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Posted: 1/4/2011 8:46:23 AM EDT
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How thoroughly do you need to clean the cases? I don't have a tumbler or anything so right now I used a kitchen type strainer, threw the brass in there, and washed it with lukewarm water. Now I'm trying to dry it and it's a pain in the ass, short of sticking a Q tip in every one. Besides buying a tumbler, what's the best way to clean and dry my cases? Is water good enough?
Also, I didn't think about this until now, I washed these cases after setting the primer. They've been sized and primed, and nothing else. Will this foul the primer? |
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How thoroughly do you need to clean the cases? I don't have a tumbler or anything so right now I used a kitchen type strainer, threw the brass in there, and washed it with lukewarm water. Now I'm trying to dry it and it's a pain in the ass, short of sticking a Q tip in every one. Besides buying a tumbler, what's the best way to clean and dry my cases? Is water good enough? Also, I didn't think about this until now, I washed these cases after setting the primer. They've been sized and primed, and nothing else. Will this foul the primer? If you washed them after you primed them the primers are bad. A tumbler would be your best bet for cleaning cases. They are relatively cheap and do a good job. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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I would use some dishsoap in your water, and a little lemishine with help too. Just use a little. Rinse well, and then spread them out on a towel and forget about them for a few days. Also they won't dry well with the primers in, so your best bet is to deprime with a universal deprimer first, then wash.
eta: Yeah, those primers are shot... Also, you want to clean before you resize. The purpose of the cleaning is to keep dirt from damaging your sizing die. |
| Shit. So for the 98 primed cases I just washed, just pop the primer out and throw them away? Damn it that pisses me off. I should've known. Tonight I'm going to sit down and write all the tips I've learned from you guys that you don't normally see. There goes a perfectly good box of primers |
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Shit. So for the 98 primed cases I just washed, just pop the primer out and throw them away? Damn it that pisses me off. I should've known. Tonight I'm going to sit down and write all the tips I've learned from you guys that you don't normally see. There goes a perfectly good box of primers The primers will be fine from my test. Try a few to see. |
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Shit. So for the 98 primed cases I just washed, just pop the primer out and throw them away? Damn it that pisses me off. I should've known. Tonight I'm going to sit down and write all the tips I've learned from you guys that you don't normally see. There goes a perfectly good box of primers I just don't understand why you would set primers then dunk in water? I don't mean to put you down or anything, just trying to figure out what on earth would make someone think that would be a smart thing to do? Anyway, from everything I've read the primers should still go bang, though as cheap as primers are, I definitly wouldn't risk trying to use them in a loaded round. Could just shoot the empty cases in the back yard for fun though.. As for cleaning your cases, as mentioned tumblers are cheap and the best way to clean your brass. water/dishsoap is only going to remove any loose dirt/dust off the case and not going to get off any of the burnt on powder. You could use lemishine, but by it self I wouldn't consider lemishine to be a complete solution for cleaning cases. Iosso makes a liquid case cleaning product, though it'll cost you alot more then buying a tumbler and corn cob after a few uses. As for drying cases, I usually spread them out on a cookie sheet in a single layer and put them in the oven on 200 degrees for 30 minutes, then turn the oven off and let them sit in there over night. The next day they are bone dry. Of course they get tumbled after that. -Masta |
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Shit. So for the 98 primed cases I just washed, just pop the primer out and throw them away? Damn it that pisses me off. I should've known. Tonight I'm going to sit down and write all the tips I've learned from you guys that you don't normally see. There goes a perfectly good box of primers I just don't understand why you would set primers then dunk in water? I don't mean to put you down or anything, just trying to figure out what on earth would make someone think that would be a smart thing to do? It also indicates you're doing things a bit back-asswards. If you put new primers in before you washed them, that means you also deprimed and resized them before you washed them, which can scratch up the insides of your dies. Those primers are probably fine, btw. |
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Shit. So for the 98 primed cases I just washed, just pop the primer out and throw them away? Damn it that pisses me off. I should've known. Tonight I'm going to sit down and write all the tips I've learned from you guys that you don't normally see. There goes a perfectly good box of primers Why don't you sit down and try reading a reloading manual several times. Hornady, Speer, etc all give well explained directions on reloading. |
| You can dry cases by spreading them out on a towell and letting them sit at home for a few days. The water will evaporate. If you had already primed the cases, give extra drying time. Your new primers should normally not get wet. However, I had a flood in my house a few years ago and 1000 large pistol Winchester primers were under water. Rather than toss them, I waited a few months - they were throughly dry - and loaded them. All worked. I once read an article by a gun writer who said he was given 25,000 primers that had been wet. He advised that all worked for him. Let your primers dry out throughly before loading them, as no more water will evaporate after the bullet is seated and the case is all sealed up. BTW, I wash my fired cases and range pick ups in plain water to get the loose dirt and mud off. I use a mesh bag to keep cases from going down the laundry sink drain. I then spread them out to dry. In the summer, they can be put in the sun and will dry quickly. Then I tumble to shine them up and further clean them. They are then ready for loading. You want to clean your cases before you size them as the dirt is hard on a sizing die. I suggest that you get yourself a tumbler and clean and tumble your cases before starting to load them. |
| I do have one more question. I have the ABCs of Reloading, which I went through but obviously not real thoroughly. For case cleaning it says they should be deprimed first, and then clean them if you're using a solution or whatnot. I don't have anything to deprime besides my decapping/resizing die. So should I clean the case, decap/resize it, and then clean it again? Or is it fine cleaning it before decapping it and then using a primer pocket cleaner? |
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Deprime the cases. Carefully, don't jam the press handle, go smooth. Put a heavy bath towel over everything if it makes you nervous.
Lay the primers to let them dry out for several days. Set them aside to load in some plinking ammo. The priming compound probably did not get wet, and if it did, it will dry out. Put the wet cases in the oven at 220 degrees F to dry. Warm them for about an hour. Otherwise, the carbon deposits inside will take forever to dry. You don't need to wash or tumble cases. Wipe them off with a rag with a little Hoppe's to get them clean before sizing. That's what you would have done in the 1950's and early 60's. Stop fucking around. Get a few load manuals. Think through each step of the process and a logical order for each step, there aren't all that many. There's an outline in the FAQ's. |
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I do have one more question. I have the ABCs of Reloading, which I went through but obviously not real thoroughly. For case cleaning it says they should be deprimed first, and then clean them if you're using a solution or whatnot. I don't have anything to deprime besides my decapping/resizing die. So should I clean the case, decap/resize it, and then clean it again? Or is it fine cleaning it before decapping it and then using a primer pocket cleaner? The whole point of cleaning is to get the brass clean before it is sized. |
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I do have one more question. I have the ABCs of Reloading, which I went through but obviously not real thoroughly. For case cleaning it says they should be deprimed first, and then clean them if you're using a solution or whatnot. I don't have anything to deprime besides my decapping/resizing die. So should I clean the case, decap/resize it, and then clean it again? Or is it fine cleaning it before decapping it and then using a primer pocket cleaner? The whole point of cleaning is to get the brass clean before it is sized. So it doesn't matter if an old primer is in there? |
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I do have one more question. I have the ABCs of Reloading, which I went through but obviously not real thoroughly. For case cleaning it says they should be deprimed first, and then clean them if you're using a solution or whatnot. I don't have anything to deprime besides my decapping/resizing die. So should I clean the case, decap/resize it, and then clean it again? Or is it fine cleaning it before decapping it and then using a primer pocket cleaner? The whole point of cleaning is to get the brass clean before it is sized. So it doesn't matter if an old primer is in there? Some people deprime first, some don't and deprime while sizing. The primer pockets don't require cleaning at every reload except for precision rifle. However, if the carbon deposits build too much after several reloads, the primer will sit too high, and at that point the primer pocket needs to be cleaned. I deprime first, both bottleneck and straight wall cases, then I tumble in walnut for 30 minutes to an hour. Depriming first helps slow the carbon buildup, but it won't remove the carbon completely from the pockets. |
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I can see why you may be confused. Yes, the resizing die also deprimes, but most people deprime by using a universal depriming die which does not resize. I use a 9 mm resizing/depriming die which is wide enough that when used on a 223 case only deprimes it.
Definitely let the casing and the primers dry before you try to take the primers out as they may be soft when they are wet and you may damage them if you try to deprime them. The advantage of depriming first apart from allowing you to clean the primer pocket as AeroE pointed out is that it is much easier to dry the cases if the primer is not there since air can run through the casing. After I wash the case in soapy water and Lemishine, I put them in a wire basket and put that over the fan blowing from my basement dehumidifier, you will be surprised how fast the cases drys this way. You are new to reloading an this is not a dangerous mistake, just perhaps a frustrating one. However, there are things you can do that is dangerous. Would suggest you carefully read up on this before proceeding. |
| I am not sure that "most people" most of the time deprime in a separate step before cleaning, tumbling cases and then resizing. The only reason to do so is to use your case cleaning method to clean the primer pocket. (Usually it kind of half cleans it and you have to scrape the carbon out manually anyway.) If you want to do this, using a single stage press, you can scrape out the carbon in the pocket after sizing/depriming with a standard sizing die. Although a little carbon is left in the primer pocket, reloaders using progressive presses just move on, size and decap, seat a new primer and create a new cartridge without cleaning primer pockets. I recall reading about comparison testing that showed no difference in performance or accuracy if the primer pocket is not cleaned out. Benchresters probably do it, but they reload 5 cartridges at a time. Don't sweat a little carbon in the pocket unless you are doing a small batch, looking for extra accuracy, or doing single stage reloading in the above context. If you are building large volumes of practice/plinking ammo, furgettaboutit. |
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One can certainly nit pick on things like this, but...........?????
My post was written only to help clear up the confusion when it comes to when, why, and how to deprime if one was interested in washing out the brass before reloading and to give some useful suggestion as to how to do this efficiently which is what the OP needed…. |
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I yield to the experience of quite a few here, since I've been reloading for only 5 or so years. I end up with some really dirty brass since my shooting range is in the woods, and we go through every 3-4 months with a blower and metal detector to find all the brass. For pistol (mostly 9mm) I clean / soak the brass first, then dry and tumble. Everything gets a good look and count, and then I just throw it in the Dillon. For Rifle, I am much more careful and re size, measure, and deprime separately in my RCBS Rockchucker. I do check the primer pockets on rifle cases to see if I need to give it a clean, but after that it's ready for the Dillon too. I've always cleaned and tumbled before I put my filthy brass through any of my dies, but my brass is pretty nasty starting out.
edit to say the re size, measure, and deprime separately for rifles are not in that order 
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I wet wash a lot of brass. As said above, dawn soap and lemishine does a good job, but it needs some agitation. Put your brass in a 5 gal pail with a lid, agitate it for a couple of minuets every half hour for a couple of hours.
Rinse really good. To dry the cases, you need to get the water out of the case. A cheap media separator really helps, or you can gather up some brass with the mouths the same way, and with your arm, flip out the water. Put your cases on a towel, and with another towel work them over to get the water drops off of them. 2 hours in an oven at 200 deg F will have them dry. These cases won't look brand new, but they are reloadable. For pistols I don't deprime brass before cleaning, I shoot it, clean it, load it, shoot it, REPEAT For rifles, I size, deprime, trim in a progressive press, I then clean off the lube(wet method) dry, then reload it the 2nd time through the press. If you got 100 primers wet, no big deal, replace them with new primers(Should be less than $4.00). The internet lore many moons ago was to spray WD-40 in cases that you wanted to deactivete live primers, I tried it, after 1 week, I put the cases in my 45(nice to be able to feed empties,lol), and they all went bang, I laughed!! Your primers are probably good, but I would swap them out Lots of people have already learned to reload, learn from their mistakes, and enjoy. Lots of reloaders will help you here. What caliber is the brass? IF it's 223, I'll send you some primed brass for free.(only for andok folks ) |
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