So, I decided to go against the likely good advice from my friend @Galenkp. I asked for advice on either buying a sonic cleaner vs. a dry media tumbler. I received good clear advice from him and a few others to go with a dry media tumbler. His claim and others was that the dry media does a better job cleaning spent brass that the sonic cleaners did.
Well, I ended up with this:
I decided against the dry media tumbler and went with the sonic for a few reasons:
- I really wanted the additional functionality to clean other things, rings, other weapon parts, garage stuff, etc. The sonic cleaner just seemed more versatile.
- I wanted the ability to clean larger objects, not just brass.
- The sonic seems to work much faster, working in 10-30min instead of hours.
- I hate manually brushing out primer pockets on brass.
- I just really can't get my engineering head to accept that dry media can get into those primer pockets and inside the brass as well as tiny sonic bubbles and water/cleaning solution.
- I just wanted to see if I could prove @Galenkp wrong. (I guess we'll see on that one).
This was not the cheapest sonic cleaner by any means, probably one of the higher end personal ones, but less than the commercial ones.
As you can see, my primer pockets are a bit nasty. Here is some .338 Lapua Magnum brass. These have been shot twice, once from the Hornady factory load and a second time from my custom reload recipe. The primer pocket was brushed out manually with a wire brush after the first shooting, but I have to admit not cleaned very well.
Next is the Brass itself. This is the same brass as shown in the primer pocket view above, just after full-length resizing and primer removal. Yuk.
I've never been one to clean or shine my brass after reloading before. Maybe I'm just lazy, but never really had the tools for it before either. I've heard some folks swear that the cleaner cases have improved their accuracy. That held some interest for me, I guess we'll see soon enough. I've got 40 rounds in the cleaner now, and will take a look at them tomorrow to see how they come out.
Of course, I was wincing just a bit when it says on the first page of the manual "The primary function of the Lock-n-Load Sonic cleaner is to chemically and mechanically clean a variety of items. It may or may not produce "shiny" brass. To create bright and polished brass, we recommend using the Hornady Case Tumbler." Lol, @Galenkp, the bet is leaning your way!
I'm not looking for as bright and shiny, the versatility is really what I was looking for.
Check back in a few days and we'll see how well it cleaned the brass. Then I'm sure I can find a really dirty slide, spring and barrel to drop in.
Enjoy!
@ksteem