Does anyone here not tumble brass?

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I've reloaded since the mid-80s. I've never owned any brass cleaning device. When I first started, I'd wash my brass in dish liquid and hot water. I stopped doing that because I really didn't perceive any advantage to that process.
 
When I first started reloading in the early 60's carbide dies weren't being made (if they were I didn't know anything about them) therefore you had to use a lubricant on the cartridges. The nice thing about that was the resizing die did a great job cleaning the outside of the case. I used a cotton swab (ear cleaner) to wipe the inside of the case making sure I got all of the lubricant off in and around the mouth of the case. It worked fine as I ended up with shiny brass and no tumbling which was unheard of back then.
 
I still own my first set of handgun dies. .38/.357, non-carbide. Will scratch the absolute daylights out of any case, as I didn't clean brass back then.

I now tumble all my used brass.

I will point out that in my benchrest days, 30 or so years ago, a small set of matched cases were reloaded at the range between strings, and each case was cleaned with 0000 steel wool before loading. That still is a fine way to proceed, but I'm sure not going to do it with 500 pieces of handgun brass.
 
Likely in the minority as the technology of reloading has advanced, along with the general (not current) trend of component availability and variety with the internet allowing so much access. With everything reloaders can and will load, they can and will load a lot. Which makes manually washing brass a bigger time sink. And with the availability of so many cleaning/tumbling devices, also the idea of why not clean in bulk when it's easy and loading in bulk is also so easy and desired.

Since most loaded ammo is blasting ammo, getting it clean enough quickly enough is probably on the minds of many when they're trying to feed their semi autos.
 
I used to tumble my brass in various dry tumblers ( Thumler’s, Lyman, Cabela’s), but now use a Frankford Arsenal wet tumbler. Initially I used it with the stainless steel pins, Dawn and a bit of Lemishine, but got tired of dealing with the pins, so now just warm water, Dawn and lemishine. In the 85 degree to 105 degree summers, I just lay them out on a towel on a table to dry. In cooler weather they go in a food dehydrator for a couple hours. Yes, it is more work, but people are shocked that my ammunition is reloaded, as it looks like brand new. And, yes, it is easier to spot neck splits in cases. To each, his own. And for people that run filthy cases through their sizing dies, no problem. RCBS. LEE, Lyman, Redding and Hornady make new die sets every day!
 
I've never "officially" cleaned brass. Wipe it off maybe on handguns. The rifle cases get the 0000 steel wool wipe around the shoulder and neck area. Certain rigs get the inside of neck cleaned with a wore out bore brush with a little 0000 wrapped..... other rigs the insides stay,"as shot". Depends on testing.

None of it gets that dirty really,more of a dull clean look,vs shiny and clean. Handloading for goin on 50 years so been at it awhile. Not disparaging folks with shiny brass though,it's part of the process for some,no biggy.
 
I have my tumbler on a timer and it's in the basement and I can barely hear it running so I don't see any downside to cleaning my brass. I don't care if it's not showroom shiny but I also couldn't stand to load brass that was really dirty. To that end I often pick up range brass but will pass up stuff that has been stomped into the mud. It has to be halfway clean or I let it lie.
 
I don't want carbon/lead residue in my orbit. I also like the better visibility afforded by clean brass for inspection (both brass and charge) reasons. Wet tumbling does it.
 
As stated above, it is easier to pick up on developing brass problems with clean brass. It is also a PITA adding extra steps to an already long list of steps needed to make a round of ammunition. I might be excommunicated from the clean brass set of folks, but I don't do it more than once every 8-10 firings.
 
bhhacker said:
I uh....might be disgusting but I've never tumbled anything I've reloaded. The brass looks ugly and I'm sure I have to clean the dies more often but I clean out the primer pockets before seating.

Am I in the minority with this? I'd like fresh looking brass but if it's just for me and not for resale, it seems like I'm just adding an extra cost per round to make it look pretty.
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I don't tumble anything but if it's for an auto I wipe down the brass with a rag. Especially autos that take bottleneck cartridges.
 
I don't tumble or clean my handgun brass, not even the 9mm or .45ACP. I do however meticulously tumble and polish my rifle brass (.458SOCOM).

An aside: While I went through my "frugle" period, I sweep up any range brass I could find. But in this later stage of life I don't pick up brass off the ground/floor. 9mm through the revolver, sure I keep that. 9mm through bottom feeder just stays where it lays.
 
Otto said:
So you would just pick brass out of the dirt and load it? Okay.....to each his own.
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Big difference between picking up and using as is and not tumbling. I loaded thousands on "untumbled" cases (38 Sp., .357 Mag., 9mm, 44 Special, 44 Mag, 30-30, .223) and did not tumble any. I inspect every case prior to reloading and when I had one in my hand inspecting, I wiped it with a solvent dampened rag. In the 6 guns I was loading for and the 6 die sets I used, not one was scratched and not one chamber was marred/scratched. I didn't care what other shooters at the range thought about my dull cased handloads and all functioned quite well and I got some very accurate loads...
 
Back in the 60's all I ever did was wipe off my brass with a towel. If it was suspect I might polish it some with 0000 steel wool and inspect. About 1979 I got a dry tumbler and that worked good. In 2005 I got a Thumlers and SS media. Still have both eyes, my lips, and all my fingers. These days my ammo looks nicer and defects are easier to spot but it shoots like it always did, just takes longer to process it.
 
In the '70s if I wanted some "BBQ Ammo" I shoved a case on a hardwood mandrel and spun it and polished with 0000 steel wool and Pledge... :cool:
 
I like the Dawn dish soap, lemon juice and scalding hot water bath in an old plastic coffee can. Fill it with brass, top off with scalding hot water, Dawn and lemon juice - cap it and shake the daylights out of it. It gets off carbon, lead smears and bullet lube. The only down side is drying. some times I'll hit them for a moment with the heat gun.
 
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I guess I am a total brass whore. I’ve never been to a formal range but when I get to pick up free 3 year old brass out of the mud I jump at the chance. I ACTUALLY enjoy washing it and sorting it to see what I ended up with. Its actually my favorite part of reloading. But....I’m a WT scrapper so....
 
2ndtimer said:
I used to tumble my brass in various dry tumblers ( Thumler’s, Lyman, Cabela’s), but now use a Frankford Arsenal wet tumbler. Initially I used it with the stainless steel pins, Dawn and a bit of Lemishine, but got tired of dealing with the pins, so now just warm water, Dawn and lemishine. In the 85 degree to 105 degree summers, I just lay them out on a towel on a table to dry. In cooler weather they go in a food dehydrator for a couple hours. Yes, it is more work, but people are shocked that my ammunition is reloaded, as it looks like brand new. And, yes, it is easier to spot neck splits in cases. To each, his own. And for people that run filthy cases through their sizing dies, no problem. RCBS. LEE, Lyman, Redding and Hornady make new die sets every day!
Click to expand...
 
We must be twins. Exactly how I process my brass except in winter I place brass on old cookie sheet in oven at about 200 with door cracked a little. Mu buddy uses pins but I have never seem the need. People remark on how shiny my brass is and doesn't take much time.
 
wbm said:
....You tumble clothes in a dryer.
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I remember seeing the video of Miculek cleaning his 5.56 brass getting ready to do some reloading. He tumbled it in one of those 6cuft cement mixers. I can't remember if he was preparing to load 10 or 20 thousand at a time.
 
I'm pretty new to reloading , but I've yet to wash any of the brass that I've reloaded.
 
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