5.56 Brass Cleaning

[treillw]

I want to reload a few thousand rounds of 5.56 and 300 blk. I probably need to invest in a case cleaner with how filthy this brass gets.

What do you find works best? It would be nice to do some larger batches to try to speed things up.

What order do you process the brass in? Clean, size, trim etc, clean again? Or only clean once?

I've reloaded for everything except this dirty semi auto rifle brass.

Thanks!

 

[Toddmack]

First I wet tumble without any media, just soap and water to clean them up a little. Then go through the process as normal.

 

[6bra1k]

buy a large dillon or a small midway( dillon is a better investment) midway will work
buy blasting media, fine ground corn cob...not pet bedding
nufinish car POLISH.
CLEAN THEM ONCE BEFORE ANY DIES...fl size, trim to length deburr in and out swage primer pocket
( most usa 223 is crimped just like the mil
clean them again and then blow out the cases to ensure no media
you can do 1k at a time in the large dillon.....and then sell when done..if you are really done

 

[Ray123]

I wet tumble using Lymans wet tumbler with stainless pins...throw in about thousand 223 cases, fill with hot water, add a table spoon of Dawn, and a sprinke of Lemi Shine...tumble a couple of hours cases will be bright and shinny. It will clean primer pockets if ya decap cases in a Lee decapping die first, no lube is needed as no sizing occurs here. Buy a $12 Harbor freight magnetic indicator base to pick up spilled SS pins...it has an on, off switch ...works great.

 

[ebb]

If cleaning range brass that has been on the ground for any length of time, you will want to wet tumble with ss pins. If new brass or once fire well taken care of brass, a vibratory tumbler will work best.

 

[SeabeeKen]

FART, (Frankford Arsenal Rotary Tumbler) and pins. I decap first with my mighty armory die and toss them into the fart with a few ml of citranox. Clean and shiney in 30-45 min and pockets clean

 

[jpx2rk]

frankford arsenal tumbler - MidwayUSA

Shop MidwayUSA for the best frankford arsenal tumbler

www.midwayusa.com

Here is all you need, other brands available. The larger version will handle 1K at a time, the lite version will do 300 or so.

 

[Walt Krafft]

Got rid of my pins. I wet tumble with Brass Juice, they come out as clean as with pins without the worry of one remaining in a case. Clean, lube, size, tumble in fine corn cob to remove the lube.

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

AR's, especially suppressed gas rifles run dirty. Brass that hits the dirt and grass needs cleaning before die work also. I universal decap and then wash. I use a Frankford rotary, no pins, hot water Jungle Jake cleaner/couple oz lemon juice. I'm not concerned with clean primer pockets and don't want the inside necks stripped of all the carbon. Brass looks new even months later. Rinse in hot water, dry and process. Last big batches, I ran about 20# brass and water/drum for 1.5 hr.

 

[treillw]

Got rid of my pins. I wet tumble with Brass Juice, they come out as clean as with pins without the worry of one remaining in a case. Clean, lube, size, tumble in fine corn cob to remove the lube.

I assume you can put corn cob into the FART and it's dual purpose?

 

[treillw]

AR's, especially suppressed gas rifles run dirty. Brass that hits the dirt and grass needs cleaning before die work also. I universal decap and then wash. I use a Frankford rotary, no pins, hot water Jungle Jake cleaner/couple oz lemon juice. I'm not concerned with clean primer pockets and don't want the inside necks stripped of all the carbon. Brass looks new even months later. Rinse in hot water, dry and process. Last big batches, I ran about 20# brass and water/drum for 1.5 hr.

That's my next question. What happens if you tumble and don't lube the case mouth?

What's the best way to lube them?

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

I use Hornady one shot for my 223/556 brass, including the inside neck. Seems good enough for hunting and general shooting. For competition, I would add a inside neck powdered lubing step.

 

[Walt Krafft]

I assume you can put corn cob into the FART and it's dual purpose?

Nope. I have multiple tumblers.

 

[Stugots]

I wet tumble using a dual drum rock tumbler. I can get approx. 110 .223 cases in each container. I add 1.5 T-spoons of Dawn dish soap, a 1/4 cup of citric acid, SS pins and fill with warm water up to 1/4 inch of the top and seal the canisters. I tumble this for about 45 minutes. I then drain/rinse/separate the pins with a magnet. I will then place the shell casings in 9mm (qty 50) open 9mm trays that you get in boxes of 50 (loaded 9mm ammo) and let dry.

 

[6bra1k]

That's my next question. What happens if you tumble and don't lube the case mouth?

What's the best way to lube them?

case neck lube is a function of interference. most of mu ammo has .001 and needs no lube with boat tail bullets. if you run a lot of neck tension lube is probably a good idea..but not a lot