Cleaning brass

[snox801]

So this brings up another question as most things do when learning. How would hbn affect this. I've used it before and plan to use it on some tipped bullets. Stuff has been proven by many shooter including tubbs. But wouldn't that make things slippery like clean brass?

 

[K.E.C. Darkside]

Harbor Freight or Lymans Magnum Tumbler. And a mix of Rice and Corn Cob Media. With a squirt of polish.

 

[orkan]

Neither does Erik Cortina and he's hard to argue with.

Is he not? I found arguing with him quite easy. Though it seemed as if we agreed on far more than we disagreed.

People would do well to ask what type of shooting Erik is doing. Trying to do F-class things out in the world away from the square range, can sometimes not work out well at all. Mostly, people want to simplify things that aren't suppose to be simple.

This is one example: How many firings do you think most F-class guys use their brass for? Do you think this answer, would come to bear on whether or not they could get away with not tumbling?

Conversely, I will get an absolute minimum of 15 firings on my brass. Even with big magnums. On average, I'll see 40-80 firings with my smaller stuff.

So the correct answer to this is rarely as simple as people want to make it. Yet if we lower the expectations enough, literally any technique works.


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[Coyote Shadow Tracker]

There are few Theories on cleaning brass. I knew some top shooters that would not clean their brass. They said that the outside of the case would "Hold" better in the chamber without cleaning. There would be some friction from the particles on the outside of the case. Also the inside of the neck would have some lube from the carbon left for a more consistent release.
I am not promoting these "Theories" but they do have merit.

My cases are FL sized, Neck Turned and same bushing size for neck tension.
I personally use the "Wet SS Pins" Tumbler with some Dawn and Lemon Shine. When processing my cleaned Brass i put into a large ZipLock Baggie and spray with "HotShot" then shake well to coat everything outside and inside the neck. When I reload every time it is consistent. I try to do all my reloads the same exact same way every time. I can measure our results by Velocity, ES, SD. There is equipment out there to measure and collect a lot more data.

There are Shooters with much more experience than me and have very good technical/electronic equipment to measure their results.
I am glad to see that these more expert shooters are trying to prefect the reloading process.
Greg at Primal Rights has a wealth of knowledge, the time perfecting processes and the technical/electronic equipment. We just do what little we can for our reloading/shooting abilities. We do look for what Greg is doing for the Advancement of our Shooting Sport.

You as a "Reloader" and "Shooter" have to look at a lot more than just Reloading with Bullets, Brass, Powder, Reloading Equipment.
Are you reloading for Hunting or to be the next World Champion X Shooter?

 

[orkan]

I don't clean brass.

I wipe the outside off with a papertowel and 91% iso alcohol, run a neck brush through the neck, clean the primer pocket with a good primer pocket tool

I don't mean to be antagonistic if this was just a misnomer on your part... but that sounds a lot like cleaning brass.

Brushing the neck as you describe, is a critical element to doing things the way you describe.

I prefer to do bulk cleaning operations to minimize the opportunity for human driven variables to enter the equation. Secondly, I shoot FAR too much to do it as you describe. I'd lose my mind if I had to hand op each case like that the way you laid it out.


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[Dirtrax]

I tumbled, stopped and cleaned only the outside of the necks with 0000 steel wool, and went back to tumbling with crushed walnut "Pet Bird Litter".
Now I tumble clean high volume (round count) cases and hand clean necks on lower volume (round count) magnums. Do what works for you as long as it isn't stainless steel pins.

 

[Coyote Shadow Tracker]

This is another Topic that has many POSTS throughout the years on LRH and keeps popping up with a lot of the same processes and likes/dislikes. Just refer to Thread #9 on this Post and save yourself a lot of time and energy.

OR you can always do a quick "SEARCH" in LRH and find probably hundreds of hundreds Posts on Brass Cleaning.

 

[Dentite]

Avoid pins. Avoid any wet process.

Use the vibratory bowl tumbler of your choice, and rice. Specifically this rice I'll link below, as many types of rice are very bad....

There are pros and cons to each cleaning method. Not cleaning, vibratory tumbler with various media, wet tumbling with SS pins, etc.

I've been wet tumbling for years and I'm definitely not going back to vibratory cleaning.

 

[Dentite]

I tumbled, stopped and cleaned only the outside of the necks with 0000 steel wool, and went back to tumbling with crushed walnut "Pet Bird Litter".
Now I tumble clean high volume (round count) cases and hand clean necks on lower volume (round count) magnums. Do what works for you as long as it isn't stainless steel pins.

What's your experience with wet tumbling with SS pins? What problems did you have?

 

[orkan]

There are pros and cons to each cleaning method.

What is a con to my method?

 

[snox801]

I actually like these threads cause it gives many good ideas. And some new ones. But always leaves me thinking I never do enough. Lol

 

[Dentite]

What is a con to my method?

It doesn't get the brass as clean as wet tumbling with SS pins.

 

[338 dude]

I need to get a tumbler. I have 7mm-08 to 338 WM brass. What is the latest/greatest? Thanks

Fart -Frankfurt Arsenal rotary Tumblr

 

[orkan]

It doesn't get the brass as clean as wet tumbling with SS pins.

So the desire is to have clean brass, even if it degrades accuracy and precision?