Howdy, I.Will! And y'all others, too!
Call me weird. I've been called MUCH worse. I LIKE shiney brass: however, CLEAN and grit-free is much more important!
I've tried many things. I quit taking a bottle of liquid to the range so I wouldn't have so much to carry out of the truck. (Hey - when ya walk with a cane like me this becomes more important!)
When I've got everything unloaded, I do the standard thing: I dump all the fired cases in a jar with some kind of soap'n water in it. The soap just makes the cleaning a little easier, 'cause as I understand it, the WATER is what neutralizes the salts created by firing: I suppose you could simply rinse them in water and get the same effect. Anyhoo, I have a jug with H2O and Simple Green. I chose Simple Green 'cause I have a gallon jug of it! Dish soap or hand soap I believe would do about as well.
Whan they've soaked and I've shaken 'em enough (I've left 'em in the solution as long as a week) I rinse 'em thoroughly about 4 times and then spread them on an old towel to dry.
Now some will tell you to use walnut media, uncooked rice, throw 'em in wet and tumble without the primers and other ways. I won't dispute them, 'cause I'm bettin' that ALL those methods work. What I do is this: I bought some cleaning media called
"Tuffnut." (Lyman sells it, I believe.) When I used it the first time I DIDN'T like it! It has a red polishing rouge impregnated in it that seemed to get all over and it really didn't clean/polish any better than what I was using before; pet store crushed walnut & a little paint thinner to clean, and pet store crushed corncob with Midway liquid polish to shine. Well, Jeff I says to myself - for indeed, that is my name
let's try this
Tuffnut again. This time, I added a bit of paint thinner/brushcleaner to the mix and it was great!
Tuffnut is crushed walnut, but more coarse than what is sold as cleaner by Midway, etc. or the pet stores.
Well, that's whut I do. After using BP I don't think it's POSSIBLE to get them free of all stains, unless you use the ceramic stuff that Dick Dastardly sells, but this
Tuffnut does a great job. And it works on smokey-less cases, too! (Yes, I still use smokey-less powder: I actually have and shoot guns that aren't cowboy!!
)
Keep yer powder dry! See ya at the Convention!