How necessary is cleaning cases??

ruger270man

Just getting started in reloading, whats the advantages of cleaning cases? Is it necessary? I'll get a tumbler one of these days, just not in the budget right now.

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"I will no longer debate a liberal because I feel they are beneath contempt. Just communicating with one contaminates a person." - whiteclouder

drygulchdan

cleaning cases before resizing prevents scratched dies,clean after to remove case lube.My humble opinion.

Never trust a government that doesnt trust its own citizens with guns
--Thomas Jefferson

Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath?
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richbug

If your brass looks Ok you are probably Ok. Where you get into trouble is when the brass has hit the ground and picked up dirt, or is badly tarnished. This can cause premature wear to your dies and chambers.

My border collie is smarter than your honor student.

D.K.

Hey rugrat270,(sorry-remember I'm old!) Cleaning cases is very
important. Cruddy cases can become deformed in the dies, which
would adversly effect accuracy. Dirty cases can also get stuck
in the chamber of your rifle and a rifle with a good extracor, like a mauser, may pull the end of the case off leaving a real problem.

You don't need a tumbler. Try using some 0000 (4-ought) steel
wool and make sure you wipe off any excess left on the cases.
If you can find it "fine" enough those little synthetic steel wool
pads do great too.

Wish you had posted sooner. I had an extra tumbler and would have
given to ya for yore birthday! But, alas, a friend talked me outa
it.

ZERODIN

I usually go with the following...and it's why cleaning makes life easier for me:

1. Fire round
2. Inspect cases for damage or serious wear
3. Lube with One-Shot spray
4. Full-length resize and deprime on the Rock Chucker
5. Tumble the lube off
6. Optional: trim case necks
7. Debur, etc.; poke the tumbler media out of the primer pocket and brush
8. Primer
9. Powder
10. Bullet

JustC

You don't need a tumbler,..do a search at longrangehunting.com and accuratereloading.com for the case cleaning mixture. I beleive it is hot water, vinegar, and dish detergent.

It is actually recommended that you clean the exterior of the cases only every 4-6 firings or as they become cruddy. A case which is too smooth and polished on the exterior surface does not "grab" the chamber walls as it should and creates more bolt thrust than is necessary and can often (however minuscule) affect accuracy.

I use the boiling water and detergent wash to get all the case lube off of them inside and out. Then dry them on the oven rack at a very low temp with the door cracked enough to let out the humidity. Takes very little effort. also look at the IOSSO kits.

This is all assuming you don't have dirt and grime all over the outside of the case, which must be removed before introduction to the sizing die.

why chase the game when the bullet can get em from here?....
Got Balistics?

knucklehead14

Cleaning is at the top of the list for reloading, 1 simple reason without draging this out with many other reasons. Keep as much dirt out of the firearm as possable.

Bad spellers of the world

"UNTIE!"

mrbruce

NOT cleaning brass in a good tumbler is a good way to get enough build-up INSIDE the case to decrease the total volume that you once had. Think of all the stuff that comes out of a barrel when you clean it !!!! A lot of that stuffs inside the case after it's fired too. 3 times out, and in the Dillion it goes for a few hours. Don't let that stuff build up in there.

Gun control is hitting what your aiming at.

ameriskin

my grandfather uses an old rock tumbler and sawdust. he's been realoading for about 40 years or more with the same tumbler and his brass looks shiny as heck. you don't need to go and spend a ton of money for a brass tumbler. you can probably find one at a yardsale or thrift store.

cody

D.K.

mrbruce,

I respect you opinion...and find your idea of build-up
INSIDE probably has merit, but my reasoning would dictate
that you might be right with "black" powder only. With "smokeless" powder tumbling would probably be uneccessary, since it burns very clean. Better safe than sorry though!
Respectfully

D.K. (the * reloader)

easygo6

As JustC pointed out it is important to clean and inspect your brass before each reloading. You do not have to tumble for each cleaning.

WHY? To enable 1) a competant inspection of the condition of your case head (incipient separation); 2)to get accurate micrometer readings (case length and head diameter); 3)keep your dies clean.

The first two are more important with heavy loadings and with brass re-loaded more than 5 times.

hardtyms

I have a tumbler also but also like useing the chuck off a lee shell case trimmer and a cordless drill sit by the fire in a easy chair trim the case leave it in the chuck grab the steel wool hit it a lick and kill 2 birds with one stone poor people poor ways

Load on Sunday shoot all week!!!

ameriskin

i forgot to mention, sometime so can't see cracks in the brass when they're dirty. after tumbling, my grandfather goes through the brass and the small cracks are easier identified.

cody

ruger270man

well if cleaning is a good thing, im not gonna bother with boiling water, ill just get a tumbler.. but whats the deal with a seperator, are those worth the extra money, to seperate the media from the tumbler? also, how long does media last before you gotta toss it?

btw, thanks for all the good info folks!

ruger270man

quote:Originally posted by D.K.
Hey rugrat270,(sorry-remember I'm old!) Cleaning cases is very
important. Cruddy cases can become deformed in the dies, which
would adversly effect accuracy. Dirty cases can also get stuck
in the chamber of your rifle and a rifle with a good extracor, like a mauser, may pull the end of the case off leaving a real problem.

You don't need a tumbler. Try using some 0000 (4-ought) steel
wool and make sure you wipe off any excess left on the cases.
If you can find it "fine" enough those little synthetic steel wool
pads do great too.

Wish you had posted sooner. I had an extra tumbler and would have
given to ya for yore birthday! But, alas, a friend talked me outa
it.


well my birthday isnt until march.. so ya know, im sure you'll have another extra one by then..

j/k [:D]

ill grab a frankford from midway

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"I will no longer debate a liberal because I feel they are beneath contempt. Just communicating with one contaminates a person." - whiteclouder

JustC

media lasts a long time. The seperator makes it faster,..especially with large lots. I can run 300-500 cases at once in my dillon, which makes for a lot of sifting unless you have the seperator. But,..like I said,..do a search for that cleaning solution or just look at the IOSSO kit,..they both clean brass inside and out in 1/10 or less of the time. You drop em in a bucket with the solution, and stir them every now and then,..then dump and rinse. Clean as a whistle and nowhere near as noisy as that tumbler running. I have mine in the shed so it doesn't bother us in the house. I usually will leave brass for 3-4hrs in the tumbler at least,..sometimes 6 hrs depending on how it is looking.

why chase the game when the bullet can get em from here?....
Got Balistics?