I am new to reloading.
I have just fired my new reloads and was wondering if I am supposed to clean the cartridge(tumble) everytime it is fired.
The cartridge I use are new Norma's in 260 Rem.
Do I just have to inspect them and clean the primer hole?
Or after a few times then tumble them?
Thanks for your answers

With rifle cartridges, I wipe any sand off of them, lube and resize them, and wipe the cases down to clean them with an old towel and alcohol to clean off lube and magic marker info on case. This pretty sell cleans them up.

I only tumble pistol brass and scrounged brass which has been on the ground and collected sand.

Kudude

Well no - you don't HAVE to clean them each time. However, you probably spent a few bucks on dies - why run dirty cases through them that could possibly damage the dies? I don't normally clean the primer pockets until I trim the cases.

I try to tumble the cases before I reload them. Barring that, I at least wipe them off good, so no crud messes up the dies.

I usually tumble my fired brss before reloading to preserve my dies. The length of time depends on how dirty they are. I then lube size, trim the cases and clean the primer pockets. I then tumble the cases again prior to priming and loading.

Each to his own.

Thanks a milion for all your replies!
How about the inside of the cartridge?
After it is fired is the inside pretty much clean?
Seems like the outside is of more concern because of the dies..
Thanks again!
E35

Don`t worry too much about the inside of your brass. The tumbler won`t clean them out, and the little bit of carbon is out of the way and hurts nothing. I do however run a neck brush in the case mouths every couple of loadings.

I don't know about this tumbling before you resize to "save" your dies. I've dies that I've been using for over 45 years that are still in fine shape and all I do prior to resizing is wipe the cases down with a soft cloth. I do mount a proper sized bore brush in a drill and brush out the necks every time. Next I lube (a little in the neck too) and resize. Then I tumble to remove the resizing oils. The media moving around inside the case does indeed have a cleaning action. It's not going to leave the inside of the case shiny bright but any loose carbon will be removed leaving only a dark patina on the inner walls. The action of depriming and the tumbling pretty much takes care of any residue in the primer pocket. And too, I've yet to prove to myself that cleaning primer pockets does anything except waste time.
Your mileage may vary and your definition of wasting time may differ. But that's what makes a horese race.

I prime my cases at the same time I FL size. then in to the tumbler. I hate trying to get media out of the primer pocket and have not had a primer detonate in my tumbler yet.

There are some good reasons to use a tumbler. If you want to clean a lot of cases and have better things to do than sit around and wipe off each case a tumbler works well. Adding polishes or other liquids to walnut shell media only increases the mess and expense along with making it more likely that media will remain in the case after tumbling.

Walnut media and a couple dashes of bon ami or comet will do a good job on the cases and the media lasts forever.

You should be aware that there is some chance that tumbling could expose you to lead dust (from the priming compound that settles inside the case) when you separate the cases from the media and that lead dust can build up inside the tumbler.

I take that warning semi-seriously and use my tumbler in a very well ventilated garage, leaving the top off to let dust out during tumbling. I vacuum up the dust in a shop vac from time to time. I want the all dust out of the media anyway as the particles of walnut shell dust in the media are not doing any cleaning. The media is going to shed some dust as part of the process. I doubt that I've lost many IQ points to lead over the years. I'm sure I've lost a lot more to creeping geezeritis.

I've never seen any evidence that a clean case shoots better than a dirty one. I know a couple of commercial reloaders and tried out their ammo. One cleans cases and charges about $.02
more per round than the one who does not clean cases. They shot the same and neither one has ruined any dies that I know of.

I got in the habit of tumbling all my cases when I was shooting a lot of matches. I wanted clean cases so that when I rolled them for concentricity I was measuring the actual metal of the neck and not getting false readings from grit. Also, the grit could get in the follower tip of the tool I was using and that would not be good. Any cases that ended up on the ground definitely needed to be cleaned.

Irish, how do you know that there isn't a little piece of media stuck in the flash hole from the inside??
One of these days, I'm gonna deliberately leave a piece of media in the flashhole to see what effect it has on the finished round when you fire it.

quote:

Originally posted by stillbeeman:
Irish, how do you know that there isn't a little piece of media stuck in the flash hole from the inside??
One of these days, I'm gonna deliberately leave a piece of media in the flashhole to see what effect it has on the finished round when you fire it.

I'd bet a nickle against a donut hole that a primer will have little difficulty moving the media and firing the cartridge

Never thought of that! No miss fires yet

As long as the cases are clean, so you won't damage your sizing die, there is no need to tumble brass. I would, as others have mentioned, wipe off the cases before sizing so as to be sure there is no grit on the case that can damage a die. I tumble brass often because I like for it to look nice, but it won't make it shoot any better.