Cleaning Pistol Brass

First you might want to check out current thread "Questions concerning new tumbler..." to see if that is what you have in mind, and then respond back with any specific questions. Ninety-nine out of a hundred would no doubt recommend a tumbling procedure of some kind. Assuming, that is, that you mean doing 100 to 150 somewhat frequently. The thread will reveal what is popular with wet and dry tumbling procedures. The equipment for doing this is readily available and generally reasonably priced. You will notice that using ground walnut shells with NuFinish auto polish added is a popular choice and is mentioned often. The Zilla finely ground walnut shells often used is also called lizard litter and available from pet supply stores.
 
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Straight wall handgun cases will clean up easy with any kind of tumbler dry or wet. Dry uses corn or walnut media. Wet uses Stainless Steel Pins, water, dawn dish detergent & lemiShine.You can check them out on line. I'm using the wet tumbler by Harbor Freight,you would have to go with the double unit. The single unit comes with a 3 lb. Drum, the amount your cleaning you'll need the double unit. I'm very pleased with the unit but amazed on how clean the SS pins clean. Hope this helped.
 
I start out with rinsing the off with my garden hose if they are super dirty range barrel brass. If they are not very dirty at all I skip cleaning them. If I am trading, or selling the brass I will run through a vibratory tumbler with walnut media.
 
Pistol brass does not need much cleaning. If it does need to be cleaned, then 2 hours in hot water with Dish Washing machine detergent (I use Powerball) works great, after depriming to aid drainage. Rinse in hot water and dry in the sun or in front of a fan.

I load rifle and pistol, and usually do not need to clean my pistol brass.
Most of what I use is nickle plated, and they seem to just stay clean. If you are only going to load pistol, then you do not need a tumbler.

Rifle brass is a much different matter. I clean those in dish water, then lube and size, then tumble the lube off. Brass cases shine up well in a tumbler with 1/2 walnut & 1/2 corn cob with some auto polish.
 
Do yourself a favor and get a tumbler. I started with the whole vinegar/water/oven/fan thing and trust me, it's so much easier to just toss them all in there and come back two hours later to clean brass.

On a side note, skip the 'media separator' thing. Get two small-ish buckets, different sizes. Drill a couple dozen 3/8" holes in the bottom and dump everything into it. Rattle it around vigorously for a half minute and voila...separated.
 
My opinion is that the cases must be cleaned if you want to preserve your dies. Running dirty cases through your dies is eventually going to, at the very least, crud them up. I used to reload nickel cases until one scored a sizing die. Now I load just brass, clean brass. I currently use a wet tumbler with the stainless pins/dish soap/powdered acid (lemi-shine). Also, I clean up to 2000 cases a month of both pistol and rifle so efficiency is key. If I were just doing a couple hundred pistol cases I would go back to a dry tumbler. Doesn't get quite as clean (not that that matters) but it does allow you to move from tumbling to reloading rather quickly. The wet system obviously needs drying time.
 
I dry tumble Rifle and pistol with a small Dillon tumbler. I might have 700 rounds of pistol brass, or as low as 50 rounds of rifle brass. But large load or small it all go's in the tumbler 50/50 corn/walnut and a few cap fulls of NuFinish. I buy corn and walnut at a local pet shop.
 
FWIW, and just to add another $.02; I reloaded, quite successfully, for 12 years before i got a tumbler. I would merely wipe each case with a solvent dampened rag as I inspected it before starting to reload them. Worked well,and nope, I ruined no dies, and yep, I could spot any defects in the brass. I reloaded mostly handgun ammo, 38/357, .44 Mag/Special, with a few .223 in there too. Shiny, polished brass is totally unnecessary, but if you wanna, that's cool too. :D
 
Lately, I've heard of people having great success using the car wash soap that is wash and wax in one product. Having that little bit of wax protects the brass from re-tarnishing after it is cleaned.
 
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