"It's been in the family for years!"
*Wet Tumbling Without a Tumbler*
By: GVI
31October 2024
About the only preparedness case to be made for reloading ammunition is that we may as well reuse our brass; and since we're reusing the brass, the space necessary to store the separate components is somewhat less than that necessary to store the equivalent amount of assembled ammo. There's a cost savings; but since components have become more expensive recently (and occasionally as hard to find as "factory" ammunition), the savings is marginal unless you're already set up vis-à-vis equipment. Reloading equipment pays itself off over time, but if you're only just now starting to set up your "bench," it will take longer to do so than someone who has been reloading for a while.
Withal, I still reload. It's a practice that inculcates the virtue of thrift and good stewardship. It tends, with experience, to produce ammunition which is more consistent than factory ammo - every serious competition target-shooter "rolls their own" and so, I learned some years ago, do military snipers, especially for cartridges like .50BMG. It can become its own hobby, and experienced reloaders have as much knowledge & expertise on the process of creating good ammo as anyone at the factories your ammo presently comes from. Lastly, there's the pride-of-accomplishment that comes of any pastime where you're making things for yourself that most others go buy at "the store," wherever the store is.
So much for reloading in general.
The only fully reusable component in modern centerfire ammunition is the brass case. As sure as God made little green apples, someone is bound to point out that the lead is "technically" reusable. Rubbish. I cast my own bullets for two of my guns and I'm about to start casting for a third. One thing I won't do is go downrange and try to fish the lead out of the backstop. That's just ridiculous, especially as I shoot at a public range. The range operators may be able to glean a fraction of the lead sent downrange, but an outdoor range can never get even close to all of it, and unless you own the range, you're unlikely to see any of it.
We need not even consider the self-evident absurdity of lead used in hunting or self-defense ammunition.
"It's been in the family for years!"
Let's briefly talk about the cases and the reloading process. When you buy a box of "factory" ammo, the cases are of course new-made and, depending on the maker, can be as shiny as the instruments in a concert band. There are good reasons for clean brass which go beyond simple appearance. Clean brass loads consistently and predictably in the chamber. It doesn't damage the chamber or produce excessive wear. In reloading, it goes into the several dies smoothly and without damaging them; since reloading dies need not withstand the pressure of firing, they can be made of grades of steel that are unfit for gun chambers.
Clean cartridge cases also reduce wear and damage to the case itself. Brass is of course softer than any grade of steel. When reloading, one of the first dies restores the spent brass case to its pre-fired dimensions. The case must be lubricated to feed smoothly into and out of the die; a dirty or excessively rough case increases the friction between case and die, sometimes to the point where it cannot be removed without destroying the case. This is especially true with larger cartridges, owing to their greater surface area. It's also more physical work to operate a loading press with dirty cases than it is with clean ones.
If you are the type of shooter who, like a good friend of mine, never lets their "good" brass fly off to land on the ground, you can get away with not cleaning the cartridge case for a while. Then again, if you're that kind of shooter, you're probably going to clean the cases anyway. I'm not that kind of shooter, mostly. My brass goes wherever it goes and I "police it up" afterward. What's more, I get my brass wherever I can lay my hands on it. Most comes from factory ammo I just shot; the rest is often stuff I picked up from a vendor at a gun show - I don't buy new-made brass. I will end up tossing one or two, but most vendors who cater to reloaders do this picking-and-sorting already. It's in their interest to do so, since a fellow with a reputation for passing off "crap brass" will see his business dry up.
The standard way to clean brass cases is in a "dry tumbler" with a slightly abrasive "medium" like ground up corncob or walnut shell. A typical tumbler looks like a salad bowl with an electric motor underneath.
You put the brass and the media in the bowl, close the cover and turn it on. The motor agitates the bowl's contents somehow; and after a spell, you turn out the contents and separate the "media" out, revealing cartridge cases that are clean inside and out. There are also rotary tumblers whose action is exactly like that of your home's clothes dryer. You can also buy a "separator" that looks like the thing the guy at the bingo parlor rotates to tumble the bingo balls. This is set atop a small bucket, and is used to easily separate the media from the brass, and keep the media ready for use in the bucket afterward.
I don't own any of these things. They cost money I don't care to spend, and the media must be replaced when it gets too schmutzig to effectively clean the brass. What's more, the media cannot, so I gather, be used for anything else except perhaps compost or maybe "dry-sweep" for a garage floor - I don't know. I certainly have no use for it at Chez GVI.
There is a similar process called "wet tumbling" which uses the rotary tumbler above but with a watertight container. Frankford Arsenal sells a wet-tumbling solution - which I only know because I just looked it up for this article. Search for "wet tumbling solution" online and you'll find the majority of results relate to a homemade solution containing dish soap and a mild acid like citrus cleaner or lemon juice. Vinegar is a similar mild acid, and many "recipes" suggest it.
An acid is an acid. The thing it's reacting with doesn't know or care whether it came from lemons or distilled alcohol. You could use Coca-Cola for all I know, which is better for you than drinking the stuff. No matter what, dish soap and a mild acid works; and since I go through a LOT of vinegar here - not just for cooking but for cleaning and other household uses - this is what goes into my own solution.
The process in wet tumbling is similar to dry tumbling, with the extra step of rinsing off and drying the brass. In addition to the wet tumbling machine, Frankford Arsenal will sell you a "brass dryer" that looks like a kitchen dehydrator and I'm sure that's exactly what it is, just colored differently so you're not tempted to confuse your machine with the one your wife would divorce you over if she caught you using hers instead. I don't own one of these either; potable water does nothing to brass, and letting it air dry on an old towel is perfectly fine.
It's pure conjecture on my part, but I suspect the brass dryer is a lot like those products one sees on commercial television that show "Clumsy White People" struggling with simple household processes. Most of these products were invented for people with disabilities; but since this market is too small to turn a profit, they end up advertised as conveniences for "GenPop" klutzes. In like manner, the "brass dehydrator" was probably developed with the small-scale commercial or municipal reloader primarily in mind, but it makes its money from private citizens who can't pass up the allure of a nifty new machine on their bench. Perhaps all the cleaning machines I just discussed started out like this.
Both processes will get your brass clean in 30 minutes to an hour. What I'm about to describe does the exact same thing, but it takes overnight. I don't see this as a disadvantage. I consider myself pretty imaginative, but I can conjure up no conditions where one who is not a commercial reloader needs to clean and polish brass for reloading with anything like a sense of urgency. If your time is so closely accounted for that you can't wait overnight to get clean brass, your problem isn't that this process doesn't get your brass clean quickly enough - your problem is you're too doggoned busy!
First, assemble your materials:
* This process will also work on nickel-plated brass. I've never considered steel cases (such as from Russian ammo) to be worth reloading, and a fair number of trustworthy sources recommend against reloading steel cases. Of those few who acknowledge that it's possible, they are nearly unanimous in saying it's more difficult and not cost-effective, and I agree.
The procedure is this simple:
The photos below show some of my results. The first is of some VERY messy .30-06 cases.
This is once-fired Greek military surplus. I bought a couple cases' worth when CMP was selling them for under 50 cents apiece. Those days are over but it's still possible to keep the cost reasonable. They didn't look like this out of the can, but they were indifferently stored after firing. The ones on top are for comparison's sake. They were dry-tumbled and polished some time ago by a friend. This sample sets the standard for what a dry-media tumbler can do.
This is after about five hours. A bit of improvement.
This is after 24 hours. The solution is much more turbid. Agitating after all this time still brings up bubbles swirling around the cases, but the cases themselves show no signs of improvement over the last couple hours. I attribute the bubbling to causes other than that of the solution still working.
This is the finished product after 24 hours, rinsed and drying.
I listed the colander as optional because I use a strainer, leaving the brass in the same container for rinsing. I rinse until I see no more soap bubbles in the water - if I rinsed the cases in a colander, I could never be sure I didn't leave trace amounts of soap. It might not affect reloading but why worry?
One thing a dry tumbler can do that this method can't do is polish your brass. A polishing compound can be added to the dry media after the brass has been cleaned. Unlike cleaning, polishing can take several hours. As you can see, these cases are clean but still tarnished - some more, some less. I was pleased to discover that all came out smooth. Several of the cartridges had what looked for all the world like corrosion; but after cleaning in the solution, I found no evidence of it. If your cases have tarnish that might adversely affect reloading or chambering (only a handful out of a batch will have this), a quick going over with 0000 steel wool will take care of it - there's no need for any polishing compound.
Here are two cases from a batch of .38spl I cleaned before I attempted the .30-06. One is merely clean, while the other is polished. Neither were in very bad shape to begin with. Perhaps the guy I bought them from tumbled them before sale - who knows? It isn't necessary to polish clean cases; the only ones who might need to are those who reload for resale or perhaps police agencies who reload range ammo in-house. Either can be reloaded just fine.
Dry tumbler manufacturers recommend de-priming the cases before cleaning and polishing. This is probably to help ensure all the media is removed afterward. The majority of my .30-06 brass was de-primed, but it was the opposite case for the .38spl shown above. It may help cleaning by allowing the solution to flow through the cartridge, and it may quicken drying. I can't say with certainty.
Because the process doesn't need to be done often, it doesn't need dedicated equipment. The container you see in the photos is currently in my recycling bin. It's nearly the perfect size for my needs, but there is already too much stuff cluttering up Chez GVI. I'm not about to keep a dirty, empty plastic food container sitting around just because it did a good job. I'm certain I'll be able to lay my hands on something just as good and just as cost-free the next time I need to do this.
This brass-cleaning business need not be done very often. My .30-30 brass has been fired several times and all I've ever needed to do is swab out the primer pockets. Storing unloaded brass cases under the same conditions you store your ammo will alleviate much of the need. "Wet Tumbling Without a Tumbler" is mostly for improperly stored brass, or brass that was gleaned from a range.
Likewise, this method isn't for those who reload in large volumes, or who reload primarily for others' use. It also isn't for those who can't pass up buying a machine like a "brass dehydrator," whether they need it or not. But for those of us who don't need to be so meticulous, those who salvage range brass and reload in moderate quantities, and who can resist "The Call of the Shiny New Thing," the "Wet Tumbling Without a Tumbler" method is effective and very inexpensive.
GVI
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