Case prep

[Gringoloco]

I’ve been saving my Grendel brass over the past year in anticipation of reloading at some point in the future. I’m slowly piecing together the components to reload and am wondering what the hoard recommends to clean brass. At least half of my brass has been fired suppressed so is significantly dirtier than the non-suppressed but everything is being deprimed prior to cleaning. Looking for suggestions on a cleaning method or brand. Thanks

[ricsmall]

I prefer to wet tumble with SS pins. After 34ish years of reloading, I like this method best

[A5BLASTER]

All I have used is corn cob and walnut media. Works for me. I deprime and clean in the walnut and then use the corn cob to remove sizeing lub and polish up the case after I have sized it and ran it over the case prep center.

[Constitutionalist]

All I have used is corn cob and walnut media. Works for me. I deprime and clean in the walnut and then use the corn cob to remove sizeing lub and polish up the case after I have sized it and ran it over the case prep center.

+1

[Mesa1978]

I have the large Frankford wet, pins and Dawn, 2 hours did 120 Grendel and 200 6.5 Creedmoor cases very nicely. Case mouths were peened and needed to be chamfered. I used graphite to replace the carbon that was removed from the case necks.

[kmon]

All I have used is corn cob and walnut media. Works for me. I deprime and clean in the walnut and then use the corn cob to remove sizeing lub and polish up the case after I have sized it and ran it over the case prep center.

+2

I also have a sonic cleaner that I use sometimes and think it gets cases too clean and use it mostly for gun parts now

[Rosecrans1]

All I have used is corn cob and walnut media. Works for me. I deprime and clean in the walnut and then use the corn cob to remove sizeing lub and polish up the case after I have sized it and ran it over the case prep center.

Also +1

[Klem]

For suppressed I recommend an Ultrasonic with hot soapy water plus salt and vinegar, followed by a fresh water rinse and a hair dryer. Removing the primers prior helps with flow of air and quicker drying. This is a lot of work so it doesn't happen every time.

For everything else it's a vibratory tumbler on a timer; 6hrs overnight. Still not super shiny clean but it's effortless and more for the sizing die than what it looks like. I don't deprime for this, there's no reason to.

[FLshooter]

i’ve already been through the wet versus dry tumbling comparison.And I decided to continue to tumble my brass with my Dillon 750 with English walnut reptile litter and brass polish. I’ve developed a system and it works great.
No ,the inside of my cases are not shiny and new looking as they would be with a wet tumbler. But to me that’s overkill, it isn’t necessary for accuracy. I focus more on trimming my bras every time I reload to keep the cases uniform, to me that is more important than cleaning the inside of my cases.

[ricsmall]

I should’ve added in my first post, all my cases have been shot suppressed, so super dirty. If no suppressor then dry walnut with some brass polish is used.

[1Shot]

My normal way of doing things is dump the cases first into my vibe cleaner with (old dirty) Lyman treated corncob media to "pre-clean" any dirt etc. off. I will run them 1 or more hours which depends on what I am doing and I do this most often days or weeks before loading time. With the pre-cleaned cases I then size them. Then I put them back into the tumbler with a different batch of Lyman treated corncob with some New-finish auto polish added to it. I run it 3 or 4 hours and they come out looking like new. I then inspect and clean out the primer pockets for any media stick in them and poke out any in the flash hole and use my RCBS primer pocket brush to clean the primer pocket. I then measure the cases and if need trimming I do this. Then I load them.

[FLshooter]

I clean cases that were shot in a suppressed rifle with my Dylan 750 all the time. Never noticed a difference between those after they’re cleaned and the cases shot without a suppressor. They both come out the same. But I time my Dillon to do 3-4 2hr runs w/cool down periods in between.

[centerfire]

I wet tumble pistol brass and surplus 556 and 762. I dry media tumble everything else. Wet tumbling and steel pins peen case mouths and surface harden the brass.

[pinetreebbs]

i remove primers first. Yes, I know clean primer pockets do not impact accuracy, but if you compare the appearance of the press I use to deprime brass with all my other presses, it becomes apparent removing primers, even from tumbled brass, is messy. I use the inexpensive Lee Breech Lock press and their universal decapping die for my depriming station.

Once primers are removed, the precision rifle brass gets primer pockets cleaned on a Lyman Case Prep machine, wiped down, lubricated, sized and trimmed as necessary.

All other brass get wet tumbled with pins and Brassjuice. I typically use a very light coating of sizing lube to load pistol rounds to make them easier to size and less sticky in the powder drop funnel on a progressive press.

I do use corncob media to remove bottleneck case sizing lubricant after sizing and trimming operations.

[White Smoke]

I use a Frankford Arsenal vibrator tumbler with ground walnut shells. Go to a pet store and get lizard bedding. Same thing as sold in the gun stores...ground walnut shells, but MUCH cheaper. I normally use a brass catcher, so my brass is clean when I run it through the sizing/decapping die. Otherwise, I run the cases through the tumbler first to remove any dirt, etc. that can scratch the dies and then do the sizing/decapping. Once sized and de-capped, they go into, or back into, the tumbler for a three-hour run to clean the cases before trimming, chamfering and priming. When you clean the primer pocket, make sure that no media is caught in the flash hole.