Newbie in reloading, case cleaning

[LeftHandGuy]

Clean cases don't shoot any better, a clean car doesn't drive any better and a clean bed doesn't make you sleep at better, but I know which I prefer.

I'm not sure the analogy really stands up. I definitely sleep better in a clean bed, and it literally makes no difference to how the ammunition performs if the brass is tumbled or not.

Of course, that it makes you happy is reason enough to do it, this, is (for most of us) our hobby after all.

 

[davegee59]

i use a lyman cyclone wet tumbler with steel pins and hot tap water and a squirt of finish rinse and shine and they come out better than new, the primer pockets are perfect

 

[Cyres]

Decap and ultrasonic clean. If you want use a Lee primer pocket brush to decarbon primer pockets.
Rinse in water tip out on cloth and get excess water off.
Tip into shallow metal tray and put in oven at 100 c for 30 mins.
When trimming cases and chamfering cases I use Lyman tools with shell holder in Makita drill on slow speed. Final buff up with v fine wire wool.
Simple
D

 

[DesG]

When I was competition shooting I found it embarrassing to be picking up my manky dirty cases after each shoot. On the plus side no one ever tried to pinch them!

 

[quarrystalker]

If you want them clean, shiny, like new inside and out including primer pockets then wet tumbling is the only way to go.

View attachment 364238
You also don’t produce loads of toxic dust.

What tumbler & solution are you using ? I have the Lyman 2500 vibratory tumbler & ss pins, but mine don`t come out as clean as that.

 

[paul o']

A food dryer works wonders for drying wet cases cheap and 2nds for her indoors to make her dried flowers lol

 

[Floralys]

Thank you all for replies!

Currently I am settled with dry tumbler and as was suggested earlier added a bit of t cut (about 2 table spoon volume) to the media and wow it’s shiny! Tho unlike wet tumbler with steel media it won’t clean primer pockets, but it’s not a problem for me at the moment I don’t reload hundreds at the same time so cleaning primer pockets manually is not a problem.

 

[25 Sharps]

What tumbler & solution are you using ? I have the Lyman 2500 vibratory tumbler & ss pins, but mine don`t come out as clean as that.

It’s a 3 drum rock tumbler and I use a small squirt of fairy and 1/2 t spoon of citric acid.

 

[Vince1968]

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I usually tumble in treated walnut for an hour with a full tumbler.

I also add 2 tumbler drier sheets which collects all the black mess from the cartridges.

The media lasts longer and the brass smells like freshly laundered clothes.

The brass comes out very shiny too

 

[Vince1968]

Sorry couldn’t add it to my post above , just followed the How to guide for adding pictures to a post, sorted, Thanks

 

[Hornet]

An alternative
Although possibly not the answer your after but I find 000 wire wool spun along the case from base to neck just after trimming polishes nicely and removes the outer burr from the trim and a brass pencil brush for the primer pocket does a nice job on the outside and its dark inside the cases so I don't wory about what they look inside.

Heathen, I know but was apparently good enough for Richard Lee.

And good enough for me too

 

[mike243]

Has anyone tried soaking cases in coca cola?

i would imagine that would make the cola taste odd

 

[smokey]

Hi all!

I am just starting to get into reloading and as of now I am trying to figure out how to properly clean cases. At the moment I have a smart reloader nano dry tumbler. On yt videos after tumbling cases they come out clean and shiny. But in my case, popped cases came out not much cleaner than they were before tumbling.
Before tumbling I decap old primers, so I could see more clearly if there is a stuck media in the primer pocket/hole.
I used initially chicken corn as was recommended in my shooting club, they do clean ok I guess but it’s a bit of a pain to get chicken corn out of the 223 cases, they just get stuck inside and won’t come out easily due to small neck and coarse media.
So with combination of small screw driver and compressed air I have to go through every case cleaning out stock media.
Then I tried to use crushed walnut media (it’s more like a sand) for cleaning and since it’s fine, media doesn’t stuck in the cases but for some reason not cleaning very well, especially 308 cases. Both 223 and 308 primer pockets and necks were not cleaned very well, even though I ran tumbler for at least 4-5hrs for each batch.
I have seen some advertisement about additives for dry tumblers to make cases clean and in some way more polished. But not sure if these would work and in the club members told me that they won’t help and that I should switch to wet tumbling. But I would like to stick with dry tumbling for now.

Any advice on what media would clean cases better?
Or maybe I need to add something to the media?

Thank you.

put some laundry papers in with it 1£ from the pound shop