[Reloader]

I have not tried this but it sounds reasonable. A friend of mine at a local shoot mentioned that when his brass is extremely dirty, such as stuck on mud or sand, he uses rice in his tumbler. Cheap enough to use more than once. I thought it was worth passing on to all the reloaders on the forum. Anyone ever use this method?

 

[X-Ring]

No but that is a interesting idea I may have to try to see how it works.

 

[msredneck]

I just soak it in a bucket of water, rinse it in a collander...let it air dry

tumble

 

[Shine68]

anyone try using one of those ultrasonic brass cleaners?

 

[bubbat]

Rice should clean it, we used rice powder(rice flour) in cotton gins to get the rust off the gin stand saws and slick everything up at the beginning of the gin season.

 

[Doug Bowser]

I don't usually tumble brass. In the olde days of bullseye pistol shooting, if your brass is shiny, other shooters would pick it up. Mine was clean but tarnished and no-one ever took mine.

Doug

 

[Reloader]

I believe the whole idea of using rice was not to polish but rather to knock off all the mud and debris. I know where we shoot at Saltillo the mud is very hard to remove from brass if it is the very least moist.

 

[msredneck]

anyone try using one of those ultrasonic brass cleaners?

I hear they work well...but I'd only need to use it for rifle brass....I aint that worried about pistol

 

[nonnieselman]

I have used rice a few times. It works ok. But nothing like corn cob media with a lil flitz added.
I do a bunch of loading for Confederate Ordnance's machine guns and if the brass is nice and clean it doesnt take much lube at all to run it thru the small base sizing die easy.
And alot of our shooting is around sand and dirt. So the brass is nasty when its picked up.

For my 6.8 i only load a hand full at a time just testing diff loads and such, i use some fine steel wool to remove anything on the case and them a paper towel to clean it, then trim it. All that is done in the Zip trim so it doesnt take long at all.

 

[Lt.Dan]

I tumble all mine then soak it in lemi-shine and dish soap for a few hours then rinse it and stick it on a dedicated cookie sheet and stick it in the oven on low temp for a while to dry it all out. I havent needed to clean a primer pocket yet.

 

[savageshooter]

our senior RSO at the range told me to use a little amonia and water and let the brass soak a whrass in the sun andile and set the brass in the sun and let them dry. it works.

 

[Reloader]

I don't believe ammonia and brass go together. It damages the brass chemically causing hardness which eventually causes cracks. Google brass and ammonia to find different articles.

 

[SJ]

I did try the rice and for me it did not work at all. I will stay with walnut media.

 

[locrawlr]

I prefer to clean thoroughly with walnut and dillon case polish and then follow up with clean corn cob. The walnut does a great job of cleaning and knocking the crud off and the corn cob puts a smooth, slick finish on the brass.

 

[X-Ring]

Got a Hornady Ultrasonic cleaner for Christmas. Does a good job gets the black residue out of the inside of the cases. It advertises as being able to clean 100 .308 brass at one time but found it to do better if you only load about 50 at a time.

 

[msredneck]

Got an Ultrasonic cleaner on my "hit list"

50 rifle brass at a time is fine

Its the inside of the cases that it is suppose to excel at

 

[captain-03]

I did try the rice and for me it did not work at all. I will stay with walnut media.

I am with ya!! Didn't do much good for me ....