for you experienced reloaders. Is it necessary to clean your brass every time before reloading match grade 223 or 308 bullets? Example, I purchased Black Hills match grade ammunition in 223 fired once through my varmint AR15 rifle. Is it necessary to clean the brass if it already appears clean? Will that hurt accuracy if I just clean primer pockets? Also how many rounds will I be able to get from one pound of reloading powder for match grade 223 ammo? Thank you guys for your helpful advice.

 

[red dawg]

I clean the burned powder from outside of the necks on fired brass and then take a brass brush the same size as the caliber I am shooting and remove the carbon from inside the necks as well before rolling on my case lube pad before knocking out spent primers and re neck sizing before putting in new primer and powder.
As how many rounds you can get from a pound of powder it will depend on how many grains of powder you are loading each round with, But I will go out on a limb and say a bunch Sorry I have never counted rounds in a pound of powder in anything I load for

 

[winmagman]

7000 grains in 1 pound of powder if that helps.

Chris

 

[FearNoWind]

It's important to clean your brass, if for no other reason, to remove anything that might end up sticking to the walls of your dies or interfering with accurate positioning of the brass when inserted into the die. "Dirt" of any kiind is never a good thing.

 

[LoneTraveler]

I suggest you clean brass every time you reload cases. Powder residue, and range dirt can damage brass and dies. It can change neck friction/neck tension on bullets, Changing pressure and velocity of rounds.

For calculating number of loads from a container of Powder just use a calculator.

7000 Gr. Per Lb. or 437.5 Gr. per Ounce for odd size containers.

Container Content DIVIDE BY Charge Weight = Charge Per Container.

EXAMPLE (1 Lb.) 7000 Gr. Divide By 21.5 Gr Charge = 325.58 loads per Lb.

Safe loading and Happy Shooting.

 

[rcoody]

I suggest you clean brass every time you reload cases. Powder residue, and range dirt can damage brass and dies. It can change neck friction/neck tension on bullets, Changing pressure and velocity of rounds.

For calculating number of loads from a container of Powder just use a calculator.

7000 Gr. Per Lb. or 437.5 Gr. per Ounce for odd size containers.

Container Content DIVIDE BY Charge Weight = Charge Per Container.

EXAMPLE (1 Lb.) 7000 Gr. Divide By 21.5 Gr Charge = 325.58 loads per Lb.

Safe loading and Happy Shooting.

a tumbler is cheap. Always clean your brass before resizing.

 

[Vamike9]

Which is better a tumbler or ultrasonic cleaner? Or are there other methods for cleaning brass cases that work just as well without using either one? I assume if using once fired brass then you may be able to get away with just cleaning the inside the neck and primer pockets, correct? Just trying to figure these things out ahead of time, thanks for all the help so far.

 

[rcoody]

Which is better a tumbler or ultrasonic cleaner? Or are there other methods for cleaning brass cases that work just as well without using either one? I assume if using once fired brass then you may be able to get away with just cleaning the inside the neck and primer pockets, correct? Just trying to figure these things out ahead of time, thanks for all the help so far.

I use both. I decap all my cases with a universal decapping die and throw them in the ultrasonic. Brass comes out clean inside and out. Primer pockets look like new.

I then size and throw them into a tumbler to remove the case lube. Shines them up real nice too. Have to clean out the flash holes afterwards.

then I check/trim cases, chamfer, prime and load.

about every 5 firings I run them through my annealer.



Of course I use only Lapua brass so I can skip a lot of the steps with brass prep.

 

[g0rd0]

I decap with a lee universal decapper. Then I put my brass in a 5 gallon plastic gas can with 5 pounds of 177 cal bbs (from walmart) add a dishwasher puck 2 gallons of near boiling water and with the vent open shake them around for 1/2 an hour.
Dump out the dirty water add 2 gallons of boiling water, shake to rinse for a couple of minites then pour out and air dry for a day. After they dry I tumble with walnut shells and turtle wax, Then I resize
The only reason for the boiling water rinse is that 99% of the water immediately evaporates when poured out

 

[FearNoWind]

Which is better a tumbler or ultrasonic cleaner?

I started with tumbler cleaning, then graduated to ultrasonic. What I found was that combining both methods produced the result I wanted. Ultrasonic did a marvelous job on primer pockets and inside portions of the cases and tumbling the dried cases after the ultrasonic treatment produced the exterior finish I wanted. It takes a bit longer but reloading isn't a task that should be rushed anyway so I don't mind taking the time to do it right.

 

[KYpatriot]

I found that the super bright and clean polished necks i get from stainless tumbling seemed to cause some inconsistent bullet release. Graphiting the necks helped this.

 

[MudRunner2005]

Which is better a tumbler or ultrasonic cleaner? Or are there other methods for cleaning brass cases that work just as well without using either one? I assume if using once fired brass then you may be able to get away with just cleaning the inside the neck and primer pockets, correct? Just trying to figure these things out ahead of time, thanks for all the help so far.

I use both. First I decap the cases with universal decapping dies. Then I sonic clean them, dry them, then polish them up in the tumbler with corn cob media and brass polish.

Here is a real before and after of the same exact cases.

I turn old discolored range pickup brass like this...

Into this...

 

[Varmint Hunter]

I guess I'm all alone on this one because I rarely clean my brass unless I'm bored.

It's not like my cases are rolling around in the dirt. I take a case from the chamber and place it back in the plastic box. It's just about as clean as when I chambered it.

Normally, I use 0000 steel wool on the outside of the neck and use a proper fitting brass brush, wrapped with some 0000 steel wool on the inside. That's it!

When I'm bored, I'll put a load of brass in my STM wet/stainless pin tumbler and let it go for a few hours. I have to admit, freshly cleaned/polished brass does look nice but it sure doesn't shoot any better.

 

[Trickymissfit]

If you ever see me at the range, you will also see me reloading the same ten or fifteen cases over and over. It's quite common to see me load the same five cases over and over at the range. If I want to really see what's going on, I'll load the same case five times and index it. Cases never get cleaned, other than cleaning the primer pockets. I am kinda paranoid about clogged flash holes. I have seen a couple guys loading at the range that ran a bore cleaning brush into the case neck. I never have.
gary