Drying Some .223 / 5.56 MM Brass

[billt]

This is a bunch of range pickup brass I collected on my last visit to my club range. It was all once fired laying everywhere. There was more, but my back was getting sore from bending over to pick it up. The stuff was dusty inside and out. So I put it in a few of those zippered mesh bags. (The kind women wash their bras and panties in). Then I soaked it in a couple of 5 gallon pails of hot water for about an hour.

After that I rinsed them with the hose, then spread them out as you see here with a fan on them. It will hit about 105F this afternoon. So by tomorrow morning they be dry inside and out. Then I'll full length resize and deprime them. After that they'll get run through my Giraud Powered Case Trimmer. Lastly I'll give them a good polishing, then through the Dillon they'll go.

I try to keep my range visits to Monday mornings early. There is usually a ton of .223 and 9 MM laying around from all of the weekend shooters free for the picking. So many of these guys don't reload, and just leave perfectly good once fired brass just sitting there. It sticks out like a sore thumb it's so shiny. Sometimes I'll find other calibers as well. It just depends on what they leave. Last year I found about 250 rounds of once fired 8 MM Mauser. It was all Prvi Partizan brass. Good stuff. I haven't bought any brass since I retired. And I sure am not going to spend $7.00 a box on .223 when I can reload this stuff for pennies.

[Solus]

For some help picking up that free brass, check this out 

Brass Wizard

http://www.uniquetek.com/site/696296/product/T1310


I'm on a roll!!  Thanks again, Afl


What does it take to get a valid YouTube link?

The video is at the first link

[PegLeg45]

For some help picking up that free brass, check this out 

Brass Wizard

http://www.uniquetek.com/site/696296/product/T1310

What does it take to get a valid YouTube link?

The video is at the first link

[PegLeg45]

We have used a picker from the folks at Bag-A-Nut out of Jacksonville for over twenty years to pick up pecans....they also have a division called Ammo-Up that makes units for gathering up spent ammo casings.


This is a hand unit that is on sale for $60.

http://www.ammoupusa.com/compact

[ellis4538]

Nice find!  I have lucked out a couple times a while back.  Our outdoor range was used by LEO's for qualification and practice.  A couple times we got there just after they had left.  Woops,  they were nice enough to police the brass and even nicer to leave it sit there  Hundreds of empty brass for the taking.

Richard 

[Sponsor]

[Magoo541]

Our range is used by a lot of local LEO for qualifications and trianing.  One in particular still shoots 45, so I will get out to the range as they are closing up shop for the night. I may have to use Bill's Monday Morning tactic until I get a job though 

[robert69]

I have used a final rinse, after the water bath of water, of denatured alcohol.
It's available at most paint suppliers.
I use large mouth mason jars, but most any kind of container will work.
Brass in the jar, fill container with enough alcohol, shake jar.
Using a large funnel, put a rag inside the funnel to stop any brass from going down the hole of the funnel.
Put the funnel into the can of alcohol.
Empty the alcohol from the jar back into the can of alcohol.
Put the brass on a rag outside, so the brass will dry.

That's what I do to help clean/dry the brass.
I usually will remove the primers with a RCBS de-priming die before cleaning brass because
any moisture trapped in the primer pocket will dry, and the brass usually will be clean, so my
dies don't get scratched up from dirt.

I like to have at least a thousand or more of each caliber brass resized and polished on hand
at all times.  I need to have food, firewood, and ammo on hand, in that order.

[alfsauve]

I got started in reloading and specifically in .45ACP because of range brass.   I had Monday's off and went to a little local range early in the morning.  Seems like there was this DEA agent who would shoot a box of GI .45ACP every Sunday night.   He'd pick up his brass and leave it on the table along with the box.  When I got 1,000 rounds of brass I decided to reload it.  Then it dawned on me:  "Honey, I'm going to need a 1911 so I can shoot all these reloads."

A few years back I tried to start a USPSA indoor club.  We had about 10 matches and no one but me wanted the brass.   I've still got several buckets of it.

[vincewarde]

Here's my typical treatment for brass:

For bottleneck brass:
1) Decap with Lee universal decapping die
2) If dirty, I wash in hot water with dish soap - then rinse with hot water.  Towel dry then set out on cookie sheets to air dry.
3) Resize
4) Wash as above to remove all traces of resizing lube
5) Run through viberatory cleaner to polish.
6) Prime for later loading

For for straight wall brass:
1) Decap with Lee universal decapping die
2) If dirty, I wash in hot water with dish soap - then rinse with hot water.  Towel dry then set out on cookie  sheets to air dry.
3) Run through viberatory cleaner to polish.
4) Prime for later loading on my Lee Loadmaster

The priming system on the Loadmaster is horrible, but if you prime off of the progressive press it works great.  I typically do this to handgun brass soon after firing and set them aside until I am ready to do a production run.

I have never had a problem with washing the brass.  You just have to give it time to dry.  I do always decap before washing in order to prevent any problems with the primer and to give the water another way to drain.

[billt]

This is my method for once fired brass.

1.) Soak, wash and rinse.

2.) Spread out on towel to air dry.

3.) Lube, resize, and deprime.

4.) Trim to length, and chamfer inside and out. (Giraud Power Case Trimmer does it all in one operation).

5.) Swage out crimped in primer pockets. (Dillon Super Swage 600).

6.) Tumble and polish. (Dillon FL-2000 using ground corn cob and Dillon Rapid Polish).

7.) Run through the Dillon progressive.

I use a decapping die in place of the resizing die. (They have already been resized). This assures the flash hole is clean and free of any polishing media. A decapping pin passes through the flash hole just before repriming.

Right now I'm not set up to do Stainless Steel Pin Media tumbling in high volume. All I've got is a Thumlers Tumbler with Stainless Steel Media. It does a fantastic job, making once fired brass look like never fired, brand new brass, both inside and out. But I need a bigger tumbler so I can do it in larger volume.

http://www.arrowheadlapidarysupply.com/catalog/item.php?unid=8734&prodpa=0

This is the tumbler I want. It has an 8 gallon barrel, and would be perfect for large volume Stainless Steel tumbling. It's just really hard to justify spending $722.00 on a tumbler. It is a commercial grade model used mainly for rock tumbling. It has a 65 pound capacity. That's a lot of water, pins, and brass.

I thought of going with a cheaper alternative. Like one of those small electric cement mixers from Harbor Freight. But I've heard they don't hold up to long hour usage. They're meant for small, occasional jobs. Not to be run for hours on end, like in a tumbling operation. And they're too big. I'd have to keep it on the back patio. Then your house starts looking like a hillbilly stronghold. (I would have to get a few junk cars to park in the front yard, and a couple of old washing machines).