I had a few thousand rounds of dirty cases. Some of the cases were covered in some sort of lead projectile lube gunk - yuk. Others were just cases that had been fired a number of times without being cleaned. I put one or two hundred at a time on a cloth and gave them a light spray, or even dusting of car engine degreaser then closed the cloth over the top and roughly rolled them about for a minute. They came out really clean. Any black soot or other staining falls off them with the degreaser.

I don't think this process will affect primers or powder after they have been reloaded as there is very little residual product left on the outside of the cases - your thoughts?

Quick, easy, fun, and cheap

At $3-4 US per can, that can get real expensive, real quick. You don't want to get any of the brake cleaners, chlorinated or non-chlorinated types, on your hands or skin too often, they are all absorbed readily through the skin.

If you really meant de-greaser, one of the emulsifying products, simply spray in on, let soak a few minutes, and then either throw the brass in the dishwasher in a mesh bag. You can slosh it in some hot water in the sink in the same mesh bag. These products will leave an oily residue on the case if just wiped off. By washing the cleaner emulsifies and washes off cleanly leaving no residue. De-prime your brass first, though, otherwise you will leave water in the primers and have to let the cases dry a second time.

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Gunsmithing since 1961

Bill,
I doubt if a light film of the degreaser on the outside of the cases would adversely affect subsequent reloading. If your method works for you, that's great, but I wouldn't use it myself since there are less expensive and less labor intensive ways that do a more thorough job.

Personally, I use the old NRA brass washing recipe from a 1957 article about cleaning .45acp cases, which also works on other calibers.

1 Pint water (I use distilled water)
1 cup white vinegar
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon dish detergent (I use Dawn or D-Lead)

I fill a 1 Gallon jug about half full of fired brass, cover the brass with the NRA solution, cap with a water-tight lid, shake for a few seconds, let sit for a few minutes, shake again and then dump the brass and solution through a strainer. Then I rinse the brass thoroughly and let it dry before processing further.

At this point the brass is clean inside as well as outside and can be reloaded, but its not very pretty and SWMBO doesn't like to shoot ugly ammo, so I tumble it in a vibratory type tumbler with a little NuFinish added to the media.

Of course, clean & shiny ammo doesn't shoot any better just clean ammo and clean ammo doesn't shoot any better than dirty ammo, but when SWMBO is happy, I'm happy.

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Age + Treachery = JohnnieB

Well, I'll go with quick. Other than that, expensive, sloppy, only partially effective, and environmentally hazardous compared to walnut shells and a case vibrator.

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Science plus Art