Hello again from the UK.
I have been shooting black powder cartridge for just over a year now and I love it. Brass here is hard to find at the current time for 45-70 so I am trying to look after my limited stock of Remington and Star. However one thing I am finding tedious and unsatisfactory in application is, and I suspect you have guessed it, cleaning up the brass afterwards!!!!!!!!!
I have read various bits on this web site and others but there does not seem to be a definitive answer as to the best method.
To date I have been soaking in water with washing up liquid after the shoot, drying off, using some Lee neck lube, neck sizing the cases with a Lyman die and then tumbling in a Lyman Orange tumbler with there standard medium. (Green )
Problems
The brass has to be tumbled for hours to remove the staining/bloom on the outside and to polish them up a little.
The tumbling seems to make no difference to the internal fouling which just builds up over successive shoots.
Trying to brush out the fouling with a bristle brush and water gets some out but is time consuming and produces uneven results and does nothing for the crud at the bottom of the case.
The primer pocket is not cleaned so has to be done separately with a special brush.
Using a wire brush in a drill creates lots of heat which I worry will damage the case and also seems to give an uneven result leaving the base uncleaned.
To speed things up I have bought an Ultrasonic machine and had one go with slightly encouraging results but :-
What solution should I use?.
Vinegar marks the cases quite badly?
Fairy Liquid seems to work to some extent?
The time in the machine appears to be a lot longer than expected to achieve a result.
The crud is softened but needs to be swabbed out it does not flow out.
The brass comes out looking really raw.
Is the process of using the ultrasonic work hardening the brass?
Now you guys will have much more experience than I have so any comments on how to speed things up and get a better result will be most helpful, however in particular I wondered if any have experience of using an Ultrasonic machine to really reduce the times involved and to get the crud out of the cases?
Adrian
PS. I am lead to believe that it is important not to over polish the outside of straight cases so they grip the inside of the chamber better. However the inside of cases should be clean to decrease the drag on the case on firing?