Treatment for powder residue on spent cases?

[Deleted member 107796]

Hey All,
Just a quick question that I thought of while reloading some .44mag, which is a new thing for me.
For all of my rifle reloading, I polish the brass for a few days in the tumbler and then after resizing and chamfering, I do an alcohol cleaning to get any remaining oils off. The dark residue seen on the spent rifle cases has never affected accuracy. For the handgun cases, quite a bit of powder residue came out after the alcohol clean, from the inside of the case.
Is anyone doing any further scrubbing/treatment of the case interior, aside from polishing, to minimize powder residue? thanks and regards

 

[ShtrRdy]

It's not necessary to get your brass squeaky clean. For my pistol brass I run it through a vibratory tumbler for a couple hours and then wipe off the outside to remove the dust material from the media. It's then ready to run through the dies.

 

[Bravo 4]

Am I reading that right, you tumble your brass for days....as in continuous?
I hardly ever tumble my brass, mostly just use a green scotch brite pad and a Lee zip trim. Takes maybe 10 seconds per.

 

[Deleted member 107796]

Am I reading that right, you tumble your brass for days....as in continuous?
I hardly ever tumble my brass, mostly just use a green scotch brite pad and a Lee zip trim. Takes maybe 10 seconds per.

Yes, all my rifle brass is tumbled about a day and a half. Never had any issues and comes out in great shape as well as having the inside of the case cleaned out for the most part. This 44mag stuff was using H110, my first try at 44mag, and it was rather dirty. I'm looking at Vihtavuori N110 next time... if I can find it!

 

[Elkeater]

I sonic clean my brass for about 45 min, then throw it in the oven for 45 min at 170 degrees to dry out. The end. Seems to work for me. I do run a neck cleaning brush through the neck when I resize.

 

[westcliffe01]

I use the stainless tumbling media and tumble wet with some detergent for about 20min to 1/2 hour. The media cleans inside, outside so its as bright as new. If one tumbles too long with media the brass can get peened, especially around the case mouth. Rinse a couple of times with clean water and then dry it off. Doesn't take very long, nor does the tumbler need to be very big. The main thing to avoid is to do different size pistol cases at the same time. The cases can end up nested and the media can jam them together so they cant be separated.

 

[sedancowboy]

Wow just Wow. For reloading purposes you don't need to worry about the carbon inside the pistol or for that mater rifle cases. Through your pistol cases in a vibrator with walnut hulls for a couple of hours if they are really dirty add some brass polish to keep the dust down and load them. I have loaded hundreds of thousands of them for comp and never in my life worried about a few stains or carbon. As for rifle all they need is wiped off brush the neck with a plastic brush size prime and load. I can not imagine wetting that many cases and then having to dry them.

 

[westcliffe01]

Its just a matter of whether you want them functional or to look like new. Once I get a new load figured out, I will usually make up a large batch of 200-500 cartridges. By doing the wet tumbling and annealing, my batch of ammo looks like factory new. Seal that up in some mylar bags in an ammo can and it will look that way for a long time.