ULTRASONIC TIPS FOR SMALL BATCH CASE CLEANING

By Martin Auldist

Oct 16, 2023

Author’s new ‘no-name’ three-litre ultrasonic cleaner with cleaning concentrates, citric acid, cream of tartar, bicarb soda and dishwashing detergent. ‘Patented’ case drier in front.

FEATURE Marcus O’Dean

For the shooter who hand-loads a little for a number of different cartridges, typically a committed hunter who’s after everything from small to big or dangerous game, refining, altering and adapting normally accepted processes for small batch loads can lead to better performance and pride in production, according to Marcus O’Dean.

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I know hand-loaders who love stainless-steel media tumblers (SSMTs) for cleaning their brass. They came into vogue shortly after ultrasonic cleaners (UCs) hit the market. I looked at both processes and I believe that, in practical terms, I had nothing to gain (and money to lose) if I converted over. Newer, in my pragmatic mind, does not necessarily mean better and I believe time consumed and materials used for SSMTs in no way is made up for by shinier, but no cleaner, brass. Cleaning brass, in my opinion, is a worthwhile pursuit, because it removes crusted-on propellent residue build-up inside cases and allows a clean outside surface to allow optimum functioning of the moving parts of a firearm’s fire control mechanics.

In my own case, I hunt little but shoot small lots of different cartridges most Saturdays in service rifle competition. Thirty rounds is a typical match batch and I run .22LR, .223 Rem for nine and 12-twist CZ rifles, 6.5 Creedmoor, 6.5x55 Swedish, .270 Winchester, .30-06 and .303 British. I run TrailBoss loads under hard cast bullets in .303 at 100m and progress through different jacketed projectiles as the ranges get longer, out to 400m. As a consequence, I have heaps of 50-round cartridge boxes loaded and labelled with different and separate load data in a range of chamberings.

There would be many shooting enthusiasts who may find themselves in similar circumstances who rarely load a batch of 200 or more rounds. Where I may do this is if I come across a bunch of once-fired brass that I need to case prepare in bulk, decapping, sizing, trimming and chamfering, uniforming and reaming primer pockets, deburring flash holes, and more. But when it comes to hand-loading these windfalls, I may just pick 20 for load development or run up 40 to cover our bigger matches.

So it is that I find myself coming home from the range, decapping and running 25-50 rounds through the UC. I had a 2.5-litre brand-name model which I used a lot over five years and it eventually died. It served well, but replacing it would cost me more than I was prepared to pay, so a Google search found me a three-litre previously-unknown brand that was well reviewed by US YouTube pundits. So I bought it for $125.99 with free delivery, and in two days it was on my doorstep.

Around the same time, I saw another video of a guy with a deep Texan drawl, who showed an innovative method to ultrasonically clean. He ran clean heated water about half-full in the ultrasonic while placing his small batch brass lots in zip-lock sandwich bags with his preferred cleaning chemical in heated water sealed in the bags. Well, never being one to let the opportunity to share a how-to with fellow shooters, I promptly tried it and it was highly satisfactory, in my experience.

So what are the advantages of this approach?

1. You use less chemicals; only enough to fill half to two-thirds of the zip-lock bags before adding the dirty brass, rather than using a UC tub filled with your chemical mix.

2. You get no black residue in your UC tub. You just empty the clean water out and dry it with a tea towel or other cloth.

3. It does a good job cleaning your brass, no worse or better than the conventional method.

Any disadvantages?

1. It takes a few minutes more to set up and you consume zip-lock bags to do it. If you rinse them out and dry them, like I do, it is not such an issue (and no, I don’t dry used toilet paper on the hills hoist).

2. It can take a little longer to clean the brass as you have more brass scrunched in a smaller volume inside the bag, so the sound wave bubbles are slightly more limited in circulation. The end result is the same though. Instead of nearly 10 minutes, this method takes longer, depending on brass filthiness. This I have found to be more efficient for me though, because I can set the longer timer and sit down for a little while and do a couple of crosswords or make a sandwich while my brass cleans, instead of hovering, vulture-like, over the UC for a shorter time to elapse.

SOME USEFUL TIPS

1. Water temperature.

At this stage, I’d offer that the UCs commonly available heat water to use (to clean more efficiently), but they typically heat it painfully slowly. You have to have the time and forethought to turn it on half an hour early to be in bull’s roar of optimal operating temperature (80°C). Being somewhat impatient, I have always quickly heated a kettle to make hot water, just below boiling, in a few minutes and dump it in the cleaner, and now in the zip-lock bags as well.

2. Solution is the solution.

My old UC came with a bottle of proprietary UC chemical with dilution instructions and using it as directed resulted in multiple maximum cycles of my old UC. Then I saw another YouTube video and the guys used supermarket grocery aisle stuff, that works much better.

You need:

• A teaspoon each of citric acid, cream of tartar and household dishwashing liquid in two litres of heated water. This cleans really well and quickly.

• Neutralising the acid solution. Put a teaspoon of bicarbonate soda in warm tap water in a small tub into which you dump your brass. Alternatively, if you want to keep a few small sub-batches together through cleaning, as I have done for this article, just dump the UC solution in the sink from the zip-lock bags while keeping the brass in them and pour some bicarb solution in the bags.

• Put the brass into a container of just-boiled water with a drop of wetting agent (detergent) and rinse quickly. Drain the water, and then gingerly pick up your brass and drop each case on to nails driven into a piece of board and place in the sun, on top of an oil space heater or just allow to air dry. If you are the impatient type, run a hair dryer over the cases. Doing that will probably consume heaps more power that the ultrasonic cycles.

I have seen that electric food dehydrators have now been relabelled brass dryers by enterprising gun accessory companies and marketed at significant cost to people who cannot wait for their brass to dry. Take it from me, the boiling water-nail rack-sun-dry (or in front of the room heater) method takes hardly any more time, but if you are a gear freak, go ahead and you could make some fruit leather at the same time. It may just taste a bit metallic though.

A final note

Since I initially wrote this article, I passed the three-litre UC I own to a mate and have purchased a 10-litre one on special. It kicks the ball out of the park.