Not cleaning before resizing?

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Camoman1

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Last couple years I’ve been skipping tumbling before resizing, it’s a huge time saver. I don’t put muddy or seriously dirty cases through but I’ve put about 3000 rounds through my FL die and no issues or scratches in the die. I only clean the brass once after resizing. Even if guy did have to buy a new die after several thousand rounds it’s still worth the time savings. Hundreds of hours of time saved vs 150$ die?

Any one els do this?
 
I only clean my brass beforehand if it's pretty dirty. For the longest time, I didn't have a tumbler to clean brass at all.

My dies seem to have survived.

Lately I've taken to tumbling brass, particularly bottle-neck rifle cases, after re-sizing to clean off the lube.
Of course, I try not to let my brass land in the dirt, so it generally stays pretty clean.
 
Time saver???????

I throw my brass in my vibratory case cleaner, turn it on and walk away. I come back about 6 hours later and remove the cases.

What, i would save 15-20 minutes at most.
 
I put older range brass in a separate box and give it a quick wash & store it. will give better wash if needed.
I clean all my Once fired brass with water & a dash of dish soap & spray 9,....then throw it in the tumbler.

ya just never know what kind of Rodents are running around on the ground " out door range"
If the brass is Tarnished it kinda sticks in the Die.
 
yomomma said:
Time saver???????

I throw my brass in my vibratory case cleaner, turn it on and walk away. I come back about 6 hours later and remove the cases.

What, i would save 15-20 minutes at most.
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Most tumble before and after resizing, tumbling once saves lots of time, especially if you wet tumble. For some of us those 6 hours you walk away is valuable loading/shooting time.
 
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I just wash the brass with Lemshine in hot water. That gets rid of anything that's going to harm the dies.

Then, make sure that all the areas being sized, including the inside of case necks, is lubed, with a quality product, of which there are several, including some home made recipes.

I seldom bother to wipe off the lubricant after sizing, unless I'm loading cartridges where pressures are near maximum.

Part of the ability of a cartridge to handle those pressures and seal the sidewalls against the chamber, prevents gasses from flowing between the chamber and case, is how well the case adheres to the chamber walls. This can also have a negative effect on accuracy, especially if chamber dimensions are generous.

Back in the day, it wasn't uncommon for folks to purposely lube the cartridge cases to aid with extraction. Especially on some of the Ackley Improved versions with a 1 degree body taper and very sharp angle shoulders.

I had a Ruger #1 that required this type of lubrication. It was a pain in the butt, so I ended up turning that barrel into bedding pillars.
 
bearhunter said:
I just wash the brass with Lemshine in hot water. That gets rid of anything that's going to harm the dies.

Then, make sure that all the areas being sized, including the inside of case necks, is lubed, with a quality product, of which there are several, including some home made recipes.

I seldom bother to wipe off the lubricant after sizing, unless I'm loading cartridges where pressures are near maximum.

Part of the ability of a cartridge to handle those pressures and seal the sidewalls against the chamber, prevents gasses from flowing between the chamber and case, is how well the case adheres to the chamber walls. This can also have a negative effect on accuracy, especially if chamber dimensions are generous.

Back in the day, it wasn't uncommon for folks to purposely lube the cartridge cases to aid with extraction. Especially on some of the Ackley Improved versions with a 1 degree body taper and very sharp angle shoulders.

I had a Ruger #1 that required this type of lubrication. It was a pain in the butt, so I ended up turning that barrel into bedding pillars.
Click to expand...

Yes I used to wash mine before too, I’ve since found that’s a waste of time, especially on dry time.

I also don’t lube inside of case necks cause I’ve removed all of my expanders, the best thing I’ve done to improve accuracy.

Do you not find that lube in your chamber builds up and gathers dirt? Plus dirt and dust gathering on your lubed cases?
 
Depends on how you are shooting and what happens to the brass.

If you extract your fired case and put it back into your ammo box it's not really going to be too dirty to just resize again.

But there are plenty of other circumstances when brass can get actual dirt/mud stuck to it. So you will want to clean them prior to sizing.

My hunting and precision rifle cases don't get too dirty usually but I throw them in the tumbler before sizing anyway. It takes me about a minute to load the tumbler and about 2 minutes to separate the media from the brass so it's not a big investment in time. Pistol and range blasting .223 usually get pretty dirty so I clean them a bucket at a time in the cement mixer with dish soap and citric acid.
 
Camoman1 said:
Yes I used to wash mine before too, I’ve since found that’s a waste of time, especially on dry time.

I also don’t lube inside of case necks cause I’ve removed all of my expanders, the best thing I’ve done to improve accuracy.

Do you not find that lube in your chamber builds up and gathers dirt? Plus dirt and dust gathering on your lubed cases?
Click to expand...


Nope, I'm pretty careful to clean the chamber and frankly, by the time the cartridge is inserted there isn't enough to worry about.

I used to be meticulous about lube residue, when I was shooting HBR. I do worry about it on my Tikka T3, 6.5x55, simply because I load the cartridges to the nuts.

2800+fps with 140 grain bullets, out of a 22 inch bbl, takes a lot of pressure and I want as much sidewall adherence as possible.

I've been doing the same with the 8x57js I put together last spring. I'me loading to 2600+fps with 196 grain bullets to find the sweet spot for accuracy.

Even then, I don't rinse the lube off, just wipe each case with a paper towel before putting it into the plastic storage container.

I'm going to take it out on Friday, just in case I come across a legal moose.

My 22 Hornet is loaded hot, with Lil Gun, giving me close to 3000fps with 30 grain bullets. Explosive on bunny heads, right out to 200 yds.

I don't wipe the lube from those cases and the necks are always sooty, even at those high chamber pressures.
 
Some guy don’t value their tools..I would never ever run dirty case in my die.
This is laziness not to clean your case..carbon is abrasive..and add case lube to the mix and you have grinding paste..not for me..
 
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Can use like a 4 litre ice cream bucket - warmish water - squirt of dish washing soap like Dawn and I usually add a 1/4 or 1/2 teaspoon of LemiShine powder. Dump in loose cases - pick up by handle and shush around - need the cases to mix and rub against each other a bit. I have a drying rack with several layers of mesh on bottom - pick out cases one by one and set mouth down to drain and dry - they dry over night. Cases are clean - not necessarily shiny - but clean - no grit. Almost always I am dealing with range pick up stuff - most recently about 250 IVI cases from local gravel pit - at least 20 had insect larva inside, so had been laying in sand for a while - I deprimed, swaged primer pockets, fished out the innards with curled up wire, washed - let dry. Just because, I then ran all through a wet tumbler with stainless pins to make shiny - did not have to - but I wanted to make sure that all the "extra" stuff was removed from inside - am sure they were actually ready to reload after drying. They are now in bags of 50 - de-primed, swaged, cleaned, trimmed and chamfered. Ready to prime and reload.

Seems a fairly finite group of people who might have access to 5.56 with headstamp "IVI 15" with the NATO cross? And then hundreds of 9mm brass that we had no use for, and we left them laying there.
 
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I never tumble my cases. Just size em and wipe the lube off. Never wore out a die.its not laziness it's about if it's worth it
 
porpoise said:
I never tumble my cases. Just size em and wipe the lube off. Never wore out a die.its not laziness it's about if it's worth it
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I think pretty much on point - cases need to be clean - the "shiny thing" is maybe "for the eyes only". I never owned any sort of tumbler or cleaner for at least the first 20 or 25 years that I re-loaded, and I did several thousands 308 Win and 243 Win in those days.
 
I remember one time I was reading a super old reloading book (before ww2) and it suggest not wash your case at all, if there is dirt or heavy fouling just wipe them off using dry cloth. The author suggests the fluminate or mercury in most primers during that time (aka corrosive primer) will destroy, or at least accelerate the process of destroying the brass if in contact with chemicals or even plain water.
So I guess it shouldnt be too much of a problem, especially nowdays dies are not as difficult to get as the old days.
Personally I like glowing yellow stuff so I do clean my brass after decapping and before sizing.
 
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