Not cleaning brass

I started reloadind when carbide sizing dies were not as available as today and a bit expensive.

Steel sizing dies were standard and the use of lubricant was required.

I started wiping off the lubricant by hand. Very tedious. I had a small ultrasonic cleaner so I began cleaning cases in it with a soapy solution. When vibrating tumblers became reasonably priced I bought one and tumble all my cases now.

While not specifically required, shiny brass looks good. Given that, you really do want clean brass even if it is not shiny.

As a side note, I have enough brass in rotation that if I use a wet cleaning process, I have enough time (days!) to let the cases properly dry before reloading. I usually dry tumble but do wet tumble at times when I want super clean and shiny cases.

My first .38/.357 sizing die acquired the ability to put a deep full-length scratch down the side of any case that went through it. Could not polish it out, but it was the perfect excuse to buy a carbide die, so I did. Still using the carbide one 40-some years later.

Since I shoot bolt and lever guns I never let my brass touch the ground. I will tumble polish if it starts to get tarnished.

I've done everything from wet tumbling to dry tumbling to wiping the grit off to not doing anything at all. I wet tumble now because I like the fact that I can more easily see defects and maybe save my dies just a little bit of trouble, and honestly because it's the easiest way of doing it. I don't care if it's shiny, although that is nice I guess.

I’ve always dry tumbled. Later I got a Thumlers, Now I both dry and wet tumble. My reasoning is; protect the sizing dies, easier to inspect cases, and get a little polish on cases for long term storage.
That said, I have plenty of cases in rotation to not be in a hurry. If I needed to load to shoot I might modify my routine

I clean every time. It just makes sense to me. Come home from the range, drop the brass in the tumbler, turn it on and leave it for a few hours.

I also realize that everyone doesn't. The mentor that I looked up to for all things hunting/outdoors related didn't own a tumbler. He wiped them off with a rag and measured all of his charges with Lee dippers. And he could shoot circles around me and killed more deer than any human I've ever known.

Tumbling is part of the process, brass gets tumbled a bit longer than nickle. I don't care about new shiny looking brass, just no grime from the range in the dies.

What I'm shooting and where is the key to that question. Bolt action gun clean powder ejected into my hand and put back in the box, is not the same game as semi auto rifle tossing them in the mud. A 38 with 3 grains of tightgroup is basically clean.

I don't clean my brass all the time. They get blackish and sticky from bulet lube, and I still run them. I will use the Dawn/lemon juice/coffee can trick to knock the filth down when they get real bad.

I like clean shiny brass and have always tumbled everything except my match brass. It never touches the ground and all I do is to wipe it off.

To the OP's question of whether anyone Doesn't clean brass: my friend who first got me into NRA Bullseye doesn't clean (45acp). "As long as no one stepped on it and there's no rocks" I believe he's said . 20+ loadings per case. His scores are good but his forearm is covered in flakes of soot.

(I decap then ultrasonic)

I clean brass in a tumbler to get the dirt and soot off to protect my dies and to keep my press and fingers clean. I'm not going to wipe each case with a rag.
As for shiny... It doesn't take any more of my time to let the tumbler run an hour vs 5 minutes, so I leave it for an hour and get shiny brass.

Dale Alan said:

Some folks bathe often , some folks don't . I like my brass clean . And that "never cleaned it in the old days" , those are just folks living in the glory days.

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When I was a kid I bathed once a week whether I needed it or not.

I tumble my brass but not for real long. Plinking brass gets sorta clean.

Pure speculation on my part, but I'm of the opinion that far more tumble than wipe.
I was instantly hooked on wet after I saw the first batch.

Hartkopf said:

When I was a kid I bathed once a week whether I needed it or not.

I tumble my brass but not for real long. Plinking brass gets sorta clean.

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Me too , but I was always swimming or fishing in between for a little dust off .

PWC said:

Reloading is relaxing, deadlines are in my rearview mirror. No need rushing to get 1K ready for next weekend.

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I agree. No need to be in a hurry or be put out by a hobby. I dry tumble twice, once in corn before decapping and once in walnut after resizing. It's not for the dies or "the shiny," it's because I like to keep my hands clean and my work area tidy. Smudged fingers and dirty tools aren't fun or relaxing. I don't really care if my brass shines, so long as it isn't dirty or smelly.

Just for the record, in post 2 I was replying to the OP second question about there being a detriment to not cleaning.
I have been tumbling brass for many moons.

Walkalong said:

and when you forget to get the cases out until the next day..

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Ya gotta wear shades

I like relatively shiny brass. Tumbling with a little nufinish makes it look good with sizing and subsequent expanding easier. I have never personally wet tumbled, but did get some "once fired" 45 brass that that was so clean I had to use case lube. I typically decap on a cheap C press, rinse with a little dawn, then tumble with a walnut/corn cob mix. The brass looks good and both press and media stay pretty clean. Agree with PWC and GeoDude, its a hobby. No rush.

My pistol brass I put through the wet or dry tumbler but my rifle brass I usually don't shoot enough to have enough brass to do a load in the tumbler. So I wipe it off lube it, then run it trough the sizing die, clean the primer pocket, then check the length by seeing if my lee trimmer will cut anything, then while it is on the trimmer stud I run a wad of 0000 steel wool over it. It doesn't cut any brass off the case but it does leave a beautiful shine.

I run all my fired brass through the vibratory cleaner before processing and run it through again after sizing to get the lube off.

It requires no effort so why not?

Col. Harrumph said:

Shotshells I just reuse as is. Everything else I knock the primers out with the Lee universal die and then ultrasonic them with the Hornady case cleaner.

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Back in the day when I shot trap on a weekly basis I’d put the empties in a nylon mesh bag and run them thru a wash rinse cycle along with a load of towels in the washing g machine.

I recently stopped tumbling my pistol brass and just wash them in hot, soapy water to clean-out the powder residue.

Back when I started I used a gallon glass pickle jar, hot water, dawn, and salt. Stir vigorously for a couple minutes about every 15 minutes for 90 minutes then rinse well. I always used the Lee decapper and base to deprime first. Then lay them out in the sun to dry or place in front of a heater, depending on the season. That was good enough for years till I got my first tumbler. Walnut, nu-finish, and a cut up dryer sheet worked great for ~15 years then I stepped up to a wet tumbler.

Any will work if you properly inspect your brass before loading. I still have ammo cans of primed brass from when I “pickled” them, and some that were dry tumbled. They shoot just as well as the bright new looking wet tumbled ones I’m processing now. All my brass gets deprimed, wet tumbled shiny clean, resized, trimmed, chamfered, swaged, and primed before being labeled and stored. I do like the bling, but the old dingy brown cases work just as well.