Cleaning black powder cartridges

[rfd]

what solution are you using in the ultrasonic?

hornday's u/s concentrated solution mixed with distilled water - i keep meaning to experiment with some of the online u/s solutions.

the thing for me about the u/s is that it's quiet and fast and does as good if not better a job than my rebel wet tumbler with s/s pins. i see no reason to back to wet tumbling, and i'll only use dry tumbling (with cover off) to dry off the brass after using the u/s machine.

[Gunlaker]

I realized that my posts might have been a bit misleading. I clean my schuetzen cases with soap and water, but for the higher volume stuff I use an ultrasonic and Hornady solution. I also run them through as second ultrasonic pass with cold water. I like this better than other techniques I've tried.

Chris.

[kokomokid]

hornday's u/s concentrated solution mixed with distilled water - i keep meaning to experiment with some of the online u/s solutions.

the thing for me about the u/s is that it's quiet and fast and does as good if not better a job than my rebel wet tumbler with s/s pins. i see no reason to back to wet tumbling, and i'll only use dry tumbling (with cover off) to dry off the brass after using the u/s machine.

My cases dont come that clean with Lyman u/s solution or citric acid. They look sploched and have some carbon inside near the flash hole. I tumble with SS pins for thirty minutes with armall wash wax at 20 RPM. Any longer or faster gives me peened case lips. My cases peen easily because I anneal after each firing.
I may try the Hornady cleaner. THANKS

[Big Mak]

rfd,
That was my process for a year now. I've recently purchased a wet tumbler (duel drum) off Ebay for $56 and bought some steel pins.

My first test batch (Mixed BP and smokeless brass) is mixing as I type this.

I set the timer for 3 hours.

Follow up picture soon....
Here is the before picture.

Follow up:
Here is the after, 3 hrs of tumbling. Soapy hot water and a 1/2 teaspoon of lemishine.
Also shown is the tumbler (Stole is NEW on ebay for $56) and drying the brass (and drying the steel pins for next time) in the oven I have out in the shop.
So this has essentially eliminated any need for the vibrator/tumbler with corncob.
Now I just deprime, steel pin tumbler, dry. Ready to load.
I'm very impressed with steel pin tumbling!







BEFORE

[Eric Johanen]

I'm somewhat different. I keep my cases dry. No damage to them and I can clean them next day or 2 or 3 days later. Hot soap and water, bottle brush for interior and #4 steel wool for the outside. When they get too brown (5 or 6 reloads) I wet tumble with the SS pins. Have not lost any cases with this method. Some have been reloaded well over 100 times. Mom always used to say (dust will keep if you don't get it wet!) With in reason it works for black powder cartridges as well. I have left some as long as a week with no damage.

[yulzari]

I just take them home. Wash them sometimes days later wiping the insides with a bore swab. Dry and dry tumble them in a cheap Lyman tumbler for a couple of hours. Not lost any in over 3 years. Never anneal. Never size. Hand load with no press. Maybe the solution to the problem is that there is no problem?

Fastest is the British Army standard musket paper cartridges. Faster to make than reloading brass and no cleaning except swabbing out the bore with wet tow and drying it with dry tow. Then clean the tow and reuse it.
As Shirley Conran said: "life is too short to stuff mushrooms".

[Lead pot]

When June comes around I load up the Gypsy wagon and head west to shoot the Big Hill match at Baker Montana then head off the the Quigley match in Forsyth Montana and back to the Big Hill for the second shoot. I end up with a 5 gallon bucket full of empty brass. I cober the bucket with a lid to keep the air off as much as I can till I get back home. I deprime them before I fill the bucket with water to let them soak a couple hours and run them through a tumbler with mix of ceramic and SST pins with a squirt of Dawn and a little Lemishine and they come out looking like new.
I wont put the cases in a jug with water and shake the cases, all that does is peen the case mouth edges.

[Nobade]

You got a lot of brass! 😁

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[flint45]

I like to use water and simple green, that's also what i clean my barrel with works great and very fast.I clean the barrel with strait simple green just soak the patch.