professorcunningham@home.com wrote:

|+>I'll be loading for 38 Special. I have a lot of Remington UMC brass that
|+>has been fired once. Do I need to clean the brass before I reload it?
|+>The books just say that a lot of people PREFER bright and shiny brass...
|+>etc., but nowhere does it say whether it is necessary or not. If so, how
|+>can I do it without investing in a tumbler or a lot of chemicals, etc.?

You don't have to clean the brass after every firing. However, if it
is covered with mud or grit it could damage your reloading dies.

A tumbler would be the best method of cleaning brass, however I think
you can purchase a special cleaner from Lyman which won't damage the
molecular structure of the brass.  Avoid all the brass cleaners like
braso or flits as they can chemically alter the brass.

Turbo� Liquid Case Cleaner
Turbo Case Cleaner is an excellent liquid precleaner for extremely
fouled cases. Also may be used as a wet media. Use manually or with a
tumbler.
Price: (16 fl. oz.) (#7631340) - US$5.00

You can also use dish detergent and hot water to clean all the grit,
spent powder etc. then rinse in hot water. You can then shake them dry
in an old towel.

I hope this helps.  You could also try to post in alt.rec.guns as many
thousands more cover this newsgroup.

__________________________
Thomas F. Gervais
Ottawa, Ont. Canada