spent brass cleaning

I have been reloading for years and have wondered about moving on to some thing more. For now I use a small brush on the inside of the neck and a bit of a rag with some Hoppes #9 to wipe down the outside.
 
alltieear said:
Hi all,

I am planning on purchasing my first centerfire rifle in 243 win and will most likely be reloading in small amounts ( maybe 50 rounds, if that, a month)

I am wondering if i really need a tumbler or sonic cleaner for this purpose. Does anyone clean their brass with just a towel or sponge?

also, if anyone reading this reloads 243 win. How much do you estimate it cost per round?
Click to expand...

Very fine steel wool will be all you need for now... "000" or finer... sometimes they are packaged for cleaning silver wear. Will feel like fleece.

I don't like water near my cases. I don't bother cleaning the inside of the case. If you put any sizing lube on a case, it should come off.

I like the lanoline/iso alcohol combo for lube... RCBS Case Lube 2 works great too.... size then remove with a towel. All I do when making small batches of ammo during load work up.

For costs, easy math is $1 per bang - can vary either side depending on the bullet, powder, primer combo you use but you get the idea.

Competition shooters also add the cost of barrel wear into their costs as they will be updating their barrels on a regular basis.

Any thought on the rifle you prefer? And type of shooting? There are many many good shooting factory rifles but barrel specs from many companies can be quite antiquated which can limit end use performance.

Jerry
 
Mystic Precision said:
Very fine steel wool will be all you need for now... "000" or finer... sometimes they are packaged for cleaning silver wear. Will feel like fleece.

I don't like water near my cases. I don't bother cleaning the inside of the case. If you put any sizing lube on a case, it should come off.

I like the lanoline/iso alcohol combo for lube... RCBS Case Lube 2 works great too.... size then remove with a towel. All I do when making small batches of ammo during load work up.

For costs, easy math is $1 per bang - can vary either side depending on the bullet, powder, primer combo you use but you get the idea.

Competition shooters also add the cost of barrel wear into their costs as they will be updating their barrels on a regular basis.

Any thought on the rifle you prefer? And type of shooting? There are many many good shooting factory rifles but barrel specs from many companies can be quite antiquated which can limit end use performance.

Jerry
Click to expand...

Does the leftover carbon inside the case affect bullet seating?

I'm looking at a savage axis. I will use it as a range gun. But wont be rapid firing it. Just a few groups each session. And maybe some deer hunting if I make it out next year.
 
For the first 50 years I did not clean brass in a tumbler. And my brass looked like it, too.

Since I load large quantities of ammo, it is easy to fill a tumbler and make it nice and clean.

But for your small needs, a piece of steel would would suffice.
 
I reloaded for the first year cleaning the outside of 243 brass with 000 steel wool, it works fine in small quantities. I use a primer pocket brush also.

A small nylon bore cleaning brush will work to clean the inside of the case necks.

Do all your external cleaning before you run brass through your die.

This year I invested in an ultrasonic cleaner, simply because I wanted the inside of the cases clean too.

Does it make any difference in performance? Probably not. There may be a slight increase in velocity as carbon builds up inside the case, but it will be minimal. Your brass will wear out before it becomes an issue.

Some of the best shooters I know clean their brass very minimally, they have no problems that can be traced to dirty brass.

Your reloading cost per round will vary somewhat, primarily because of varied cost of different bullets.
 
I used steel wool for a few years too. Eventually I started chucking cases up in the Lee holders for trimming, and spinning them in the drill I used for trimming but with steel wool held to the case. Eventually I bought a Frankford tumbler and probably won't buy anything else. I'm not a fan of water in my cases either nor do I care for baking them in the oven or waiting for them to air dry. The vibratory tumbler with polish gets the worst cases brighter and shinier than factory ammo. The polish also eliminates the dust and dryer sheets pull out the black gunk that builds up to refresh the media. It just keeps trucking.
 
alltieear said:
Does the leftover carbon inside the case affect bullet seating?

I'm looking at a savage axis. I will use it as a range gun. But wont be rapid firing it. Just a few groups each session. And maybe some deer hunting if I make it out next year.
Click to expand...

Yes... it makes seating pressure very even... so does the dust you get after tumbling in walnut shells. Overly clean necks can cause problems.

For an entry point, I would strongly recommend the Rem 783 vs the Axis. I have tested 2 Axis quite extensively years back... they are no where near what the 783 offers.

Jerry
 
Lemmi Shine, Dawn Dish soap and Rock tumbler as mentioned, get SS media from Amazon if you cant find local. Me I have the Lyman Vibratory Media system for 8 yrs and use Walnut media, and I keep just adding Brasso brass cleaner. Vibrator cleaning is a PIA at times as the bulk of my reloading (1000 - 2000 per yr) is .223 and I deprime first and have to pick primer holes clean after.
 
When money is available get the these two items next LEE decapping die and use for deprimming - it just takes less effort to resize when the primer is removed before and you wont be replacing factory deprimming pin on your die sets. Secondly, get the Franklin Arsenault Case Prep Machine (3 yrs ago I got off Amazon for $212.00 CAD), this has drastically shortened my case prep time. I only have a RCBS Rock Chucker single stage and I enjoy the hobby of reloading and the precise nature of single stage reloading.
 
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