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spunky16
PostPosted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 1:48 pm  Reply with quote
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Joined: 09 Jul 2006
Posts: 57
Location: Newport.OR

I remember a great thread on cleaning dirty hulls. Pea gravel, tumbler, soap ???? I haven't been able to find it. Help. Sad
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bigric
PostPosted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 2:23 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 26 Dec 2005
Posts: 79
Location: Round Rock, TX

If they're dirty, I toss them the hulls in a box and shake it while blowing compressed air through them. You'd be surprised how clean a steady 120 psi blast gets them.


Last edited by bigric on Tue Jul 11, 2006 10:51 pm; edited 1 time in total
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brdhnt
PostPosted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 5:02 pm  Reply with quote
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Joined: 19 Aug 2005
Posts: 184
Location: Concordia, Kansas

Spunky,

It has always amazed me at the attitude of shotgun reloaders vs. centerfire metallic reloaders about the condition of cases.

As an old centerfire shooter and at one time the holder of a commercial reloading license, I never used a piece of brass that wasn't "bright new" clean.

When I got involved in shotshell reloading this same technique (O.K. it's a little anal retentive) but I carried this over to cleaning shotshell hulls.

I use an old Thumbler's tumbler and wash the brass (75 12 gauge hulls per load) in 409 and water. and let tumble 4-6 hours. I drain those and let them set overnight open end-down and then dry and polish the cases in corn cob case cleaner. 2-4 hours.

This gives me a clean case with polished brass and also polished and clean inside. I did some research a few years back and not only did I get 6-8 more reloads from a case doing this, but I also had a lot more consistent velocities from the clean cases. Velocity in a shotshell can be effected by how rought the inside of a case is and how well the shell has crimped. In uncleaned vs. cleaned cases, by the third reload, the velocity had dropped by up to 50 fps in the uncleaned cases and by the 6th reload most were 100 fps less than the cleaned cases.

A nice aside. This method takes all of the factory printing off of the cases, so you know which cases are yours on the ground at the range.

TMB
________
MOTORCYCLE TIRES


Last edited by brdhnt on Fri Feb 25, 2011 4:18 pm; edited 1 time in total
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bigric
PostPosted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 5:05 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 26 Dec 2005
Posts: 79
Location: Round Rock, TX

That's interesting about your velocity results. I do treat my rifle brass with much more care, of course.

How did you clean your fiber basewad hulls? It would seem that your cleaning method might loosen or damage the basewad.
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brdhnt
PostPosted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 5:37 pm  Reply with quote
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Joined: 19 Aug 2005
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Location: Concordia, Kansas

BR,

The only fiber base wad hulls I still use are the Federal purple 16's. I just do them in the dry corn cob media and I only reload twice, once for practice and then again as a field hull. I figure the inside is still polished and I'm not losing that much velocity.

TMB
________
Swed


Last edited by brdhnt on Fri Feb 25, 2011 4:18 pm; edited 1 time in total
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hoashooter
PostPosted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 7:09 pm  Reply with quote
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Joined: 08 Nov 2005
Posts: 3436
Location: Illinois

Your supposed to clean 'em Shocked Shocked
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