Benefits of cleaning cases with stainless pins

[mike H]

With a current post about obtaining stainless case cleaning supplies,I have a question about the benefit of the procedure.I am assuming it must be for accuracy,and If it is,how much improvement,can anyone show measurable improvement with pins versus wiping case clean and brushing inside of the case neck?

[Rich4]

No accuracy benefits, indeed there can be a detrimental effect from a lack of carbon coating in the neck, which is gone if you anneal every time anyway.
It’s very pretty, good way to have impressive looking brass.

[MarkS]

Mix stainless pins(hard) with brass cases(soft and then closely look inside neck. Note the peening.
Next seat a projectile then pull it and examine closely - note scratches on jacket.

As Rich4 says, the may be merit in not over cleaning brass as well.
The Berger No BS BC podcasts had a discussion on this.
https://bergerbullets.com/nobsbc/

Photos examples of stainless pin damage to inside of case neck can be found easily;
https://primalrights.com/library/articl ... -with-rice

PS. if you want really pretty brass, add a very small amount of quality car wax to any new batch of corn/walnut media you put in your vibratory tumbler. Let it mix for an hour before you add brass.

[JezL]

I have been down this road with Stainless pins and vibratory tumbling ... I now do neither, I simply wipe the necks with a rag before going through the Annealer. then a simple neck brushing inside the neck with nylon brush. This keeps the layer of carbon inside the neck "consistant" and can be seen during seating projectiles.

When using stainless tumbling, the necks got peened if left in to long, which needed chamfering and mandrel to remove. Then I had to use some form of lube/moly to get my "consistant" bullet seating back.

So what did I gain for stainless tumbling ? ... shiny brass and MORE brass prep time. I cant see a valid arguement to say SS cleaning "improves or helps accuracy" ... I actually found the opposite.
Go to a SR benchrest match ... those guys are shooting dots and simply wipe the case necks before sizing.

[jasmay]

What about removal of hardened carbon from interior of cases, which cracks off during firing and deposits down the length of your barrel, then you fire a round over the top of that & so on.

Each to their own, just like you can over anneal brass, you can over tumble it too…

[Blindbat]

Shiny......I like shiny......

The amount of caked on carbon especially inside the shoulder where it's hard to see can be substantial after only a few reloads. If not cleaned out it can build up and start flaking off and that can lead to variation in case capacity. Reforming used brass from 308 to 6.5cm or taking an Ai case back to standard surprised me with the variation in amount of flaky carbon that falls out when the brass is moved significantly. To my way of thinking, completely removing the carbon each time with pins gives the most consistent results from reload to reload.
The best argument against using pins that I can see is that it cleans the carbon from inside the neck and some rely on that to lubricate the projectile. I am not convinced this is all that important if you get your neck tension right however it is irrelevant if you Moly or HBN your projectiles. I mostly use HBN these days.

[PeteFox]

I have no experience with cleaning brass with a SS pins.
After a long time using an ultrasonic cleaner I am going back to rice in a vibratory tumbler.

What would concern me is the level of impact of the pins, which if high enough would be effectively shot peening the brass and cause work hardening of the surface. I don’t imagine brass would need much force to work harden
Would this affect neck tension? Don’t know
Could it be reversed by annealing? Don’t know either.
If so, I would be thinking about the order of operations, I.e. anneal after cleaning.
Too many unknowns here.
Pete

[macguru]

I am not sure there is any benefit to cleaning the insides of brass cases, at all. I never do, and there does not seem to be any progressive build up, but that would depend on the conditions inside the case during ignition, i guess. I just wipe the necks with a little brass cleaner, and scrape the primer pockets. I also have an ultrasonic cleaning bath, but i have given up using it.

[6.5x55ai]

Over many years, I've been down the path of vibratory (tumbler), ultrasonics, and SS pins. They all have their good and bad points.
Lastly was SS pins which although I ended up with perfectly clean brass I never liked the way my nice chamfers were peened or the lubricating deposit removed from inside the neck. (I do also lube my projectiles before seating though.)
When washing up the pins in a bucket of water there was always evidence of sparkling "gold" on the bottom. That even still happened with my pins that are now quite old and have polished the rough ends off themselves.
I have eliminated brass cleaning using those methods and just wipe the necks with Krazy Kloth (ex BRT) and hard nylon brush clean inside. I get single figure SDs without elaborate cleaning.

As I've got a lot older reloading has now become more of a chore rather than an enjoyable hobby so I have looked at ways to streamline the process. Any sort of wet cleaing then drying drives me nuts.

[macguru]

I think I can remember someone left a couple of those pins in the case and when fired they damaged the rifling !

[Tim L]

For all those who found stainless damaged necks, could I ask you to comment on which tumblet you used?
I was running a 3kg ebay special (clear with orange O rings). 50 x 308s at a time with no issues..
I went up a size to the 5kg to do 100 cases and found it damaged the necks.
Just thinking there could be something in the size of the barrel.

[JezL]

For all those who found stainless damaged necks, could I ask you to comment on which tumblet you used?
I was running a 3kg ebay special (clear with orange O rings). 50 x 308s at a time with no issues..
I went up a size to the 5kg to do 100 cases and found it damaged the necks.
Just thinking there could be something in the size of the barrel.

I found it has to do with the amount of cases you have in the tumbler at a time. I found the damage / peened necks is due to the cases crashing into each other. So the more you have in there, the more it caused the issue.

[6.5x55ai]

The peening I think it has to do with the speed the drum is rotated at. I have the Franklin Platinum Series and it rotates quite fast. I intended putting a speed control on it (before I gave SS cleaning the flick) and running slower. However, that would probably have meant longer run times to get effective cleaning. Likewise running with reduce cases. Means more than one batch run for cleaning. No free lunch methinks.

[Fire Dog]

[font=Georgia]I too have a Franklin tumbler and I have added about another pound/500g of SS pins to the barrel {more cushioning}, pre-soak 24 hours with a dash of Lemi shine {citric acid basically} sm squirt of dish soap, 10ml of Boretec case cleaner {the stuff for sonic cleaners} in boiling water to start.
Dump out presoak and fill drum with HOT water, squirt of dish soap, dash of LemiShine, 10ml of Boretec case cleaner, 1tbs of Burnishing Compound {Aussie Sapphire} and never tumble more than 90 minutes, use a Hornady case prep duo tool to inside and outside put a very slight chamfer on the case mouth. Quick and easy, especially compared to a "Rocket" tool.
The Burnishing Compound will really make the cases come out "As New"... Then into the AMP annealer and they are good to go.
I have added using a bore brush in the Case Prep Duo and now brush the case neck and that seems to smooth out any of the grippiness that others have commented on, you can also add to your reloading routine a dip over the Foster Case Neck dry lube setup for a bit of ease seating projectiles along with mandreling to only about one and a half thou. neck tension.
I also clean the barrel and SS pins with a 1tbs of NapiSan or it's equivalent in Hot water about every 3-4 uses.
Pins and drum will collect residue and clean less effectly![/font]

The peening I think it has to do with the speed the drum is rotated at. I have the Franklin Platinum Series and it rotates quite fast. I intended putting a speed control on it (before I gave SS cleaning the flick) and running slower. However, that would probably have meant longer run times to get effective cleaning. Likewise running with reduce cases. Means more than one batch run for cleaning. No free lunch methinks.