Anybody else NEVER tumble their brass?

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777funk

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Lee Precision (one of the owners I believe) told me a while back that he NEVER tumbled his brass. I asked him why and he said several reasons. He said the carbon inside the case helped lube for the resizing dies, he said that it adds to the wear on the brass, and he said it's basically a waste of time unless they're REALLY dirty.

So I took his advice and haven't tumbled since. I have never had a single jam in the rifle (never), and I've never had an issue that I'd attribute to dirty brass in the pistol. I have had extractor tuning issues but nothing related to brass. After 20 reloads, they still plop right in. They aren't pretty but they're not bad either and after all I don't sit and stare at my brass... I shoot it!

There was someone I heard from a while back who mentioned it's easier to see cracks if it's clean. I've had no trouble finding cracks in the dirty brass. If anything maybe it stands out even more because it's more contrasting.

Anyways, I felt this was overall pretty correct (in my experience) with what Lee had told me about tumbling.
 
I loaded for 50 years before I got a tumbler. It really is no problem. Yes, the brass may get dark, but it still works just fine.
 
777funk said:
Lee Precision (one of the owners I believe) told me a while back that he NEVER tumbled his brass.
Click to expand...

Of course, he is in the business of selling dies.

Back when steel resizing dies were the norm, if the cases were not clean, you would scratch the die at the blink of an eye.

While carbide resizing ring is very much harder than steel, dirt still cannot be good for them in the long run.

I will still clean my cases.
 
I don't tumble my brass, but not for any particular reason other than I don't shoot that much any more so I don't process that much brass. I usually process about 100 rounds at a time maybe once a month. Remove the primers, toss brass into hot water filled tupperware with a drop or two of dish soap and a teaspoon of lemishine. Shake, let soak for an hour, shake, let it sit, rinse, rinse, dry, then start reloading process again. I'm in no hurry so the method works just fine for me.

FWIW, .223 is mostly what I reload for.
 
The only brass I tumble is 50 BMG and 308 only because I link it for my belt feds. I slides into the links better if its clean and carbon free. Aside from that, I usually don't clean my other brass. About 19 calibers (including pistol).
 
With all the money I spend on reloading equipment it would be foolish to worry about a little more cost for a tumbler. Besides, cleaning the brass saves the dies which are much more expensive than a tumbler.
 
I've only got a couple years under my belt but I've always cleaned my brass some way or another. I have a sonic cleaner, a tumbler, and a concrete mixer that does a pretty good job using dry or wet media with big batches of brass (1000+ pieces). I don't see any reason not to clean it. Clean brass (and dry) is less likely to corrode. With pistol brass and carbide sizing dies clean brass won't wear out the dies but dirty brass could. Same thing with rifle brass and you have to lube it anyways so cleaning it isn't going to add any friction. That's how I see it anyways.
 
If you do not tumble your brass, I would suggest at least washing it. If a bit of grit can ruin a die, think what it will do to your chamber.
 
Honestly, I reloaded for a good 10 years before I bought a tumbler and never had any real problems. But now that I tumble, I can't ever go back to using dirty brass, it's just so much easier case inspection. I was surprised just how much more detail I can see, especially when inspecting for neck splits, and incipient head separations. But even before I tumbled, I still found myself using steel wool on the outside so I could better identify bad spots. When carbons build up heavy, they can hide a small defect, which tumbling helps me to see them easier.

But if you are careful and give your brass a close going over from the inside with a paper clip, and also make sure you clean all the lube off before loading and charging it, you'll be ok. It's just such a pain to work without a tumbler in my opinion. But I could honestly care less what my loads look like, so it has little to do with that for me.

GS
 
777, 10/18/13

Some folks don't distinguish between tumbling and cleaning. Cleaning of some sort is almost always necessary to get debris off the case. This can be done with paper towels, cotton rags, ultrasonic or solid media tumbling and stainless steel tumbling. Tumbling is just one type of cleaning. I cleaned my first 80,000 pistol and rifle cases with just a paper towel. No horror stories occurred- no missed case cracks, no scratched dies, etc. Recently I've been using SS pin tumbling. The SS method leaves the cases looking shiny and new. Do they shoot any better than the tarnished, paper towel cleaned cases? No. So in summary- cleaning is advised, tumbling is just one option.

best wishes- oldandslow
 
That's about it, they should be clean, but shiny is optional.

Tumbling is the easiest way to clean brass, and once we have gone that far, it's just too easy to add shiny, so most of us do.
 
1st time thru is a POLISH. Then afterwards I tumble to clean, I therefore know my dies, brass and chamber is clean.

I mean come on, do you clean your chamber? dies ever so often? But not brass?
 
I usually pickup the brass immediately after a session. So none ever really hits anything too filthy. I suppose if I was using it in a desert (sandy) or rocky area where it could end up with gravel, maybe I'd see it differently.

But dirt/grit doesn't seem to be an issue.

I always feel the brass all the way around and visually inspect as I lube it and put it into the case feeder. If I ever feel any grit (rare usually) I make sure it comes off first. But there's rarely anything I need to clean off.

That makes perfect sense though about dies getting ruined from grit. And it's also a good thing that they're made of carbide! They use that for router bits and about the only thing that can phase them is heat. It's near impossible to sharpen with ordinary tools.
 
I wash my brass with some soapy water, rinse them with hot water then dry them in the oven at 200 degrees. They're clean for sure, if not shiny.
 
I have never tumbled. I wash 'em by quick hand before and then thoroughly after full length resizing/decapping and expanding the mouths and use a brush on the primer pockets and inside the cases.

I use dish soap and sometimes Bar Keepers Friend. Never tumbled. I do wipe the reloaded rounds with a soft cloth lightly wet with Windex to remove any lube from reloading and then give them a quick hand polish with a soft cloth that has some Pikal or Flitz just to make 'em shiny.

VooDoo
 
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How in the world are you going to scratch steal dies with brass? I keep reading that dirty brass will scratch the inside of the dies but I have never seen this. The only thing I have seen is dirt scratching the brass and leaving a small spot of brass stuck to the die which then scratches the other cases feed into that die. Think about it for a minute is the die getting scratched or is the brass getting scratched. The worst offended to scratch the brass is a piece of media that gets stuck to the case when lubed so actually you have a better chance of scratching brass that has been tumbled then not.

I knew a guy that was complaining about a die that was all scratched up and wreaking havoc on his brass, he purchased a new die and gave me the bad die as I wanted to see if I could fix it. He couldn’t quite comprehend that his die wasn’t scratched. A couple minutes with a swab of Fitz chucked up to my drill took care of the problem.
 
A piece of sand stuck to a case *could* deeply scratch a steel die. I doubt it would a carbide insert but I'm not certain. Sand or other stray abrasives are probably the whole reason to tumble/wash/clean brass before sizing.

I do think the risk is dependent upon where the brass has been collected from. I never pick up range brass unless it comes from the indoor range and I pick it up within minutes of it hitting the floor and then only if I saw it hit the floor and it's a brand I want/use.

YMMV. We all use what works.

VooDoo
 
Walkalong said:
That's about it, they should be clean, but shiny is optional.

Tumbling is the easiest way to clean brass, and once we have gone that far, it's just too easy to add shiny, so most of us do.
Click to expand...
This is true, I rarely end up with very shinny brass, just clean brass that shines a little. The only time it's super shinny new is when I forget to turn off the tumbler and the brass is tumbling overnight. :eek:

777,
Your brass gets dirty merely by shooting the ammo. Carbon and other contaminants can and will get into your dies.
 
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I started cleaning (not tumbling) my brass when my first resizing die, a steel RCBS 38 special became so scratched that it would deeply score my cases and significantly reduced their useful life.

All of my pistol dies are carbide now, but I still remember the lesson. I went for many years just washing brass and not worrying about making it shiny. Now I own a tumbler and I mostly use it because tumbling is just a more convenient way to clean them.

I think everybody should at least give them a good wipedown before lubing them and cramming them into the sizing die.
 
Muddydogs,

Right, the brass should not scratch a steel die.

But sand and dirt on the case most definity will hence the reason for cleaning the cases.

As said, tumbling is just one cleaning method.
 
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