Favorite way to clean cases?

[treebeard]

Having just come back from shooting my 1873 Trapdoor with BP charged cases just wondering what the forum members favorite means of cleaning them are. Right now I have them in hot water with a little dawn soap. Had a lot of fun getting them dirty.

[Coffinmaker]

Hiya Treebeard   

Yule probably get at least a dozen answers.  However, My foolproof system is easy.  Warm/Hot water inna downstairs bathroom sink.  Enough to cover the cartridges completely, then dump in about 25 or 30 precent more WHITE VINEGAR.  Go away.  Set a timer for a half hour.  Go back and rinse.  Throw em onna cookie sheet (with raised sides) and stick em inna 190 degree small oven for an hour and a half to dry.  Throw em inna Dillon tumbler.  Done. 

Same same routine for ALL my fired BP cases.  Rifle, Pistol, Shotgun ..... everything.

[hellgate]

What Coffinmaker said except I skip the vinegar. Let 'em tumble a bit longer to lighten the patina if desired.

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[greyhawk]

citric acid in a ultrasonic jewellery cleaner gadget - you will be amazed at the gunk that comes out the innards of what ya thought was clean brass - still need to follow up with some kind of tumbler deal if ya want em shiny outside.

adding a ps to this
question was favourite way .......? I dont have a favourite way just do what I do cuz this is what I have to do it with and it works

[Bunk Stagnerg]

I am thinking  about getting am ultrasonic cleaner to de-crap-ulate the breech block of my percussion Sharps.
There is no doubt that the path for the cap flash is pretty dirty even though I use pipe cleaners and tooth picks.
That should work or am I on the wrong path here?
Bunk

[greyhawk]

I am thinking  about getting am ultrasonic cleaner to de-crap-ulate the breech block of my percussion Sharps.
There is no doubt that the path for the cap flash is pretty dirty even though I use pipe cleaners and tooth picks.
That should work or am I on the wrong path here?
Bunk

Bunk
I got this little one off ebay for about 25 bucks (had a bigger one previous but it died) - this n dont look much, dont hold much but its got more power that the other and I been cleaning brass in it for 2 years now (I shoot often but not usually a lot of shots) its little ! the base of it will only take a dozen or so 45/75 cases - I usually set it for 15 minutes on dirty brass.   

[ira scott]

A session in the Thumlers Tumbler with dawn dish soap/H20 and stainless steel pins makes the brass look new inside and out, primer pockets included. I really like the ultrasonic cleaners(mine was a $60 Harbor Freight model) for cleaning cap and ball cylinders. I do remove the nipples and relubricate the threads afterwards to prevent seizure.   

[Lucky R. K.]

I dump the fired cases into a container containing water and a few drops of dish washing soap. When I get home I rinse the cases twice with water and pour them out onto a shop towel. I then blot the worst of the water from them and throw them into a tumbler containing dry walnut hull media. After adding about two teaspoons of mineral spirits I let them tumble overnight. They come out looking like new brass. No patina at all.

Lucky

[Yeso Bill]

Maybe it is the low humidity here (probably the magnum primers I use) but my dirty cases (44-40) have baked on powder in the bottom of the cases that swishing around in various concoctions does not remove.  So, I do it the hard way and soak them in hot water / detergent / vinegar and then by hand use a 45 bore brush with steel wool on the end.  Then they go in the Hornady ultrasonic gizmo and sometimes, even then, it doesn't remove it all and I go over them again with the brush.  So, I work too hard obtaining clean cases but the insides are spotless.

If its winter, they will spend the night in a biscuit pan on top of old Blackie, the wood cook-stove.  If I need them in a hurry, I'll dry them with the hair dryer.  That just takes a couple of minutes.  (I also use the hair dryer to dry the bores on my rifles) 

If they are really grungy, I'll then tumble a batch when I get enough of them.   

My saving grace is I am not cleaning a lot of cases like you cowboy shooters are.  30 would be a big afternoon. 

Billy 

[Dave T]

I have always dropped my fired BP cases in a jug, jar, or other container of water with a little soap at the range. Used to use Dawn but lately I've put a dollop of Simple Green in there. When I get home I fill a bucket about 1/3 full of water and put another dollop of SG in that one. I use that soapy water to clean my revolvers. When they're done it's time for the brass. I shake up what's in the jug, then dump out that dirty water. I drop all the cases in the bucket with the less dirty soapy water, then take a 1/2" bristle brush and run it in the case mouth a couple times. Then I drop the case in clean water in another bucket/jug/container. I shake that to rinse, dump, then spread the brass out on an old towel. In my dry climate they will be dry by the next day. When I have enough, I tumble them in media with a little brass cleaner added. They come out nice and shiny and ready to reload.

Dave

[rickk]

drop in a gallon milk jug filled with soap and water while at the range.

Rinse when I get home (hot water) and let them dry for a few days.

Clean in my tumbler

[Dick Dastardly]

Deprime using my Tower of Power cylinder loading stand with decaping attachment.  Tumble with water and tumbling soap and SS pins.  Change media and tumble again with ceramic porcelain media and tumbling solution.  Drain, separate and tumble with corn cob media in a shaker to dry.  Brass is completely clean and sparkling inside and out.  I really like loading shiny clean ammo at the match.

DD-MDA

[Drydock]

Deprime at the range, drop in jug of Soapy water.  Rinse with cold water to kill the suds when I get home, then set in the sun to dry.  Or in a toaster oven on low heat.  Tumble in walnut media for an hour of so.

[greenjoytj]

I like being the fired cases home in their storage box.
Inspect them in their dirty state.
Brush off any sand.
De-prime with a LEE universal decaping die.
Clean the primer pockets.
Soak cases in water + Dawn dish detergent.
Brush the inside of the cases with a brush spun with a cordless drill. The brush is mounted in a 4 inch long piece of cleaning rod. Brushing done under running water at the laundry tub.
The spinning brush removes most of the fouling.
Tumbling with stainless steel pins 3 to 4 hours with Cascade dishwasher powder detergent, plus TSP, plus a little Lemi-shine powder.
I spread the cleaned cases out on Walmart grade cotton towels roll them round to dry the outside.
Twist a sheet of paper towel inside each case to speed up the drying.
Inspect the clean dry cases.

[Capt Quirk]

I just buy new cartridges... Does that make me a bad guy? 

[Gabriel Law]

I use warm soapy water to clean my black powder brass cases.  I use a pair of hemostats and a piece of Scotch Brite in the jaws to scrub out the fouling in the water, rinse 'em in clean warm water, spread 'em on a towel to get the outside's more or less dry, and them in a shallow pan on my single burner hot plate to dry the insides.  Then it's into a tumbler with walnut shell media to polish for a couple of hours.

I am careful not to cleanj my 45 Colt cases at the same time I'm doing 44-40.  I learned the hard way that a 45 Colt case will jam a 44-40 rifle instantly.