cleaning .45 colt cases

[JuliettDeltaGolf]

I intend to check out the spot cleaner method talked about in recent thread, but I'm posting this anyways to see if some of y'all have any other ideas.
Sooo. This po' boy don't have a rotary tumbler, or the cash to get one right now...**although it's on my list. I do have a vibratory tumbler.

OK, so here's the problem: I'm getting a slight build-up of BP crud inside my cases, and it's causing too much friction on when seating boolits, and the soft lead boolits get deformed. I turned a top punch (?) for my seating die that matches my boolit, but the boolits still swell. I am NOT compressing too much powder with my boolit, and I HAVE NO PROBLEMS with clean cases or once-fired smokey-less**brass. I am sizing to .452, and using a standard LEE powder-through expander die.**

What is the easiest way to get the INSIDES of my cases free of crud, short of using a rotary tumbler with ceramic or SS media? Any household cleaners that'll dissolve the junk? I'm not worried about the brass being stained from BP, I just want it clean enough to reload easily.

[Dan Cash]

I am using water and a powered rotating brush. Am very interested in your findings.

[country gent]

I give my bpcr rifle cases a short soak of 1/2 hour to 45 minutes in dawn dish soap and lemishine. 1/4 teaspoon dawn 1 tablepoon granulated lemishine in hot water. removes alot of the fouling. Rinse several times with hot water. A light brushing with a bronze or nylon bore brush whike wet will get the rest. Let dry well and if you want the shine a trip threw the vibratory tumbler with a little nu finish. Hot tap water will work but boiling or close is better to start with.

[w5pv]

I wash mine in soapy water rinse and then do the citric acid wash with hot water for a few seconds,cleans them pretty doggone good

[jgh4445]

Saw a great u tube vid by a guy named "cap and ball". He uses and OXY cleaner and it does a jam up job. Look for his channel and watch. Amazing how it foamed all of the BP residue out.

[boommer]

used oxy clean before a few times I didn't see that it did that great of job, so I left the wife's landry soap alone when back to dawn.

[bigted]

im also in the Dawn camp. I have a water bottle filled with plain ol water and a short squirt of dawn in and shaken ... not stirred.

when I get em home ... I squirt down my weapons with ballistol mix to soak while I clean my cases. easy to do ... just use hot tap water to rinse repeatedly and then over the gas burner for a fast dry ... then if I want shiny I vibrate em in an old Lyman vibrator cleaner. if I see residue clinging to the inside ...[very rarely]... I have a brass cleaning bore brush that I attach to either a drill or my Lyman rotory tool and brush the dry cases out with that. ... done and done. easy n cheap ... rite up my alley.

[bedbugbilly]

I don't reload the 45 Colt but am very familiar with BP fouling. Could you not soak your cartridge cases in hot soapy water and then chuck a 45 caliber bronze cleaning brush in a drill press or similar and do a quick in and out on the casing? Then rinse well? I would think that would clean it out in a hurry.

For many years, I have used a mixture of hot water, liquid dish soap and a little Windex mixed in. It does a great job of clean up on my rBP rifles and BP revolvers.

[13Echo]

For my BPCR shooting I keep a container of water with a squirt of dish soap handy. I decap at the range and toss the cases in the jug and give a shake every now and then to make certain everything is well soaked. At home I rinse with warm water and use a nylon bristle primer pocket brush and a test tube brush to make certain the pocket and inside of the case is clean of residue then the damp, not wet, cases go into the tumbler of walnut damp with two or three caps full of mineral spirits for one or two hours. Come out dry, clean, shiny and ready to load. The test tube brush is designed to clean out the bottom of a tube, unlike a bore brush which doesn't have bristles extending ahead of the tip.

Jerry Liles

[TXGunNut]

Put me in the KISS camp. I deprime when I get home and drop them in a juice jug with a tiny squirt if dish soap. Then I cover them with hot water and give them a good shake. I let them soak while I clean the guns and then shake again, rinse and let dry. Sometimes I stick them in a 250 degree oven for awhile. I generally toss them in a vibratory cleaner for an hour of so but it's not necessary.

[Russ M]

Like the men said, hot water and Dawn. I use a nylon bristled brush meant for test tubes on the inside, good clear hot water rinse, set them in the sun or next to the woodstove depending on the time of year and keep on going. No big deal.

Russ

[Crash_Corrigan]

I drag along a Lee Hand press with a universal decapping die and remove the primer immediately. Then the fired case goes into a gallon jug of water and dawn detergent. I give the jug a shake from time to time. Then at home I put them all into my Thumbler's Tumbler with lemishine, dawn and hot water for a two hour run. Decant the whole magillah into a Dillon Case Separator, give them a rinse and repeat with a new load of dawn, water and lemishine.

Cases stay in excellent condition and as they cost dearly in 50-90 I tend to baby them a lot.

[rbertalotto]

At the range, a jug of water with a squirt of Dawn.
When I get home, rotatary tumbler and stainless steel pins, water and Dawn. Let tumble a few hours (3) and they come out looking better than new!