It never occurred to me to not dry them. I probably do it a bit different than everyone else here. I don't have the big, fancy drum (maybe soon I will), so I use the small drums from Harbor Freight. I rinse everything in the drum, pick out the brass and heat them at around 250 degrees in a cheap hot plate bought for $6 to dry them. After drying the brass quickly, I pluck them out with pliers and set them aside in an aluminum baking pan to cool. While the brass is cooling, I pour the pins in and dry them in minutes. While the pins are drying, I wipe out the drum with a paper towel to make sure there is no leftover residue. After describing my system, I think I might have a touch of OCD, but my brass is CLEAN and my pins are all present and accounted for and none of them have rusted. It works for me.