How do you clean your brass??

I don't bother cleaning primer pockets on pistol brass. For my rifles, I run them through the RCBS case prep machine anyway after resizing/trimming so I just clean them as part of that activity.

I use a plastic container with some water, a little lemon juice, and a couple of drops of whatever dish washing soap I find under the kitchen sink. I add the brass, put the cover on the container, and shake it well. Then I set it down and forget about it for several hours. I then pour the water down the kitchen sink using a strainer basket to catch the brass, then rinse it with fresh running water and dump it in a pan and let it dry. It's by far the easiest and cleanest method I've tried and the brass is always very clean. My vibratory cleaner is stored away now and I doubt I'll ever use it again.

Deprime, tumble in walnut with a dab of NuFinish for a few hours. done.
Simply good, clean brass that won't win any jewelry design contests, nor waste a bunch of my time and money.

I start in Walnut tumbler, then switch to corn media with nu finish..while I do yard work. The way to fly, in my OP

Thewelshm

Seems like if you're gonna wet tumble you'd wanna deprime first.
At least that's my way.

YMMV

Deprime first. Soak in room temperature Lemi-Shine (2 teaspoons/quart of water) for only one minute, rinse and then dry for 24 hours.. Tumble for 1-3 hours in walnut media.

I used to clean brass with the old primers still in them but had a lot of dust in the tumbling media. Tried dryer sheets and paper towel sheets to remove dust with limited success. But after I started depriming first, the dust quickly subsided and my media is now dust free. I've been using same media for years and it isn't a whole lot darker than new media but the granules have gotten smaller and more rounded.

I wet tumble. I always decap beforehand. Having the primer out, besides allowing the primer pocket to be cleaned, also allows the water to drain out of the cases much quicker/easier, and also helps when drying the brass as the airflow can go through the brass. (I normally use a fan).

For any brass that I have to lube, I will usually tumble for just 15 minutes, without the stainless media, then lube and resize, then tumble for an hour with the media.

For brass that I don't have to lube, I just tumble once, with media, before I resize.

For pistol I throw in a tumbler with walnut and that is it. Size/deprime, flare/charge, seat/crimp if needed all on press. I do not bother cleaning primer pockets on pistol.

For rifle (bottleneck) I tumble first. Size and deprime on press, then they get another trip in the tumbler to remove any lube from sizing. In between I clean primer pockets. I handle rifle brass more anyhow it is not much effort to clean primer pockets.

-Jeff

Series70 said:

Deprime first. Soak in room temperature Lemi-Shine (2 teaspoons/quart of water) for only one minute, rinse and then dry for 24 hours.. Tumble for 1-3 hours in walnut media.

I used to clean brass with the old primers still in them but had a lot of dust in the tumbling media. Tried dryer sheets and paper towel sheets to remove dust with limited success. But after I started depriming first, the dust quickly subsided and my media is now dust free. I've been using same media for years and it isn't a whole lot darker than new media but the granules have gotten smaller and more rounded.

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I am trying this way tonight. I have some 223 already to tumble in media tomorrow.

I am getting some 357 ready, deprimed, resized and flared before i soak then tumble.

Wet tumble with Dawn and LemiShine, no pins, then deprime with universal die, then wet tumble again with Dawn, LemiShine, and pins, dry in oven.

Just had our first child, and my wife didn't like the dust from dry tumbling, so I got a FART. Then she saw the dirt on the press after depriming, so I added the pre-wash cycle with no pins to minimize that. Makes for damn clean brass!

I shoot bullseye mainly, so the work is spread out over months. I tend to reload 4-8k rounds at a time.

My range has lots of grit/sand so I rinse all the brass in a bucket of water first,
then do a quick 1/2 hour pass in my wet tumbler (Lyman Cyclone)
Let the brass dry, then later resize and deprime then do about a 1 hour pass.
I use auto wash and wax (mostly Turtle but whatever is on sale when I need some) and citric acid. (about a 9mm case full, amount needed varies with your water PH)
Using SS pins in the wet tumbler for both passes.

I used to dry tumble, walnut cleaned better, corn cob shined better, but since switching to wet tumbling I hardly ever use my dry tumbler any more.

Does the really clean nice shiny brass make ammo that shoots a lot better, most likely not, but it makes me and that's worth something.
It's also nice that it keeps your fingers cleaner when loading it.

I tumble all my case's deprimed ,new or used with New finish car polish. The finish last a long time and it makes the next cleaning easy.

THEWELSHM said:

I start in Walnut tumbler, then switch to corn media with nu finish..while I do yard work. The way to fly, in my OP

Thewelshm

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How much Nu Finish do you add to the corn cob media?

I soaked some 223 brass last night in the lemishine then tumbled them this morning. It was Ok, but i expected it to be more shiney.

I also soaked some 38/357 brass and that is in the tumbler right now. It has been running for a few hours while i was doing wood work out side. When i go in after a few beers I'll see what that did.
I resized it and flared it last night, the 223 brass needs to be resized and trimmed if it needs trimming.
It's all fun, especially when the grandson shoots it all up.

I like to use a walnut media. I sometimes put a drop of cleaner (brass polish) on the final batch. But since I’m only reloading .45 Colt I don’t go too crazy shining the brass. Primer pockets I check thoroughly to make sure there is no walnut or anything in the nooks and crannies.