Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Brass Cleaning Don't-Do's

I

I clean before de-capping and sizing. That way, the de-capping pin solves the problem.

JG I thought the same thing. I’ve been using corn cob and vibratory method for 30+ years. Just a few months ago decided to try stainless n wet. Ran a couple trial n error batches now I’m never going back. Stainless pin are the only way to fly imho.

Anybody use chemical cleaner to clean really dirty brass?

Yes, I use this:

Hornady ultra-sonic cleaner

It works well and is easy to use.

I am very pleased with the result of wet tumbling. I've visually inspected corn cob, walnut results and do not find those media to do as good a job. Plus, stainless pins never wear out. You never have to replace them, if you're careful with them. I've never touched the other half of the bag I bought many years ago.

It’s the best way to go, I have a timer, set and forget.
It makes them better than new brass.

hanco, I'm curious what time you set your timer for. I don't have a timer, but usually run mine 6-8 hours in a set and forget type mode. I look at the clock when I flip the switch on the tumbler and figure on 6-8 hours. Have found that tumbling too long dulls the finish on the brass.

I've been doing it this way for quite a while.

I use the stainless pin tumblers.

Another trick I use is after I pull em out and rinse them, I throw the brass in an old pillow case and tie a knot in it. Throw that inside a heavy towel that I had the wife sew up like a pillow case, throw a tie wrap around the end. In the dryer for 10 minutes on high and you don't get the water spots, and they are immediately dry and ready to load. What few stainless pins you might miss or end up stuck in flash holes are laying in the bottom of the pillow case.

Bought a cheap extension cord at Ace Hardware that had the timer built in. It was cheap. It has a 24 hour clock. I forgot a couple times, brass ran for 24 hours. You can set it for as long as you want.

I think it made to turn lights on and off while you are gone. If you have two or three of them, you could have lamps going on and off at all different hours when you aren’t there.

I rinse dirty brass with clear hot water and letting them dry before putting them in a plastic freezer bag with some glycerin lube from RCBS. After resizing, I put the brass into plastic coffee containers and spray in some Simple Green to get the glycerin lube off. I put in some hot water and stir the brass in the coffee container to get them clean. I drain them and let them dry out. When they are dry I put them through a vibratory brass tumbler with walnut shell media I got from a pet supply store.

IN the end, the only liquid cleaner I use is the Simple Green to get the glycerin off. The Simple Green does tend to shine up the brass. It is a little harsh so I only let it stay on the brass 2 or 3 minutes before rinsing them clean and drying them out.

kwg

Hmm, I just run my wet tumbler for about two and a half hours. Gets em plenty clean imo. Some minor residue left in the primer pockets, but so small an amount I don't bother with any further cleaning.

A bit late chiming in here. An issue that might be unique to the BPCR sector where cartridge length can be quite critical with lead slugs is that cartridges will shorten over time due to peening of the necks. Likely a minor issue with bottleneck cartridges and jacketed slugs. With lead slugs and straight walled cartridges, there can be some lead shaving and leading issues when the bass is on the short side.

I too use the Harbor Freight dual drum tumbler and SS pins. I will load a pound or a smidgeon (scientific measurement) more of dirty brass in each drum, weighed on a common kitchen scale, with a 1/4 teaspoon of "Lemi-Shine" dishwasher cleaner booster (citric acid) and 3 good squirts of dish washing detergent, such as Dawn or Palmolive, and fill with HOT water until covering brass about 1/2 - 3/4 inch or so. Warning: Do NOT use any more than this amount of Lemi-Shine in each of the drums or it will turn the brass red. The brass will still be good, but will have a red tint to it. Don't ask me how I know this. Tumble the brass for about 2 1/2 - 3 hours. If you go longer, after about 3 1/2 hours the brass starts to get a bit dull looking. Not damaged, but not as shiny, and there is no need to go this long. Remove from the drums and rinse well with hot water and strain the pins out. I do this with two buckets, a large wire kitchen strainer, and a small plastic colander. I fill one of the buckets with hot water. I empty out one drum at a time, staining the contents into the empty bucket. Make sure all the pins that came from each drum are returned to that same drum to keep the quantities even. That is why I do each one separately. I fill the drum with clean hot water from the water bucket and pour it over the pins and brass in the strainer into the empty bucket. I turn all pieces upside down when picking them up from my large kitchen wire strainer and give them one quick little shake to make sure all the pins are out. I will then rinse the cleaned brass again dousing them in the clean hot water bucket using the colander. Another clean wire strainer would work as well. Shake off as much water as you can. I rake the bucket bottoms of each with a magnet on a telescoping stick from Harbor Freight to pick up the pins that went through the strainer, rinse them in the clean water bucket, and return to the rinsed out drum for use again. Repeat with the next drum. After rinsing the brass, I roll them around on an old towel and put them on trays of a common food dehydrator, the kind you make dried fruits or jerky with. I usually leave them in on high for 1 1/2 - 2 hours, but this is probably much longer than needed. I just want to make sure they are good and dry. You can also do the same thing on a metal tray in the kitchen oven. This sounds like a lot of trouble, but it really is not. While these various process steps are running, go load or prep some already cleaned brass, cut the grass, weed the garden, surf the net, etc. After you get the system down, it goes pretty smoothly.

This is what I do and I will bring back anywhere from 50 to 250 pieces of pistol brass at a time from a range session. I decap all brass with a decapping die and separate into containers by what will clean together. Such as .380, 9mm, .38, and .357 I will clean together as they will not stick together. I also will clean .44 mag/spl, .45 ACP, and .45 Colt together. 5.56mm/.223 are a pain to clean as often the pins will clog up in the bottleneck and will take a lot of shaking to get them out. If I were to be dealing with larger quantities of brass to be loaded on a Dillon type large quantity producing machine, I would go with a much larger capacity tumbling system. For my quantities, this system is very economical and does a quality job. Note: Harbor Freight has two models of tumblers. One is a single drum and the other a dual drum. Do not bother with the single drum as it is not enough capacity to fool with. With a dual drum tumbler you can clean up to 2 1/4 - 2 1/2 lbs of brass at a time.

Henryseale, try my drying method I described a few post up, it works like a charm, and very quick.

Choose your words wisely...

I didn't know that anyone even "cleaned" brass anymore these days.

That's a useless waste of time. If it's got actual dirt, then wipe it off. Otherwise, leave it alone.

That's a good idea.