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Looking at a lot of reloading starter kits and none seem to have shell/brass cleaners. How necessary is it to clean brass... Any cheap DIY methods?
never seen a starter kit WITH a brass cleaner. Yes, you MUST clean your brass.
in 40+ years of reloading and having accumulated thousands and thousands of dollars in equipment one thing I never had was a media separator.
I'd add a caveat to this. You can pretty much reload any straight wall case without cleaning it if you wanted to, assuming the brass was relatively clean when you picked it up (not covered in mud, or corroded). If you shot a box of WWB 9mm and picked up the cases, I doubt you'd notice any difference between reloading them and full tumbled brass.
I'm not saying you should do this, I'm just saying you can and you're not going to disrupt the time continuum or blow up a gun.
in 40+ years of reloading and having accumulated thousands and thousands of dollars in equipment one thing I never had was a media separator.
Brass cleaning is the most over-rated, over-talked-about, over-thought reloading-related activity.
I think it's an OCD/anal retentive thing for some reloaders. Some want super shiny, spotless brass and some just want brass clean enough to reload and not damage their dies? I consider myself in the middle of that range of cleanliness.
Some want super shiny, spotless brass
Which cracks me up because I know what the brass is going to look like after a month in an ammo can.
I always tell the shiny brass crowd that the reflections will disclose their position.
I think it's an OCD/anal retentive thing for some reloaders. Some want super shiny, spotless brass and some just want brass clean enough to reload and not damage their dies? I consider myself in the middle of that range of cleanliness.
I don't think that brass cleaning is overrated as long as it is not over done. Almost all of my shooting is done with semi auto firearms which means that the brass lands on the ground. A quick trip through the tumbler using corn cob grit and a little polish yields clean brass for very little effort. Clean brass is easier to work with and won't contaminate your dies with grit from the range.
By "over rated" I didn't mean you shouldn't do it, I mean that for some it becomes an obsession - the hobby within the hobby.
Brass has to be clean enough to inspect, and not damage the dies. That's it. Anything more has no positive effect on accuracy, reliability, or anything else.
Beats me! I don't polish the innards of any of my brass and my gun still shoots better than me.Does cleaning the inside of rifle cases improve the consistency of powder burn or is that yet another fairytale?
Does cleaning the inside of rifle cases improve the consistency of powder burn or is that yet another fairytale?
I would think the ideal situation is to have perfectly shiny brass, ie.absolute consistency, case to case. I haven't seen any technical studies regarding internally polished brass versus dull brass.
I can separate 1000+ cases from tumbling media in under a minute using a media separator.
If you can give me a more efficient way to separate media from cases, I'm all ears.
By "over rated" I didn't mean you shouldn't do it, I mean that for some it becomes an obsession - the hobby within the hobby.
Brass has to be clean enough to inspect, and not damage the dies. That's it. Anything more has no positive effect on accuracy, reliability, or anything else.
Does cleaning the inside of rifle cases improve the consistency of powder burn or is that yet another fairytale?