Cleaning cases are they really clean, do they need to be?

[Cowcatcher]

I honestly can't say any media besides corncob is better or worse. I bought my tumbler 7yrs ago with a jug of corncob and a bottle of brass polish. I'm gonna guess its tumbled 6k cases and still gets em very clean and shiny. I just add a lil squirt of polish every once in a while.

 

[OKCHunter]

I tumble. Corn cob media. I spray rifle brass with Hornady one shot including inside the case mouth while they are standing in a loading block. I run a bronze brush thats on my case cleaning center in the necks before doing that. I've never noticed any bad results.

Running that brush into the neck likely accomplishes the same thing as pin tumbling. I guess it is really a "6 in one, 1/2 dozen in the other" type of thing. But, I betcha that my primer pockets are cleaner unless you run the brass through the case cleaning center also

 

[dennishoddy]

Running that brush into the neck likely accomplishes the same thing as pin tumbling. I guess it is really a "6 in one, 1/2 dozen in the other" type of thing. But, I betcha that my primer pockets are cleaner unless you run the brass through the case cleaning center also

I've never worried about primer pockets. Any crud left which is minimal is below where the primer is seated.
I know some folks that are anal about primer pocket cleaning and do them one at a time with a hand tool while watching TV in the evening.
For me only, I've just not seen any advantage to cleaning them further than what corn cob will do.
The primer pocket gets the carbon reamed out of it when resizing the case and popping out the old primer.
If I were a paper puncher with one hole groups as a goal, I'd probably take the time to clean them more thoroughly just to eliminate any possibility that it could be causing issues, but I'm a hunter, and sometimes competition rifle shooter where all I'm looking for is a hit in the A zone and its pretty big.
My only concern as a hunter is where is that first shot from a cold bore going to land. I could care less about the 2nd and third for the most part, although they won't be far off.
So, it's all about how much accuracy one wants to wring out of their rifle, and what their personal requirements are.
I love going to the 300 yd range, and swinging steel as fast as I can pull the trigger. Don't care where it hits, I just want the steel to swing.

 

[beastep]

My process now is this. Deprime, tumble in walnut, size with Imperial case lube and nothing inside the neck, trim, chamfer and deburr, brush inside of the neck. They size so much easier after being cleaned with walnut. I try to never get lube inside the case.

 

[dennishoddy]

I try to never get lube inside the case.

Lubing the neck gets you 100 fps. You didn't know that?

 

[Calamity Jake]

Try this method http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?83572-Citric-acid-brass-cleaner
then walnut media tumble them for a couple of hours.

 

[Dumpstick]

That citric acid bath is what I use on all my brass.
First I simply wash brass in hot water and soap - either dish soap or laundry soap, doesn't seem to matter. Rinse, citric acid bath, rinse, set outside to dry, tumble.

It sounds like more trouble than it actually is. Batches of several hundred handgun brass is the norm for me. It goes quickly, especially in the summer when the brass will dry outside in 30 minutes.

 

[swampratt]

30 seconds to dry them on top of the wood stove in the winter.
Or I lay them on a towel in the house and over night they will dry out.

When I was doing a brass fail test which involved 4 different .308 head stamped cases shooting each one until it failed.
I was lubing inside and out and one case i forgot to remove the lube from the neck and trickled powder into it.

CRAP!! powder stuck on the neck sides inside the case..I pushed the powder down into the case and swabbed the lube out of the neck with a Q tip and inserted the bullet.
This was done at the range.
That 1 shot ruined a nice hole that all the other rounds went into..probably 25 rounds into a 50 cent size hole and that one goof went low and left about 1.5" from all the others.

Yes I removed the lube from the neck like all other rounds but what got on the sticks of Varget I feel is what ruined the average.

Those cases were only brushed and wiped off and 0000 steel wool removed any carbon on the necks.
Winchester case went 18 reloads All cases were Full length sized in a Lee die.
10FP savage rifle with large chamber.
Remington case went 52 rounds before failure..No cases got a split neck NO annealing . All cases died from case head crack.

 

[NikatKimber]

30 seconds to dry them on top of the wood stove in the winter.
Or I lay them on a towel in the house and over night they will dry out.

When I was doing a brass fail test which involved 4 different .308 head stamped cases shooting each one until it failed.
I was lubing inside and out and one case i forgot to remove the lube from the neck and trickled powder into it.

CRAP!! powder stuck on the neck sides inside the case..I pushed the powder down into the case and swabbed the lube out of the neck with a Q tip and inserted the bullet.
This was done at the range.
That 1 shot ruined a nice hole that all the other rounds went into..probably 25 rounds into a 50 cent size hole and that one goof went low and left about 1.5" from all the others.

Yes I removed the lube from the neck like all other rounds but what got on the sticks of Varget I feel is what ruined the average.

Those cases were only brushed and wiped off and 0000 steel wool removed any carbon on the necks.
Winchester case went 18 reloads All cases were Full length sized in a Lee die.
10FP savage rifle with large chamber.
Remington case went 52 rounds before failure..No cases got a split neck NO annealing . All cases died from case head crack.

I agree that what got on the powder most likely caused it. It certainly changed the burn rate for any powder grains it touched. Would have been curious to see that shot vs about 5-10 others over a chrono.

 

[swampratt]

I will be doing another brass fail test some day and will be neck sizing only.
I started that a couple years ago and for some reason that one case I was testing got mixed into other cases. I had 20 rounds on it.

Very interesting results on the growth.

Someone here met me at the range during some brass testing and he shot 3 rounds of my loads one rem case one lapua and one federal case. It was his tightest group of the day from his .308.
Go figure..Primitive cleaning practices no trimming no sorting and measuring powder in a 454 Casull case I had pinched down to measure about 42 gr of varget.
That load just worked well with sierra 165gr HPBT bullets.