How thoroughly do you brush your necks when loading?

[BoydAllen]

I use bronze bore brushes that are too worn to clean a barrel until they are too worn to effectively brush out a neck. I shove them in and out of the neck two times. No turning, The only exception is when I want to mic. neck thickness. Then I chuck up the brush and spin it in the neck for a while, but this still does not take all of th e fouling color out. It does make things uniform,

 

[INTJ]

I have never found cleaning brass to help with accuracy. I simply spin the case neck in 0000 steel wool a few twists by hand, then I anneal if I am going to anneal. I do the rest of the case prep and prime.

Immediately before loading I run a nylon brush in and out of the neck. I have found brushing this way reduces seating pressure by 30-50 PSI and gives more uniform seating.

I have never found "scale" on/in my cases after annealing. Occasionally a spot of something will get cooked onto the outside of the case, and this wipes off easily with the 0000 steel wool.

My cases aren't as pretty as those who go to great effort to tumble and dry and what not; but my 1000 yd groups have validated my methodology.

 

[Kracken McGraw]

Immediately before loading I run a nylon brush in and out of the neck

I’m sure glad you said this, I’ve always done it this way because I prime way ahead sometimes before I load and this thread had me doubting myself.

 

[SG4247]

I dont touch the neck ID. Not even with an expander or a brush.

The light coating of black soot really helps with bullet seating according to the 21 Century hydro press.

If can get em all to seat at 35 to 38 psi it will group really well.

 

[searcher]

I stopped brushing necks long ago on everything except my match guns - and I brush those only because that brass lasts so darn long - where buildup can be a concern. On those - I might do every 5 firings with a nylon brush only. On my A/R brass - I haven't brushed a neck in 10 years. Seems some carbon is removed during dry tumbling and perhaps some burns off when I anneal every two or three firings. Brass wears out before there is ever a buildup causing any accuracy issues. I do know I would never want to remove all of it unless I was using coated bullets - as seating force varies much more when bare. I use coated bullets regardless on all match guns and A/R's but not less than .22 caliber in semi-auto.

 

[Dave M.]

I have found that not brushing at all my bullet seating has been the most consistent reading on the hydro press.

Agree 100%. STOP BRUSHING THE CARBON OUT OF THE INSIDE OF THE NECK.

 

[ronemus]

Immediately before loading I run a nylon brush in and out of the neck.

This is my approach - I just want to remove any residue from the tumbling process (corn cob sometimes leaves a coating of powder on the neck ID). I don't want bare brass because it can cold weld to the bullet. I shoot moly-coated bullets and use a VLD chamfer to minimize scratches in the coating; however, some scratching does occur and the residue coating the inside of the neck of a fired case also helps to prevent welding. I find that my ammo performs the same whether it was loaded the day before firing or a year before. For some purposes, brass can be too clean; a clean bullet seated in a sparkly clean case can cold weld in a matter of days and in general that produces wildly inconsistent bullet retention.