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ever have to wash your brass before you tumble it?

4K views 25 replies 11 participants last post by  DocHolliday 
#1 ·
my range is not the best surface wise. I don't have full gravel down yet and some of the brass gets walked on and driven down into the dirt/mud.
I have to wash it somehow before I tumble it because I don't want 3 pounds of dirt and rocks in there when I'm tumbling it.

The only thing I'm doing now is a plastic pail, hot water and dish soap then rinse and let them dry for a day or two. I don't wet tumble and don't think I will anytime soon or I could just pre wash the muddy brass and go right into the wet tumbler.
 
#6 ·
I always wash my brass cases from the range. part of the range is gravel and the brass tends to get dirty. I just let it soak in one bucket, then I swish it around and put it into another bucket of clean water. I then put it into the plastic 50 round crates that I pick out of the garbage at the range.
After they dry I deprime them with a universal die and either tumble them or put them into the ultrasonic cleaner.
 
#8 ·
Another thumbs up for the tarp!

One suggestion: If your rifle brass gets hot like my .223 does, don't use one of those heavy duty blue or green plastic tarps because a good percentage of your hot brass will melt themselves to the plastic when they land on it and the plastic has to be scraped off the brass.

I went to Lowes and grabbed me a nice painters canvas tarp, a little more expensive but worth it.
 
#10 ·
my range is not the best surface wise. I don't have full gravel down yet and some of the brass gets walked on and driven down into the dirt/mud.
I have to wash it somehow before I tumble it because I don't want 3 pounds of dirt and rocks in there when I'm tumbling it.

The only thing I'm doing now is a plastic pail, hot water and dish soap then rinse and let them dry for a day or two. I don't wet tumble and don't think I will anytime soon or I could just pre wash the muddy brass and go right into the wet tumbler.
For the first time ever, I am going to have to wet tumble some before I can resize/deprime it. When I was over at the range on Thursday, I picked up some .223 that was in pretty bad shape.
 
#11 ·
I wet tumble everything and it all comes out looking like new brass.. (very easy to see if there are any cracks in the brass) I love the stainless media tumblers...

I just got some 1 times fired 7mm Mag brass that was sitting outside in the mud for I dont know how long and now it looks like it just came from Winchester and Remington.. Its beautiful!
 
#12 ·
I deprimed. de-crimped, and did an hour wet tumble on those .223 brass today. They came out spotless! After I resize them, I will do another hour to get rid of the lube and they should be good to go. As soon as my Little Crow trimmer gets here I will start working on them!!
 
#14 ·
I will be sure to post the results of how it works, looking at the Delivery Confirmation tracking thing, there is a fair chance that it will be here tomorrow.

When I was at their web site ordering it, I did see that they have a Worlds Greatest Trimmer II. The II is supposed to have interchangeable cutters so that you can change caliber's without having to buy the whole thing again. I think the caliber specific cutter was in the neighborhood of $25 each. I had the regular one ordered before I thought about it!!
 
#15 ·
I just can't see wet tumbling without de-priming first, and that adds another time consuming step for me. If you wet tumbled brass with the old primers still in, then it looks like it would be hard to get the primer area dry. It seem to me if I wet tumbled without de-priming and dried the cases for a few days and then ran them through my machine, when the fist station de-primed, sized and re-primed, that their might me just enough moisture left to cause issues for the new primer.
with try tumbling, I don't have that concern
 
#17 ·

This is one of my concerns too. With pistol, I'm dealing with short straight wall cases which are more easily dried. But with rifle, I deprime before cleaning not only to clean the primer pocket but to ensure the inside gets fully dried. As noted above I preclean my brass before I run them through any die. I also have the hot Arizona sun and very dry air (most of the year) to dry my brass.
 
#16 ·
I did find a great thing to use as a tarp today. I had a 12X12 black sun shade screen I used to use for my RV cover. I knew I couldn't throw it away because I would need it later. I;m glad I didn't.
It will be perfect because it's mesh so it won't hold water and I can lay it down at the range and catch all of the brass with it.
 
#18 ·
I'm another one that will pre-wash any brass that's got a lot of dirt on it before it hits the tumbler.
Hot soapy water and then either laid out in the sun or set on top of a furnace grate for a few hours/days to make sure it's dry. Like dbcooper, I prefer to let rifle brass sit at least a couple days to make sure it's dry inside even before it hits the dry-media tumbler, much less making it to the prime & reload stage. I want to be sure that it's dry inside.
 
#19 ·
I attempt to de-prime all brass before wet tumbling, but there are times that I have a brain fart and stick them in the tumbler without thinking. When the tumbling is done, I always stick the brass into the clothes dryer for about 45 minutes. They have never failed to come out completely dry at 45 minutes.
 
#21 ·
I tell you what I'll do, you go over to Harbor Freight and buy (or order on line) one of their tumblers and I will send you a pound of the SS pins. I started rawight54 and my next door neighbor that way. I have one pound of the pins left and all you need in each one of the drums on that double HF tumbler is 1/2 a pound.
 
#24 ·
Since drying is a part of washing and a few folks have talked about drying their brass, here is another idea for you low volume reloaders!

My wife has a huge sewing room and recently I built her a solid wall thread spool rack system and we were going to toss out her old spool holders then I had a brainstorm (see photo).

I don't tumble anymore but I do ultrasonic clean my brass, usually three hundred or less at a time and after cleaning I hang the brass on racks like the one shown below. The racks hold 100 rounds of any caliber you like and hold the cases at a perfect angle for draining. On sunny days I take the loaded racks outside and let the good ole Arizona sun get them good and warm and dry in under an hour.

Probably wouldn't be feasible for those who process 5 gallon buckets full at a time though. And if your wife doesn't have any lying around, you can still buy these anywhere and their pretty cheap or make you own.
Product Shelving Shelf Retail Collection
 
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