I stick a Sinclair primer pocket uniformer in my cordless drill and it gets them clean as a whistle unless the pocket is so deep that the uniformer won't hit the bottom--It's probably not necessary, but when it won't hit the bottom I use that as my 'standard' for primer pockets, and I pitch the case if it doesn't get cleaned by the uniformer.
Take care--Don

I just tumble my cases in rice. The cheapest stuff you can find works great.
Al

I've read all of these and they sound pretty good for cleaning the outside of the case. But how do I get the primer pocket clean? Presently, I scrape every one of them with my RCBS primer pocket brush (a stiff, wire brush about 1/8" long) and it takes a long time. Any suggestions?

Don't know if this has been tried before, but I just cleaned a bunch of .45-70 brass in the dishwasher! Came out sparkling clean on the outside, and for the most part, on the inside too. After reading different recipes for brass cleaning using dish detergent, lemon juice, vinegar and various concoxtions, thought it would be easy in the dishwasher with all the little pegs in there to slip brass over. Maybe a presoak in one of the solutions and then wash in the washer.....I think it's gonna work for me, no need to buy a tumber and cleaning media, already have what I need in the kitchen, just need to run it while the wife is at work, she'll never know.....

I use Fast Orange hand cleaner. Apply it on a rag or paper towel and twist each case in the rag between your fingers. It cleans fast, leaves brass bright and shiny; NO drying time. I haven't tried mixing it with water for a tumbling solution though.

I dug out approx. 50 cases my son had stowed away several years ago. To say the least they were a mess and in no way did I want to drop them in the tumbler in that condition. Tried a mixture recommended from another forum of hot tap water and cider vinegar for 15 minutes. Hot Dog! did it ever work. Pulled brass out of solution and rolled on paper towel and then dumped in tumbler. Looks like new brass. I'll be using this recipe in the future.

From my own limited experience, I've found immersion cleaning to be a bit of a pain, though it was cheap. I never really felt comfortable about the salt aspect of various homebrew cleaners.
Tumbling provides many advantages. You can quickly tumble off a bit of grime prior to resizing, then tumble again in walnut, followed by corn media for a factory fresh look. Tumbling allows immediate inspection of the end result, and if you're not happy, throw 'em back for a few more hours. As others say, walnut media from a pet store is inexpensive, and you can experiment with various additives. Currently, I'm adding a little "Turtle" automotive bug-and-tar remover to my mix, with excellent results. Additionally, a little paint thinner works well, and I've found about 10ccs of minimally abrasive "Meguire's" automotive #3 polish added to the walnut does a good job on seriously dirty brass. If you tumble all day, large primer pockets don't require any more attention, unless you're cooking up some super-dooper match ammo.
A word about using rice. It works OK, but if it compacts into the primer pockets, or jams in the flashholes, it suddenly isn't such a good idea. Another thing, don't add any solvent to rice. I thought adding a little alcohol might be a novel idea. What I got was a bunch of 44 mag, 45 ACP, and 30-06 cases swimming around in a kind of rice porridge. I didn't add much alcohol either, but it was enough to dissolve out the rice starch. I had to hand clean the starch off every case.
Finally, you can tumble finished pistol rounds, or just projectiles if they look a little off-color. Midway also sells those tumbler moly-coating kits, or you can put an appropriate number of projectiles into a plastic 35mm film cannister, and add a little moly powder, pop the cap on and tumble in regular media for moly coated projectiles.
Have fun, Cheeky.

Flash holes clean up with a coulpe of twists of the Sinclair pocket uniformer, it's carbide so you will only need to buy one unless you lose it. They make an adaptor to fit it in a cordless screwdriver, it works well.

I am not convinced that washing brass with clothes is a good idea , due to lead contamination. I am sure washing brass in a dishwasher is a bad idea for the same reason.
Much of the lead contamination reloaders are exposed to comes not from the bullets, but from the primer residue ( which is burned lead styphnate compound ) tumbler dust is also a hazard.


Travis F.