WHY do we clean our brass cases? Asking this question to different people would bring you a lot of answers. The question must rather be why should we be cleaning brass cartridge cases.
The main reason brass used for reloading is kept clean is to ensure safe and reliable functionality. If none of us ever have experienced a stuck case in a gun we would all be happily shooting away with our dirty reloaded brass.
Just as dirty brass will damage your dies from all the dust and abrasive dirt on the surface of the cartridge, so will it damage the guns’ chamber over time and cause stuck brass in your chamber.
So, cleaning it will be. There are plenty ways to clean your brass and the all have their pros and cons. Years ago we used never dull and polished our cases with it. Cases were nice and sparkling clean on the outside but the inside stayed dirty.
This dirt mostly carbon will deposit itself on your dies and they have to be constantly kept clean. To leave this abrasive carbon deposits in your dies will severely shorten the lifespan of the dies.
The next improvement was to dry tumble the brass in an abrasive media like corncob but this was a process that took hours and all media had to be removed after tumbling, not the easiest of tasks.
If this media is accidentally included with your loaded round it can cause excessive high and dangerous pressures with the next firing. The media also got dirty after some use and had to be replaced or cleaned if possible.
Enter the Ultrasonic cleaner, this allowed you to get rid of all the strainers and dust associated with the media used in the dry tumbling process.
Cases are placed in a liquid cleaning solution and cleaned with Ultrasonic transducers vibrating the liquid molecules. Cost of the cleaning solution is high and everything must be thoroughly cleaned after use. It did a great job of cleaning cases both on the inside and the outside but cases had to be cleansed with clean water to get rid of the cleaning solution and then dried completely. The used cleaning solution must then be stored in some way till the next use or when too dirty be discarded.
The Cases although clean was mostly a dull brass color and still had to be polished if you wanted shiny as new cases, my personal preference.
Up to this stage there was always a consumable that became depleted at the most inopportune moment – late on a Saturday afternoon just after the suppliers closed for the business day. So when the Wet Tumblers with Stainless Steel media became available it was like a God send. All that was needed was Tap water, dish washing liquid and something acid in the water, with the Stainless steel pins that can be reused hundreds of times.
They worked extremely well and cases were cleaned and polished inside and outside even primer pockets were no longer a problem. The time the cases had to be tumbled was also a lot less than when using the Dry tumbling process.
Cartridges after a 1 Hour tumble. The duller ones on the right is what I use in a hunting scenario where you do not want your quarry to be made aware of your presence by possible sunny reflections from the ammo you carry.
These Wet tumbler systems with Stainless Steel pins in most instances can be a bit pricey but are well worth the Money.(For the budget conscious see the link at the end of the article, they even shipped to my doorstep in South-Africa for a very good price – Take Note the unit does not include the Stainless steel media but that is easily obtained locally.)
Most reloaders I know agree that this is the best way for them to clean their cases. However, there are some that say they have less than satisfactory results and have to tumble the cases for a long time. Maybe understanding the nature of soap and water a little bit better can help with this complaint.
The less known fact perhaps is that the water you use can make a difference.
Water from the tap in my area is a little to the Hard side. As far as Hard water and Soft water is concerned, Hard water PH above 7 or more alkaline and soft water PH 7 or below that is neutral or more acidic.
The effectiveness or cleaning power of soap are severely hampered by Hard water as can also be seen by the amount of foam generated by the soap in the water.
So to get my hard water to give me a better cleaning performance with normal any brand dish washing liquid I adjust my waters PH from 8.6 to below 7 neutral to +- 6.5 with the addition of an acid. I have mostly used White vinegar, or ascorbic acid or Tartaric acid in my water. These are available at any grocery store and are cheap price wise. The American reloaders use Lemi Shine, not available in South Africa, to introduce an acidic “flavor” to the water.
Ratios are not critical, I will use Vinegar +- half a cup, or Tartaric acid +- 1/4 teaspoon, my tumbler use about 4 Litres of water.
Basically you want Hot water (Not boiling) slightly acidic and a teaspoon of dish washing liquid in your tumbler with your Stainless steel media and cases.
I tumble my cases for an hour and then the jobs done. Cases are all shiny inside and outside, including primer pockets.
The cases, like new are now ready to be dried for reloading.
A month or so back I had to clean a few cases and my Stainless Steel pins was missing, with all the things moving around the garage I had to use what I had available on hand, the results were satisfactory but that is a story for another day. I want to run this new media for a while before giving feedback to everybody so as to lead you down a rabbit hole. Be on the lookout for the update on this in the next couple of months.
As promised below is some links to the equipment discussed in this article. As South Africa use 220 V and not 110 V as our American readers I have put this one first it is what I have been using for 2 years now without any problems just make sure its the 5 Kg and not the 3 Kg one as they sell two versions of the tumbler. Unfortunately this supplier only have the smaller 3 Kg version in a 110 V model. I have added some other links if readers have difficulty at their local brick and mortar store.
Corne
2 Jan 2020Awesome article!! CJ
JMC
3 Jan 2020Thanks