Range "Pick Up Brass" And An Ultrasonic Cleaner

[billt]

Most everytime I go to my club range there is usually a lot of .223 and 9 MM brass left there by fellow shooters who don't reload. I pick this stuff up off the ground until my back starts getting sore. I usually bring a box when I go to put it in. When I get home I sort it out. A lot of it is dirty from laying there for God knows how long.

The first thing I do is run it through 2, 480 second cycles in my Ultrasonic Cleaner with hot water and a squirt of "Dawn" dish soap, and the stuff comes out as clean as new inside and out. I rinse them out in hot tap water, I then spread them out on a old terrycloth bath towel that has been relegated to the garage for car drying. After a few hours out in the Sun they're ready for reloading. Brass is getting expensive, and this is a great way cut costs and get to shoot more without spending any more than you have to.   Bill T.

[WatchManUSA]

If it works it sounds good.  As you probably know most reloaders use a vibrating tumbler using corncob and/or walnut media.  I'm not sure if there is any issue with powder and lead residue mixing with water.  If you only use the ultrasonic cleaner for the brass there probably isn't an issue with lead cross contamination.

[JC5123]

I've been a scavenger ever since I started reloading. Brass is by far the most expensive component and anything to cut on that cost helps. I don't have an ultrasonic cleaner so I simply dump all the brass in an old collander and rinse to get all the dirt off. Then I throw it in a tumbler for about 12 hours. Brass comes out clean and shiny. Only problem I've found is I get a lot of military brass that I can't punch the primers out of. Pain in the butt sorting it out, but still better than paying through the nose for brass. (If you can find it.)

[JC5123]

If it works it sounds good.  As you probably know most reloaders use a vibrating tumbler using corncob and/or walnut media.  I'm not sure if there is any issue with powder and lead residue mixing with water.  If you only use the ultrasonic cleaner for the brass there probably isn't an issue with lead cross contamination.

Never thought about water in the media, but I always dry my brass before dumping it into the tumbler.

[billt]

As you probably know most reloaders use a vibrating tumbler using corncob and/or walnut media.

I do as well. I use the Ultrasonic primarily to clean them inside and out. I then resize and deprime. I like to run all of my "pick up brass" through the Ultrasonic cleaner first to remove any dirt, grit, and assorted crud from the cases before I resize so not to risk scratching my dies with foreign material. After I resize and deprime them, I then put them into my tumbler, (I use a Dillon Magnum FL-2000), with corn cob media and a healthy dose of Dillon Rapid Polish. They come out better than new, and are ready to be run through my Dillon Progressive. I think I posted this before, but I bought my Ultrasonic Cleaner from Harbor Freight. It is an inexpensive model, but it works great. For anyone who might be interested, this is the model.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=95563

If you buy one sign up for Harbor Freight's E-Mails first. They send out printable 20% off coupons almost weekly.   Bill T.

[Sponsor]

[billt]

Here is a very good article on Ultrasonic case cleaning. The unit they show in the article is similar to mine, and was purchased from Harbor Freight as well.   Bill T.

http://www.6mmbr.com/ultrasonic.html

[WatchManUSA]

Never thought about water in the media, but I always dry my brass before dumping it into the tumbler.

I don't pre-clean my brass at all.  I do a pre-sort to get most of the odd brass out and try to get the sand and grit out.  Dump it in with corncob media and a little bit of brass cleaner/polish in my Lyman tumbler and let if run for a while.  In a couple of hours I check it and if it is not shinny enough I let her run a bit longer.  I reuse the media several times before starting with new.

It is dry tumbled (no water) except for the small amount of cleaner/polisher.

[GUNS-R-US]

Thanks for the info. I've been picking up brass for years, even before I started reloading. But I've always had problems with the media and cleaning the primer pocket. I hate doing them one at a time with a primer pocket brush, and if you de-prime first you always get media stuck in the primer pocket. This I'm sure will solve much of that headaches with cleaning the brass .

[billt]

I just returned from my clubs pistol range this morning. I was the only one there. I scrounged through all of the brass buckets and came home with a bunch of 9 MM once fired cases. After you've been scrounging as long as I have, the once fired stuff becomes real easy to identify.

I'm so bad one time Melanie and I were at a ATA Trap shoot and I was scrounging the 55 gallon garbage drums for 12 gauge cardboard boxes. There were a bunch of nice ones way at the bottom. I fell in digging for them. You can imagine the laughter when they saw this guys legs sticking out of this barrel. My buddy only pulled me out after he made me promise to give him half of the boxes. I had no choice!     Bill T.

[charliefarmerboy33]

In addition to reloading I cast my own bullets. I get wheel weights from my local tire shops. With this as my base I can add tin or antimony to get hardness I want. Last month I picked up approx. 155lbs of wheel weights, that works out to 957 .357 158gr SWC  or 630 .44 240gr SWC.