Is it really “OCD”??

[GeoDudeFlorida]

We joke about the need for shiny brass and varying methods of getting there but it really made me wonder: is there any real advantage to squeaky clean brass versus just cleaning off the lead and dust deposits?
In my experience, clean metal with a light coating of carbon is good. Adding a grease or wax polish is okay for some applications but not others. But just because something works for me doesn’t mean it’s going to work for anyone else. In fact it probably won’t.
I don’t think it’s a real disorder to want shiny brass. Personality disorders are destructive behaviors and polishing brass is not a destructive behavior. It’s just funny to call it obsessive or a compulsion but I don’t think it is either.
Probably not anyway.
What do y’all think? Other than aesthetics is there any advantage to squeaking brass vs just clean enough brass?

 

[Soonerpesek]

I’m in the “corncob and NuFinish” club.
Not mirror shiny, and more than “just clean enough”….
Prolly cause it’s the first way I tried, and it worked for me….

Glenn might have something to say ‘bout shiny brass——I think his brass is sunglassss only bright…!!

……….and I don’t think it’s OCD…….

 

[Buzznrose]

I’ve re-thunk my shined-squeaky clean brass as it caused issues with my Dillon powder funnel.

I do like my brass clean to the point that my hands stay clean when reloading. I dislike sooty or greasy brass.

 

[Bearded Phil]

Walnut tumble is fine for me. I don't know if wet cleaning puts brass back to almost brand new inside but if it does I'll pass on that.

I was processing some brand new 38-55 and 357 mag brass this last week and half and it was a real pain expanding for cast bullets with no residue inside the cases. I dry tumbled some for a bit and that seemed to help, which I'll probably do with all new brass before I even start sizing/trimming etc.

 

[PO2Hammer]

I dry tumble handgun brass and left the dust on, never a problem.
Then I started de-dusting them in a moist bath towel, not fun at the press, my arthritis flared up immediately.
Now I de-dust and lube all handgun brass with One Shot, better than ever.

 

[JmacD]

It somewhat depends with me. If we are talking some of the range pick up brass that I get, walnut or corn cob is ruined in about one batch. The dirt is absolutely tremendous! Also, being a single dad of a toddler, the wet tumbling in my mind keeps the lead dust down. So, I’m a wet tumbler.
I’m with you; there are advantages to both; and I really am not sure that it’s necessarily destructive behavior.

 

[.38 Special]

In my benchrest days, the same set of matched cases was used throughout a day of competition, and reloaded there at the range in between strings. "Cleaning" was just a quick pass with steel wool, to ensure that the dies didn't get scratched. I'm not aware of any downsides, other than that it's not something you'd want to do when you have hundreds of cases to get through.

I guess I do see the attraction of really shiny brass, but the effort it requires is way beyond anything I'm willing to put up with. I just dump my empties into corncob and let 'em buzz for a couple of hours. When I want "shiny" I just use nickel.

 

[Mr_Flintstone]

Half the time I don't even clean my brass at all. They usually just get a resizing and a primer pocket cleaner run through them and that's it. When I do clean my brass, I usually just wet tumble with warm water and Dawn.

Every so often though, I get the urge for a deep clean and go all the way.

 

[LiveLife]

In my experience, clean metal with a light coating of carbon is good.

What do y’all think? Other than aesthetics is there any advantage to squeaking brass vs just clean enough brass?

For many and practically so, brass just needs to be "clean enough" to remove surface contaminants to not scratch dies and not foul bore unnecessarily for wear/residue build up concerns to affect barrel life/accuracy.

Beyond that, I think it's highly subjective as to how shiny the brass needs to be, inside or out.

For 30 years, I just "cleaned" my brass in walnut media treated with NuFinish for about 15-20 minutes for indoor range brass and a bit more for outdoor range brass and they were good enough for me to reload. If I wanted "shiny" brass, I let the tumbler run for around an hour for light polish and longer for "brilliant shine". (I found walnut media cleaned better and corn cob polished better)

After retirement, since all of my reloading activities are done indoors other than sorting range brass outdoors (So as to reduce exposure to lead dust from primers), I now wet tumble both pistol and rifle brass deprimed first using Lee universal depriming die without stainless steel pins. While wet tumbling without pins does not clean/polish the inside of cases as well, wet tumbling without pins clean the inside of brass well enough for me to reload (And deprimed primer pockets come out mostly clean too).

These are before and after pictures after about an hour of wet tumbling and these brass are certainly "clean enough" for me to reload.

 

[higgite]

I hate squeaky clean brass. For my fired pistol brass, it’s vibrate with walnut with a little Nu-finish or Flitz Media additive. Shines up the outside of the case and leaves a little bit of slickness while also leaving some carbon on the inside to lube the powder drop expander. No extra lube needed. ymmv

 

[westernrover]

A lot of what I load lately is to be stored. If I'm shooting it immediately, it matters less, but for long-term storage, the cleanest brass with a polymer coating stored in air-tight containers with activated carbon desiccant is going to have the best chance of coming out clean and corrosion free a long time from now, versus storing it with unknown contamination that could corrode the brass and even cause chemical reactions with the other brass in the same container over the long-term.

I even clean the primer pockets (with pins). Jerry Miculek says it doesn't matter and he never decaps before tumbling. Who am I to argue? It's against my sensibilities to seat a primer against crud. I don't doubt the primer will push the crud out of the way and work -- it's been proven far more times than I'll ever shoot. But again, I have to wonder what that crud in there will do over the long term. I don't have impractical terms in mind. I'm not expecting my loads to be used after more than 50 years, but I figure I've got almost that much time before I won't likely use them myself. Even if it were likely that I will use them in the next several years, I would rather put them up clean and dry.

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

It somewhat depends with me. If we are talking, some of the range pick up brass that I get, walnut or corn cob is ruined in about one batch. The dirt is absolutely tremendous! Also, being a single dad of a toddler, the wet tumbling in my mind keeps the lead dust down.
I’m with you; there are advantages to both; and I really am not sure that it’s necessarily destructive behavior.

Toddler changes everything! Especially when it comes to shiny things that can be swallowed, stuck in an ear or nose.
Or in the dogs ears.

 

[JmacD]

Toddler changes everything! Especially when it comes to shiny things that can be swallowed, stuck in an ear or nose.
Or in the dogs ears.

I say toddler… It’s kind of hard to believe that she turns five next month. She’s actually quite a little helper and very much enjoys “making bullets“.

 

[emb]

I tumble large amounts of pistol and revolver brass at a time in walnut with something I've long since forgotten the name. That way I have enough so that I'm using clean, but not necessarily shiny brass, all the time. I do not clean the rifle brass every time. Every other time-maybe. Again, it may or may not be shiny. With 3 gun, I leave all the pistol brass somewhere in the weeds anyway. I do try to find my 308 brass. Fairly easy to do among all the 556 and 223 brass. But, I usually loose more than I find. When the 308 cases gets grungy enough, I'll clean them. I do not care whether they look new or not.

 

[splattergun]

My brass is tumbled in walnut and nu-finish for a few hours, done. Anything more is a waste of money, time and effort IMO. Shiny, showy jewelry doesn't belong in my guns. My OCD is where the bullet ends up, how well the round does its job, not how it looks sitting in an ammo box.

 

[bihj]

Shiny brass is not needed.
But it sure does make inspections alot easier.

 

[Charlie98]

I like shiny brass, period. I don’t like dirty or possibly corroded brass, dry tumbling in walnut and Dillon case polish is part of my case inspection process… they come out clean enough that I can see issues as I sort my brass. Rifle brass gets dropped in the tumbler after sizing, to clean the OneShot off, and to give them one last buff before reloading or storage. I’ve been known to re-re-retumble brass because it became oxidized in storage, prior to loading.

Back Home, Years Ago, I didn’t have a tumbler. I just kept loading those grungy .41 and .45 cases… it never really hurt anything, but after a few passes of Unique under a cast bullet, that brass was pretty nasty. I didn’t ruin my RCBS .45ACP dies, but these days the sizer leaves some fine scratches on the brass, and I’m sure dirty brass is the culprit.

This kind of question is akin to ‘do you sort and load your brass by headstamp.’ Why, as a matter of fact, I do, with the understanding that with rare exception, it’s probably a waste of time… but that is MY process. Shiny brass is very much the same.

 

[thump_rrr]

When I began reloading I was tumbling in walnut media to clean then tumbling in corn cob and Nu-Finish to polish.
Despite my vibratory tumbler having a well fitted lid I had a fine film of dust covering eveything in the garage after a couple of weeks.
That's when I switched to wet tumbling for everything not precision rifle related.
Precision rifle rounds get wiped down with a microfiber cloth with some 99% isopropyl alcohol.
The necks and primer pockets get brushed.
I must admit that it’s too hard to beat the look of clean annealed brass.

 

[CQB45ACP]

I love shiny brass. Love it! Don’t know if it’s a disorder but I do know it’s time consuming.

If shiny cars run better shiny brass shoots better.

 

[.308 Norma]

Other than aesthetics is there any advantage to squeaking brass vs just clean enough brass?

"Squeaky clean" brass might be a little easier to spot when it's laying on the ground at my "gun range" - a local country gravel pit. On the other hand, there's about a foot of snow in that pit right now, and that makes ejected brass hard to find regardless of how clean it is.

 

[Mark_Mark]

I perfer Vintage looking brass! was looking at a vinegar aging method, with a rock tumble

 

[Blue68f100]

I went 3 decades without cleaning brass, but all I was shooting was revolvers and bolt guns. The brass never hit the ground. When you add a simi into the mix, finding the brass is a little more difficult . The shinny stuff is easier to see. Now days I like everything clean, easier for inspection and seeing powder levels.

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

I perfer Vintage looking brass! was looking at a vinegar aging method, with a rock tumble

I don’t have any left but every Halloween the last few years I make “Zombie 9mm” with Birchwood-Casey brass black and ACME 125gr Greenies. I’ll make some more and send pictures. Vinegar works like brass black so be careful with it.

 

[.45Coltguy]

Walnut media and a couple squirts of Turtle Wax Spray, 1-1.5 hrs, done. Not shiny, not dirty, but, juuust right. Taa-daa!

 

[Pottimus]

I like wet tumble results, it is like having the feeling of "new brass". But just today I prepped 65 9mm rds with out doing a thing to them. and they will be fine.