Again, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I am very new to reloading. I have recently heard that you should clean used brass before before resizing & decapping. Unless the brass is caked with gunk and you are working with pistol brass using a carbide die, I don't see the reason for this. I can understand if not using carbide dies. Will someone experienced in this please educate me? Replies are appreciated.

Do you own a reloading manual?

Yes, I do. Is there something that I missed? I have run several hundred 9mm, .380 ACP, .38 SPL,.30 carbine, and .357 Mag. fired cases through carbide resizing/decapping dies before wet tumbling them with ss pins and soap. Everything looks well to me. I have primed them all after drying. Having said that, I have not as yet loaded any of the cases with powder and bullets. That is to be my next project. The cases all look real good after cleaning and just for curiosity, before priming, I did run a few through the sizing die (carbide) again to see how they "felt". They seemed fine, as I suspected they would. I do understand not to do this if using non-carbide dies as the cases need to be smooth and lubed before sizing. I just wanted to know if I am missing something here. Thanks for the reply.

If you are sizing/de-capping before you clean because you want nice shiny primer pockets, I would recommend getting a universal de-capping die.
The die does not come in contact with the case wall so a dirty case is no problem.
I personally don't run dirty brass through my dies; carbide or steel.
At a minimum I would wipe the brass with a rag before sizing.

I tumble mine in corn cob prior to sizing and then tumble again in walnut after sizing. Even the smallest bit of grit can mess up a die. I had to send a die back to Lee to have the inside repolished: it was leaving marks on the outside of the cases when sizing.

Ditto on the Universal decapper first. Then clean either by tumbling in media or stainless steel pins or using an ultrasonic cleaner. You will get better results, without the possibility of damaging your dies. Doesn't need to be done at every reload, but let your eyes tell you when.

If the brass is still fairly clean, I size and deprime, then clean with stainless pins, That makes it look new.

I clean mine everytime before resizing.

If clean I skip any cleaning at all. But I do recommend the universal decapper as the crud from the primer can be a problem.

If the cases are really tarnished I will wipe them down with never dull or 4/0 steel wool while they are in the spinner for case trimming. I do clean the dies before each use as they seem to attract grit from the shop. The cases I have gotten stuck were from not cleaning or not lubing first.

50 years of reloading I only clean cases when they have visible dirt on them, I do clean all primer pockets with a primer hole cleaner,

when you tumble brass it takes some of the brass off especially if you use metal such as stainless pins ( I believe that ) the brass becomes thinner.

I use the Lee universal decaping die. Then I clean the brass in a thumbler. Dirty brass scratches dies. Then I resize. Hasbeen

Decap , a quick brush of the primer pocket, and just a light cleaning/wiping of the cartridge with some solvent on a rag. One pass through the necks with a brush prior to resizing. Not a highly polished product, but will not marf up my dies or a chamber.

Generally with shot brass that I'm going to reload, I may just take a piece of fine grit 3M scotchbrite pad or fine steel wool and pinched between my thumb and a finger, clean the neck of the brass. Don't regularly clean the primer hole, do it around every third firing or so. Kinda depends on the powder I've shot in it. Some is dirtier than others. Also, may take an old bore cleaning brush with a suitable diameter and clean the inside of the neck to rid it of any powder residue. Very seldom to I take out my sonic cleaner to clean my brass with it. Also, the case lub I use for resizing does a good job of dissolving any residue on neck or the brass for that matter. I wipe off any of this residue with a cloth that's often has some cheapo rubbing alcohol on it to remove the case lub and remaining powder residue after I've resized the brass. Then I reload it. And yes, I do own a Lee Decapping tool, but have no regular routine when I'll use it. Its a good tool to have.

I don't reload very much, just new or fired-once or twice .338WM brass. Before de-capping the fired brass I brush the inside of the cases with a soft nylon pistol brush, and wipe the outside with a clean rag. Once the brass is de-capped and the primer pocket is cleaned, I wash them inside and out with warm soapy water (nylon brush for inside the brass). The next step it to remove any traces of soap and lube with clean hot water. Then I dry them in the oven set at 150 degrees for about 30 minutes, and after let them air-out through the night. That's all I have done though the years.

If I ever have any brass that is dull or stained on eat outside, I sometimes use a brass cleaner called "Never Dull," making sure that it does not get anywhere near the primer pocket nor inside the case. Also, just like others in this forum you can use some of the not very aggressive white color 3M pads.

By the way, when cleaning a brand new stainless steel rifle, I always clean the bore using a nylon brush and dish soap in the sink, then rinse it with hot water to remove any traces of soap. The stock has to be removed, of course, and the action will be too hot to hold with bare hands, so be careful.

If the plan is to clean the brass anyway, I don't know of a good reason why you wouldn't do so, before running it through your dies? Just buy a decapping set, pop out the primers and clean away.

Jeff

No reason to clean, unless you have your brass rolling around in the dirt, then I'd just wipe them off.

Otherwise, shoot, resize, prime,dump powder, seat bullet, shoot. Repeat often. It's far better to shoot than it is to clean brass.


I've loaded a bunch of cases (223 for example) and never cleaned brass. If a little carbon and brass is gonna hurt steel dies, I ain't seen it.

Can't think of a situation where I ever regretted having clean brass. Guns and their equipment can have lots of things measured in thousandths, and not wondering how thick gunk is, or if that's the reason your necks might fit tight in the chamber, etc., is worth the little amount of time it takes to run brass through the tumbler.

Can't think of a situation were I ever regretted not cleaning brass. It's like wiping your ass before you sheit.

No- -it's like wiping your ass before pulling up your pants. Lots of neck bushings in sizer dies aren't that hard, and get scored easily. Lots of chambers and reloads have close tolerances, and not wondering if the fit is tight because your die is set up wrong, or if you still have too much gunk on your brass makes ckleaning before reloading a perfect time to do it

My routine for the last thirty or so years is to throw all the dirty (fired) brass into the tumbler with a little bit of mineral spirits.
Lube, size and decap and then back into the tumbler for an hour to clean the lube off.

Who wants to see a box of filthy ammo?

If you say so, but it's a waste of time.

Who wants to see a box of ammo? It ain't a chick's ass and a bucket full of empties is much better.

If they get really bad I'll polish a neck with some steel wool. I gave the tumbler away years ago.

Clean ammo is like a clean car. Ammo doesn't shoot any better. Car doesn't run any better. I don't drive dirty cars and don't shoot dirty ammo. Just me.

I tumble the straight wall cases which are going through carbide dies before sizing. I tumble the bottleneck cases that require lube for sizing after sizing. I've never had tumbling do a good enough job of cleaning primer pockets for that to matter, I always give each case two twist of a pocket brush after they come out of the FL die.

I might change process if I were using a progressive but after upwards of 100K rounds loaded on a single stage, I'm comfortable my current process works for me.

Tom