Your preferred brass cleaning method?

I do not clean my brass.

It is entirely unnecessary and makes the loading process a lot slower and more of a PITA.

It has zero effect on accuracy.

That said, when I load ammo for friends as gifts, i use either virgin brass or i clean a few in my ultrasonic using an ultrasonic degreasing solution (an eco green one).

Again, totally unnecessary but it does make for shiny brass.

And if you dont believe me, just ask Erik Cortina.
 
deprimed, wet with SS pins, some dawn and citric acid in cold water. Short 20 minutes run then dump (most of) the dirty water and refill and let it run for another hour.

Rinse brass that comes out with hot water and then roll it it in a towel back and forth a few times and place brass in colander or mesh cookie rack to fully dry.
 
bertn said:
deprimed, wet with SS pins, some dawn and citric acid in cold water. Short 20 minutes run then dump (most of) the dirty water and refill and let it run for another hour.

Rinse brass that comes out with hot water and then roll it it in a towel back and forth a few times and place brass in colander or mesh cookie rack to fully dry.
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Pretty much this.

I listened to a podcast the other day that talked about the importance of removing all lube from the outside of the case before shooting, as it vastly increases the pressure on your bolt head if the brass doesn’t seal tight on the chamber wall when it’s fired.

I love the shiny brass, and nothing does it better than the tumbler, SS pins, citric acid and some soap.

SRS
 
For years I used a little Thumblers Tumbler with dry media, then when to a Frankford shaker, then went to a FART with stainless pins. I also tried citric acid, but didn't find it very satisfying, especially after I forgot and left some brass in overnight. F A R T w/stainless pins does the nicest job.
 
Sloped Roof Specialist said:
Pretty much this.

I listened to a podcast the other day that talked about the importance of removing all lube from the outside of the case before shooting, as it vastly increases the pressure on your bolt head if the brass doesn’t seal tight on the chamber wall when it’s fired.

I love the shiny brass, and nothing does it better than the tumbler, SS pins, citric acid and some soap.

SRS
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The wet cleaning I do is with dirty brass so before resizing as I prefer my dies to only see clean brass.
The brass is later lubed when resizing and then not wet tumbled again but just wiped clean of sizing lube.
 
vevor jewelry tumbler
deprimed brass
no pins
1/2 sunlight dishwasher pod
1 cup regular strength vinegar
3 cups medium warm water
mix and then add brass to level of fuid
run 45 minutes on low
dump and rinse 3x
back into the tumber
add enough very warm water to cover brass
add 1 tablespoon Turtlwax wash n wax
run 10 minutes
rinse, towel dry a little bit and leave overnight to completely dry. the wax prevents the brass from tarnishing.
 
Deprime, clean primer pocket, ultrasonic, use cotton buds to further clean inside of the brass, anneal, resize, soak in warm water with dawn soap, wash, air dry with the neck facing down.
 
OP, what do YOU call clean?

I know folks who get queasy stomachs when they see any brass which isn't bright and shiny.

I used to go through the laborious and "much overrated" procedures to make sure the cases looked better polished than when they came from the factory. Not anymore.

I will clean "range pickup" cases, but I do it as quickly as possible, depending on how much I have on hand.

If it's less than 100 cases, boil a kettle of water, add some dish detergent or if you want slightly shiny, Lemshine to the bottom of a bucket, along with the dirty brass and add boiling water.

Let it sit for about ten minutes and with a wooden spoon start sloshing it around.

Dump out the water and any dirt that will create issues with the dies is all gone.

Rinse with hot water, dump all the hot water, lay out the brass cases on a towel and allow to air dry. Take the brass and sort it. Ready for prep.

If you have more than 100 cases, do the same thing with the boiling water, because it loosens up the more difficult to remove dirt inside.

Then put all of the cases into an old pillow case, and put them into the clothes washing machine. Use Lemshine instead of regular soap.

Run it through the fastest cycle, and throw it in the dryer.

All done, ready for prep.

No, it's not all bright and shiny, but it's clean.

Way to much stuff to do and spend time/money on than polishing cartridge cases.

That being said, don't let me stop you from picking one of the procedures, spending lots of money on it, then switching to another and doing the same over and over again, just so you can flaunt "shiny" brass cases at the range.
 
Just ran across a video from Fortunecookie45LC's youtube site. Video airred about a year ago. Might be interesting to add his observations, to the mix.
In the video, Fortunecookie was comparing cases wet tumbled with his usual Dawn/Lemishine mix, versus substituting plain vinegar/Dawn, in place of Lemishine. With steel pins. Still, the results were interesting. As the results appeared identical. The full video is available on Rumble.
Anyway, this might add another option to brass cleaning. Could be worth a look.

Al
 
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Alex McKr said:
Just ran across a video from Fortunecookie45LC's youtube site. Video airred about a year ago. Might be interesting to add his observations, to the mix.
In the video, Fortunecookie was comparing cases wet tumbled with his usual Dawn/Lemishine mix, versus substituting plain vinegar/Dawn, in place of Lemishine. With steel pins. Still, the results were interesting. As the results appeared identical. The full video is available on Rumble.
Anyway, this might add another option to brass cleaning. Could be worth a look.

Al
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It's just acetic acid versus citric acid. Mild enough not to leach the zinc out of the alloy (too quickly). Some people use lemon juice as their source of citric acid.
 
There are a bunch of thread son cleaning that you can check out. I use 2 methods- Walnut shell media with some solvent or car polish for small batches. Cement mixer, hot water, soap and citric acid for big batches.
 
I don't usually clean my brass. But when I do its hot water, nail polish remover, and dish soap in a big container. Add brass, shake. Let sit a few. Shake again. let sit a few. Shake again. Rinse and lay out on a towel to dry.

I don't have any space for a machine just for cleaning brass, so I haven't bothered getting one.
 
Wet tumble with SS pins, laundry soap, and lemishine. I don't find it delays my reloading like mentioned in this thread as I always have enough brass to not have to wait for things to dry before reloading. Example, I always have about 500+ prepped 9mm or so. When I get down to 250 or so left, I toss in another batch of 300 pieces of 9mm.
 
I have a RCBS vibratory tumbler, maybe 25 years old, and I bought a bag of crushed walnut shells at Princess Auto. I think it was 50 lbs. A lifetime supply. I size and deprime, then I clean them. I mostly want every trace of sizing lube off of them, as I am not fond of misfires. After tumbling for and hour or so I add a little NU Shine. then let it go for either 2 hours or until I remember to shut it off.
 
I have done a full circle - started with vibratory, then ultrasonic, then SS pins in tumbler, now back to vibratory.
My ES/SD changed with SS pins, can't say for sure why, however there is some theory to the brass being "too clean" with SS pin tumbling inside the necks. I will say SS wet tumbling does put a serious clean on the brass tho -
I wasn't a fan of drying my cases after SS wet tumbling and ultrasonic... too much time.
So back to vibratory, and the es/sd are where they used to be.
Whether it makes a diff or not, i don't care - but i like shiny brass.
 
I make sure my brass is clean, not shiny.
I usually give it a buff with a scotch brite cloth and a clan cotton cloth after to make sure no dirt or oil is on it, but as far as shiny goes, I don't really worry about it.
I did however recently tumble 200 rounds that I annealed to make sure they would get heated as evenly as possible.
Cat
 
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