Collected Brass?

[Guest utarch00]

I have decided that in the near future (by the end of the year), I am going to start reloading. I have been collecting brass for the last couple of range trips. It is amazing the number of people that do not collect. Anyway, I have a few questions.

1. Should I be cleaning the brass that I have collected. Should I pop out the primers. How should I clean the brass.

2. Once clean, how should I store it, so it can be protected?

3. I collected some self defense (hollow point) casings like Hornady TAP, Winchester Ranger and others. Are these brass with a special coating or are they some other material? Basically, can I reload these or not?

Thanks in advance.

[towerclimber37]

the easiest way to do it is to use a magnet...every case that sticks- throw it away. the rest, save the brass.

I don't know about reloading aluminum cases so I don't

after that you need to get a cleaning bowl and a good medium, 100 grit walnut shells work best for me...and drop those cases in..it'll clean them using vibration and your cleaning medium

..then you can pop out the spent primers.

this is a ROUGH description of the prep process...I've got a headache and don't feel like being on here too much longer...sorry man!

[Guest Mugster]

There's no need to clean it, just store it. Pretty much, a brass case is a brass case, no matter if it came off of an expensive or cheap factory round. There is no coating on brass. If its magnetic, its not brass. In theory, you can reload anything including aluminum, but your sizing die will have a hard time on anything not brass...and this includes nickel which can be a real pain.

Generally, you knock the primer out when you resize the case. You need reloading equipment to do that. Tumbling the brass in a tumbler gets it clean and spiffy looking. This is not necessary to reload it. Merely wiping it off with a rag is more than good enough to get off the dust and the grit.