Just how important is clean brass?

[jrwoitalla]

How important is clean brass to accuracy? I love opening a full box of shiny, new looking, reloads. It sure makes me feel better when shooting, but does it really matter that much? Do you clean your brass before, or after you size it?

[futuretrades]

Like you, I love nice shiny clean brass. When I get home from shooting, no matter load testing, or a day in the field with 2 or 3 hundred, and hopefully a lot more fired brass, every bit of it goes into one of my 2 tumblers for cleaning, sorted by batches. I do this because, in my opinion, uncleaned brass is harder on my dies, and myself! So all of my brass is cleaned before it ever sees any one of my dies again! As far as accuracy goes, I cannot say one way or the other.
For me, this is just part of the process of reloading.

[Neil S.]

I don't clean my precision rifle cases in a tumbler anymore, as it MAY damage the case mouth. I don't want to start any arguments, as this has been hashed out before. This is just what I do. As long as you don't fling brass onto the wet ground it stays pretty clean. There is usually just a little powder residue on the neck after firing, which I wipe off with a paper towel. This removes any oil or other debris from the body of the case aswell. As futuretrades said, you don't want dirty cases going through your dies! Here are some 204 rounds:



These were annealed and then fired 4 times (5 times for the fired cases on the right). These rounds group into the low .3's with just a little load development. I'll add that I do clean the inside of the necks with a 20 cal copper cleaning brush. If I was shooting hundreds of rounds a day (which I'm not), I would NOT be hand cleaning my cases for such small gains (if any)

[ryutzy]

As mentioned I clean for looks and to keep my dies clean. I would think if you dont clean your brass you would have to clean the inside of your dies quite often for good accuracy. I really clean my brass (with 0000 steel wool) for my 6MM AI because I am shooting a "tightneck" and the slightest amount of dirt in the chamber will cause me to have issues.

[Joe O]

I only tumble large batches.When working up loads,with 20-30 cases,I wipe them clean,use 4 "o" steel wool on the neck,brush the inside,and load.Trim and anneal as necessary.

[bow shot]

I really don't know how important it is for accuracy , but I tumble 'em cuz its an easy way to keep the dies clean.

[wirelessguy2005]

Like everyone else i tumble my brass primarily to make them look nice and remove any dirt/debris before they go in my dies.

[HoundofSC]

Not trying to start a war either but I quit tumbling also. On my bolt guns the cases rarely ever hit the ground. Just getting into the 204 but on my 308 F class ammo I use a bit of neverdull on the neck area, wipe the cases off with a paper towell, trim to length on a Wilson trimmer, run a neck reamer in and out to remove any excess carbon, chamfer lightly inside and out then neck size/deprime. I figure to follow the same routine on my 204 cases since I get excellent results with velocity mean averages on the chrono this way. On my .223 AR stuff and pistol brass I boil them for a half hour with some mild dish detergent, lay them on newspaper in the sun for a day or so, deprime, trim if necessary, chamfer.

Can't see where shiny makes much difference and the boiling is easier on the case necks than tumbling, gets the dirt off to protect the dies and no walnut media in the flash holes to worry about.

[Tokimini]

I don't tumble either. I soak my brass in a solution 1 cup hot water, 1/4 cup vinagar, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon dish soap for about half an hour, stirring them occasionally with my hand. Rise them off, use a Q Tip on the primer pocket and the brass looks almost brand new.

[Fred_C_Dobbs]

The carbon residue left in the case neck acts as a lubricant, which directly affects neck tension. Unless you can measure and adjust the leftover lubricity to a uniform level, leaving the carbon will make your neck tension variable, which will affect accuracy.

Regardless whether you tumble, in the interest of accuracy, the case neck needs cleaning.

[HoundofSC]

The carbon residue left in the case neck acts as a lubricant, which directly affects neck tension. Unless you can measure and adjust the leftover lubricity to a uniform level, leaving the carbon will make your neck tension variable, which will affect accuracy.

Regardless whether you tumble, in the interest of accuracy, the case neck needs cleaning.

I use a Wilson neck trimmer and use a neck reamer through the necks on fired cases. I have OCD when it comes to neck tension and concentricity

[Darkker]

My 308 that I shoot F-class, I haven't reloaded the cases in 8 reloads. No appreciable reduction in case capacity.

[RAMOS]

My 308 that I shoot F-class, I haven't reloaded the cases in 8 reloads. No appreciable reduction in case capacity.

Well that is quite a cost savings! How do you keep them firing without first reloading them? Just kidding, I know what you meant. Do it all the time myself!

[bow shot]

LOL!!

[HoundofSC]

took once fired brass, ran a bit of never dull around the neck, wiped it down with a paper towel, ran a neck reamer through it to get rid of any excess carbon, trimmed it so it was all a consistent length and went to do some load testing



for me consistent neck tension, charges weighed to .1 grains and bullet run out is a heck of a lot more important than a clean primer pocket or shiny brass.

I do the same thing with my .308 and get similar groups (.25 to .5 MOA) and the brass I am currently using is on it's 5th reload now. I do anneal every third reload