Wet vs Dry case cleaning

[Jcobb]

Is there anything detremental to cleaning cases with a wet solution of water, liquid dish soap, and vinegar vs. the standard tumbler media?

I cleaned using both methods tonight, on seperate batches of brass. The liquid solution cleaned faster and easier than the tumble method, and looked better (shinier) as well. I even polished the media tumbled brass with new corn cob media, and the wet cleaned brass still looks better.

I dont hear of very many people using the wet solutions so I figured there must be a reason.

Any insights?

[dyferant]

I have not heard of anyone but you doing it. What kind of tumbler are you using?

[ichy_trigger]

Just make sure there is not a single water droplet in a case when reloading.

[jdavionic]

I've tried both. I still find that using rice with a little NuFinish car polish works best. It's cheap and the cases look great, and stay looking great.

I used the Lymans cleaning solution. It was a pain having to let the cases dry out. And while the cases looked great initially, I found that they looked like crap after a month or so. They still fired fine though.

[QCATrader]

Remember, it isn't the beauty that is critical, it's the cleanliness!

I like a nice shiny case as well, but as long as the crud comes off and the bullet fits in the chamber as it should - that's all that really matters.

One thing I might like about the liquid though is that if you do the liquid cleaning after you tumble, resize and deprime it might clean the primer pockets - that's always a bit of a pain for me. Or at least it was until I got my RCBS TrimMate.

I shot a match the other day and a fellow had trouble with his primers sitting a little high and it ended up that his primer pockets were full of carbon - he never thought to clean the primer pockets.

[jdavionic]

Originally Posted by QCATrader

I shot a match the other day and a fellow had trouble with his primers sitting a little high and it ended up that his primer pockets were full of carbon - he never thought to clean the primer pockets.

I just use the primer pocket Lee tool and then hit each case with compressed air (sweeping over them in the tray) when I'm done. It's quick and I've never had any issues with the primer pockets or primer seating.

[ichy_trigger]

I never clean primer pockets on pistol brass, never had an issue. Rifle brass is another story, Im shooting for MOA.

[QCATrader]

The problems the guy had the other day was with a revolver and what happened was the primers were just high enough to hit the frame behind the cylinder, thus preventing the cylinder from rotating - not the first time I've seen that. I've never seen the problem on a pistol though.

While I love my 1911's and my XD's, I do shoot a 38 revolver (S&W 10) in PPC and a 45 revolver (S&W 25) for bullseye matches - and get a great deal of satisfaction from both!

[ichy_trigger]

Ok you got me there, I do clean the pockets on my .44 religeously

[Jcobb]

I understand that they dont have to win a beauty contest ( I like shiny brass though). My main reason for questioning this was because of the time saving issue I found it to be. I usually clean my brass when I get home from the range, and then reload later in the week. It would be dry when I get ready to reload. I guess if I had a timer switch to turn the tumbler off, if wouldnt be any difference in time, but since I dont, I have to stick around for a couple of hours while it is tumbling vs 15 minutes with the wet solution. I just want to make sure that I am not compromising the brass with the wet solution.