Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Cleaning Brass (again)

I know, here we go again.

Almost all reloading manuals say to clean brass to keep the wear on reloading dies to a minimum. The opinions on the 'Fire are pretty well split between "I like 'em shiny" and "Who cares?" Some of the gun writers only clean the ones they're taking a picture of.

Realistically, unless a case is black from having been out on the range for way too long, is there any credence to dirty cases (not sandy, just tarnished with some carbon around the neck) causing wear and tear on a die?

Thanks.

RM

If you want to clean the brass,go ahead no harm done by doing so. Or just buy new brass,it's all up to you.

Thanks, Ken. Actually I'm trying to figure out if it's really worth the trouble as far as the dies are concerned.

I usually use a piece of 0000 steel wool to give the necks a quick clean up. I figure it can't hurt and may help limit abrasive wear on the dies as well as keep them clean. It only takes a couple minutes.

Mike,

One of the first rifles I handloaded for after buying a Herter's press in the early 1970's was a Remington 700 in .270 Winchester. Bought a set of RCBS dies and used them for around 20 years before replacing them with a different brand--not because the RCBS dies were worn out, but because I "upgraded" to a pricier set of dies. This was shortly after I got my first bullet-concentricity gauge and the new dies would theoretically make straighter ammo. They didn't, and in fact the RCBS dies (I discovered) made VERY straight ammo with 150-grain Hornady Interlocks, which is probably why they shot so well in that 700.

In all that time I never cleaned any brass, and never found any difference in how the RCBS dies worked, even after loading an awful lot of ammo with 'em. In fact I shot the barrel out on that first .270 mostly because it made such pretty little groups. All that ammo was loaded with the RCBS dies, and they were still making very straight ammo with 150 Hornadys at the time of the "upgrade."

However, while the cases were sometimes a little tarnished, I couldn't call them "dirty," since most weren't ejected into the Montana dirt, but moved from the rifle's action to the ammo box the loaded rounds just came from. (The few that landed in the dirt usually did so while hunting, so were sometimes lost.) And of course I lubed the cases before resizing, so there was always a layer of Imperial wax, or something else, between the "dirty" brass and the inside of the die.

During that same period, some company sent me a case-cleaning machine with all the necessary stuff to make brass nice and shiny. I used it a few times and found the process a PITA, partly because I could have had the cases loaded up in the time the machine took to clean 'em.

The only time I've used it since was to shine up some new .416 Remington Magnum brass that had somehow gotten a little tarnished while stored in a box in my loading room. I'd sold the rifle so didn't need the brass, and making it shiny probably helped the sale. Other than that I haven't bothered, and have a bunch of other dies that still make very accurate ammo despite often resizing "unclean" cases.

I too just clean the neck with 0000 steel wool. Doesn't take much time while watching football.

Whadoyaknow ! you're right AGAIN!!

It's amazing how often you are RIGHT.

I also got ALL the case cleaning equipment, tumbler (old ice cream freezer), cob & walnut media, et.al. After a couple of times I decided 'shiny' brass wasn't worth the time/effort.

I have the SAME 270 RCBS dies I started with in 1976(?) also the SAME RCBS 300 WM dies I bought in 1978/9 (?). I found the same results that you have.

OTOH if pretty brass is worth the time/effort to someone ,cleaning the brass doesn't hurt anything.


Thnx
Jerry

There ya have it. I like it when JB does a "myth buster".

I personally like to have shiny brass but I know I don't shoot anywhere near the rounds what JB probably shoots.

What would you suggest when brass flies off into the sand/dirt? Deprime and swish in a bucket of water?

Hey Rev, I think you are making it harder than it is.....

No doubt! I'm just thinking that if I can skip that step, including the cost of a tumbler or sonic cleaner, I'm all for it.

Its a hard habit to break. Before I joined this site I was spending more time prepping cases than I was shooting.

Nonsense!

After reading some posts from Mule Deer I have started changing my ways a bit, strange really, I have been reading his articles for years, never really sunk in before.

The other day, using new brass, I was able to just run the new cases into the die just far enough to make the necks round..........instead of running them all the way up.

Gawd, that was hard!

I of course went through the chamfer and debur process.....small steps towards recovery are best you know.

Unless the "raw" case mouths are pretty smooth, I usually chamfer and deburr, because it makes the process of seating bullets smoother and hopefully more consistent. And if I'm going to chamfer it only takes maybe 3 seconds longer to deburr the outside with the Little Crow Gunworks rotary tool I've been using for the past year or more.

Oh good. I was hoping that was not one of the 12 steps to recovery.

My plan is to get my middle son Richard boy to do the chamfer/deburr process for me. I have the RCBS machine with a VLD chamfer tool.

He likes to help and wants to learn. Pretty good for a 4 year old.

You have to watch him though, he ran the decap pin into my finger because he ran the case up the sizer die before I had my hand out of the way. Scared the hell outta him. Me too I guess.

The good news is that's just one more piece of unnecessary equipment I can strike off the list. How, what to replace it with....

I wipe it on my pants, then put it in one of my pants pocket and continue hunting.

That's pretty much what I'm doing now, so I must be doing everything right.

Yup,you're doing fine.

Not to disagree with the experts!!

I have perhaps a lot more brass than I need. I don't mind throwing a box of used brass into a vibrator cleaner. For instance I just came back from PD shooting. I might throw my brass into the cleaner, maybe not. But I already have the vibrator/cleaner. I am tight enough that I don't throw brass out until they are about to or have failed -- the necks crack or the primer pockets become to large. Necks that are about to fail are easier to spot when clean, I think.

Another advantage of clean brass is that it is easier to find when on the ground.

These maybe not reason enough to by a cleaner, but I've never worn out a die set. I've abused them, but not over-used them.

However I think that it is necessary to clean cases used in shooting black powder loads. These cases just need to be cleaned. I use a liquid rotary cleaner for these cases. A bucket of soapy water and a brush would probably do though.

Used the tumbler twice on brass for whatever reason. Do use it on things non ammo related. Pollished up some small hinges for a project. Jewelry pc now and then. Hell I can reclaim some space, 2 ammo boxes will fit there.

Sold some brass and thought they would think they got their monies worth if it was shiny .