Reloading is really nothing more than a series of repetitive, tedious tasks one has to do really well and with good consistency. This is not news. We are making projectiles from once-fired casings and we have seen what can happen when people take shortcuts. Cleaning brass for reloading is on the top of the list of “tedious tasks we love to hate.” But do we make it too hard on ourselves? Could we spend less time on this part of our project without sacrificing safety and accuracy?

As we were sitting around with a group of competitive rifle shooters who also reload, at least one in our crew said we are thinking too hard about this step. Since we believe that innovation as well as the best entertainment found anywhere is born during impromptu gatherings of like-minded people, we were all ears as he jumped up from his lawn chair and scoffed, interrupting those of us engaged in detailed talk of ultrasonic tumblers, benefits of dry and wet tumbling, and other titillating conversations such as ratios of pounds of-stainless steel pins to gallons of water when one tumbles to clean cartridges.

“You people are making this waaaay too complicated,” He said. Shiny brass, he said, is a want not a need. “Cleaning brass cartridges doesn’t take any time at all, if you just roll with it,” demonstrating his “easy steps” with huge, waving hand gestures. “Here it is. Boom! Get a five gallon bucket; fill it with the hottest water you can get, pour in some Dawn detergent” (imagine beefy hands pretending to squirt an imaginary bottle of Dawn dish detergent in an imaginary bucket) “…then stir it up with a big slotted spoon. Then, and this is the best part,” he said, “Go change your clothes, ride into town, get a beer and a steak, talk to a girl, come home, rinse, repeat: dry in the oven on cookie sheets at 150 degrees for a couple of hours: done!”

Er, Not so fast.

First of all, if you must clean your brass using the soak method, and we admit the idea that one can accomplish cleaning brass for reloading while eating steak, drinking beer, and flirting with members of the opposite sex at a remote location is an interesting concept and cannot be quickly dismissed out of hand. But, what we do know for a fact is this: DO NOT EVER use your kitchen oven for drying your fired brass cartridges. Ever. It is a dangerous shortcut. Experts warn that potentially, enough lead remains even on rinsed cartridges that can burn off and cling to the walls of your oven and find its way in to your food causing you to ingest harmful quantities of lead. No one wants lead in her oatmeal cookies. I don’t, you don’t and your kids don’t.

But it is true that you do not have to get fancy and overwrought with stress about cleaning brass. Dull “not-sunshiny” brass cartridges will form the basis of rifle rounds that fire just dandy if you simply ensure that your once-fired brass cartridges are cleaned enough to make them consistent, reliable and most of all, safe. Even without mechanized cleaning equipment, you can figure out a way to get the loose dirt and powder residue off the cartridges. Oh and get them dry. Drying the brass completely is an important part of cleaning.

While the oven is not a good way to dry the brass, many reloaders have found that an inexpensive food dehydrator, $40-50 bucks at WalMart work great as long as you recognize it can never be used for anything to do with food ever again for the same reasons you do not want to put brass in the oven.

Making brass shiny, as housewives have known for years, can be easy or it can be a challenge, depending on what you know about it. Tarnished brass isn’t necessarily dirty brass. Brass tarnishing is a natural process of oxidation that will happen as a brass surface is exposed to air. But a tarnished casing won’t change how the round shoots. So, while you’re at trying not to over think the processes of reloading, buying pre-sorted brass is a good head start.

Capital Cartridge has even hard-to-find once-fired brass casings.