I have been reloading now for 2 decades. From the beginning, I've been cleaning brass with a vibratory cleaner and treated corn cob. It works. I'm not saying it's the best, but it gets the job done. I'll often times mix brass. I'll throw pistol in with rifle. I'll throw grossly dissimilar rifle brass in together. I've learned (sometimes the hard way) that some things just don't go together.

Examples of mixes that work fine: 44 Mag and 308 WIN. 223 REM and 9mm. It's easy to separate and one doesn't get stuck inside the other.

The worst is 9mm and 45ACP. Yikes! The 9mm goes into the 45 ACP and gets stuck, and then you've got an extra hour or so pulling the 9mm out and losing most of your fingernails in the process. Another one I make sure of not to mix is the big animal litter corn cob and anything that's smaller than 35 Cal. The big chunks of corncob go in (say 30-06) and they don't come out. This past weekend I found out some new ones; my sons collect their range brass and bring it to me. I clean it and sort it as needed.

New Discovery #1: Don't mix 38spl and 30-06. The 38spl goes over the top of the 30-06 and blocks it. It's easy to remove, but the inside of the 30-06 does not come clean.

New Discovery #2: Don't mix 22LR brass in with 30-06. Those little buggers get in the 30-06 and you have hell to pay getting them out. I used a Kenetic pullet puller.

Feel free to add to this list.

I use a Thumblers tumbler with stainless pins. Makes it look new. Only way to fly!

Once I went with a rotary tumbler with steel pins, I got rid of the corn cob mess and never looked back.

Fill with water, add a couple of squirts of Dawn and a pinch of Lemishine, and cases come out looking like new. The steel pins never wear out, and even though they are stainless they can be picked up with a magnet, which is handy

Paul

Tumble one size brass at a time...... that is what I do.

If you get a wet tumbler, you’ll laugh at people still jacking with corncob

Clean brass?

Huh?

Geno

PS I generally inspect and wipe off any serious stuff with a green scrubby pad.

One time I threw all of my red union suits into the wash.

Like 5 of em.

When done I looked inside. Inside one suit was the other 4. All wrapped around the agitator.

I nearly had to buy a new wash machine.

Just gotta ask, why you tumblin' 22LR?

If my vibrating cleaner ever dies, I'll go to a tumbler, but I can't afford to just toss what I have right now. The only problem I have is the medium I use gets stuck in the flash holes. I have to keep a paper clip handy to knock them out as I prime the cases. It doesn't happen on every case, probably one in ever 6 or 7. The wet tumbling method would be great with black powder cartridge cases. The water would kill the corrosive salts left over that you usually have to clean out in a separate step.

Beat me to it.

I didn't mean to. There was just some 22 LR brass in the bottom of the pile that I missed.

When I was 16 years old, I started cleaning my brass with an electric ice cream churn with corn cob, turn it on its side. I don’t mind rechecking brass for cob crumbs, might get a crumbs in a primer pocket.

Used that for several years. Played out, moved to the reloading snob level with an ultra vibe tub thingy. I still need to get one of those “hell i was there” books so can feel ‘arrived’

To clean them I reckon?🤣

You reload .22 rimfire??

I can picture that happening.

Like blankets with too much synthetic content, they ball up in the dryer. Then only the outside one is dry.

That's why I hang stuff on the fence instead. And I love the smell of "line dried" clothes, towels, sheets, and blankets. Especially the towels when I bath on Saturday.

As the man of the house I get the washtub before the woman and the dogs (no kids you know)

Geno

PS, back on track. Who likes/dislikes the ultrasonic type cleaners?

Beat me to it.

there are kits to reload rimfire. got one , reloaded 20 22wmr's. got rid of it
they did shoot but what a PIA!

With any bottle-neck cases, it is important to make sure that media doesn't cake at the bottom of the shoulder. It can, and will greatly reduce the capacity of the case, raising pressure.

Wore out a vibrator. Bought another. Been using for 40 years and works for me.

I have no comment.

Cleaning cases is lame and I refuse to engage in such a time wasting activity unless ABSOLUTELY necessary.

agreed

Once upon a time whilst cruising the aisles of wally world I came acrost a sack of corn cob bedding for critters , gerbils & rats & such.
Great ol big sack for nearly nothing.

OK , so it's coarser than corn cob media but it ought to work OK right ?

So I put it in my tumbler with a bunch of 223 brass & turned her on.

......hours later I open up the tumbler & find nice , clean , shiney 223 brass....Packed with that corn cob schit , jammed in the brass , set like fuggin concrete....


Mike

Indeed.

................ Thanks for the warning........That sounds like something I eventually would have tried.

You and the flave meet up at the laundromat?

Yup

Only Way To Go!!

Damn, tell us more 😂😂😂

+1

I've been dreading cleaning a bunch of brass lately. I read this thread and BINGO....Just like that...... I ordered a wet tumbler. I was worried about noise but I read that these newer ones are padded to keep it down. I only had experience with a buddy that had one of the first ones and it was noisy as heck.

The cheapo Harbor Freight dual drum tumbler works fine on brass. Coronavirus is an optional upgrade.

Do you call it....... B O B?

Chirp, chirp...
Non-pregnant silence....

Moving on,
Re: lesson number 1.
So you can use .38spl as a shoulder gauge for your .30-06 (per LRH during yesterday's 24cf outage)

Or buy a more substantial bushing out of the hardware store specialty parts drawers...
Either will fit nicely in your caliper case....

I like sonic cleaners.


No pins No tumbling media.

I just wash it in hot water, to which I add a bit of dishwashing liquid. I shake it dry in a dishcloth, and let the residual heat finish the job.

I don't tumble it or subject it to any further cleaning. It seems to me to be a WOFTAM. I see no need for the stuff to be shiny, and in fact the brown patina is actually slightly protective. Residue in the necks may also protect against diffusion bonding, and after testing the theory by experiment I came to the conclusion that there's no need to clean residue out of primer pockets either - it doesn't build up progressively and seems to have no effect at all on accuracy.

Hot water, Dawn, and some Lemi Shine in a Tumblers tumbler if wanted real clean or just sturred in a 5 gallon bucket

Dang, I hate them laundromat thingies.......hate 'em. Overcharge me to wash my clothes in a washer that stops halfway thru after getting my clothes all greasy from the yayhoo that warshed his greasy coveralls in it 4 loads ago. Then the dryers all stink to high heaven like those nasty dryer sheets. Who want's to smell like a whorehouse in their jeans and t shirts? Folks might get the idea I own a .270 or something.

They aren't too bad though if located in a strip mall next to a nudie club or at least a decent liquor store..............assuming one is still a drinking man. Might get your clothes stolen, but at least you could have a fun time doing them.

And I dry all the laundry I can on the fence as I'm a cheap bastid too. Why give money to the local electrical co-op when "God" has provide me with sun and a breeze?

Geno

These pics were taken with my iPhone after last weekends match. This is my 38-55 schuetzen rifle barrel, about 4 inches in front of the chamber. I went from shooting pretty well to missing the target completely in a hurry. The only explanation that I can think of is that I missed a stainless steel pin after cleaning the cases. This gouge wasn’t there before shooting that day and this barrel hasn’t seen anything but cast bullets. Not sure what really happened, but I’m all over tumbling with stainless pins and the rifle has been shipped off to be relined.

That, that, that, that

I never mix brass when cleaning.

Me neither

I don't care if my brass looks like new or not. I don't often clean brass and I've stopped using the vibrating case cleaner. If cases have too much soot on them to reload as is, I toss them in a large mouth plastic bottle with Dawn, shake for a few seconds and rinse.

The only part of the case that I really clean is the inside of the case neck with a brass brush.

I do, but normally I mix obvious mismatches. Part of that is that I generally don't have large batches of brass to clean. It'll be 20 of this and 50 of that-- of themselves, not worth the wear on the cleaner.

A typical mix might be 25 30-06 and 25 30-30 and 50 45 ACP. There's no doubt about what's what. Another batch might be 50 223 and 200 9mm. Again, no problems. If I have to look at the headstamp to be sure, then it's too close. For instance, I don't mix 25-06 and 30-06.

Where I've gotten into trouble is when I'm cleaning a batch of once-fired and someone's mixed a few 9mm's in with the 45's. In this past instance, my sons brought me a pile of range sweepings that probably included God-knows-what. I had just received 100 rounds of Lake City 30-06 brass and wanted something to top off the batch.

Note to self: stop trusting the kids' range sweepings.

So much of what I shoot is small batches. With my deer rifles, I'll start off with one box of 50, shoot half, and then clean and reload it while I'm shooting the remaining 25. It's all the same recipe and I'll keep going like that until I get neck splits. With annealing, I've got rounds that have lasted since 2002.

I used an ultrasonic cleaner for years. It got the cases clean but didn't polish the discoloration. Now I use tumbling medium and it polishes them up shinier than new. I like good looking ammo. The only problem is grains of medium getting in the primer pockets once in awhile but that's less of a hassle than having to brush out the necks. And I NEVER mix different cases.

The key to segregating brass is more tumblers......I have nine......

Corn cob media and a couple three dollops of Nu Finish car wax is your huckleberry.

I wet tumble with SS pins. The vast majority that I clean are straight walled cases, the exception being .223. I mix cases that will not fit into others such as .38/.357 with 9mm & .380. Also mix .44mag/spl with .45 Colt/ACP. .223 is a real pain as the pins often get jammed up in the cases and it often takes quite a bit of shaking to get them out. This and with all the needed case prep of checking each case for length, trimming, and swaging primer pockets on unknown brass, I really wonder if reloading .223 is worth the effort.

If you don’t have the Lyman separator pans, they are worth the money. Hasbeen

I run three tumblers as some batches of brass run to 500 rounds. Media is walnut shells that are quite small.. Damned if I can remember where I got the stuff but I remember that it was a 25 pound bag. Most of the time they don't stick in the flash holes but it's a quick look into the mouth of the case on a well lit piece of white paper to see if the hole is clear. I use a universal decapping tool to knock out the few times there is media stuck in the hole. That works a lot faster than trying to pick it our with a paper clip.
Paul B.

Harbor Freight is your friend. I've been using one of these for several years now. Got it on sale for about $42-45.

https://www.harborfreight.com/dual-drum-rotary-rock-tumbler-67632.html

What happens to ignition if you miss a piece of walnut in the flash hole? Something I've always wondered about.

If I get it and it's already mixed, sometimes I don't bother to sort them.

They're easier to sort after I clean them. I can read the headstamps.

But then you miss all the fun or pulling 9MM out of the 45s.

I don't know if its been posted or not but 9mm mixed with 40's don't play well together. Neither do 40's and 45's.

Same with sheets but the wife puts only one sheet or blanket in the dryer at a time. They don't ball up and dry real quick according to her.

It's funny, but I find it interesting that y'all had trouble with stuff balling up in the washer. I just made the mistake of putting a pair of bib overalls in with my work shirts. That combination got all twisted up and it took 15 minutes to get it unwrapped from the agitator. I finally had to re-rinse the shirts to get the wrinkles out.

If only I'd posted this two weeks ago.

If using a wet tumbler, the problem isn't nearly as prevalent.

I have zero experience wet tumbling, but it seems like wet tumbling with pins is just a big of a PITA as cob/walnut media is, no?

The very same thing happened to John Friguglietti (top level "position" shooter) in one of his AR15 barrels a couple of years ago.

I don't know, but I believe I'm going to intentionally try it to find out. My guess is that you wouldn't get as good ignition and the velocity would be slower. Either that, or no difference at all.

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.

After reading this thread and doing some research, I decided to buy a Frankfort Arsenal Tumbler for an early birthday present for me! I had about 200 mixed 30-06 brass I got off an fellow way back, and it even had about half old military mixed in with it. Needless to say, it was as nasty looking as any brass I've ever seen that wasn't dug out of the ground. I got busy with my universal decapper and primer pocket swage for the GI stuff. This past evening I filled the tumbler up and used the free sample packet of the tumbling solution and the 5lbs of stainless pins that came with it. I knew it would take a while, so I ran it through two whole cycles and then some. When I emptied the tumbler, the water was coal black and horrible looking. I rinsed it a few times and I am amazed how nice and shiny new it all looks. Why didn't I do this years ago? I tried to tumble some of this brass a few years ago and it still didn't look good, especially inside. Now I'm looking around for more brass to shine up. I am pretty amazed.