Can I leave my brass dirty for a while???

[glock45]

Fellow DCers,

I am going to start reloading soon (with the current ammo situation, there is really no choice) and I have been saving my brass. I have not even bought the press and other equipment yet but I figured that I need to save all the brass I can get my hands on.
I have about 1,000 cases so far in a bucket. Most are really fouled, is this going to be an issue down the line?
Can I just leave those cases there, say, for a year, and they will still be easy to clean? Or does time make the residue harder to get out?

Look forward to your comments...

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[SonofASniper]

In my experience, you should be fine, providing your not leaving the bucket out in the weather all year.

When I was a youngin and my father shot a lot of PPC competion and was loading his own I was always scrounging brass for him at the range. I would gather up some pretty nasty looking stuff and it always came out of the tumbler nice and shiny.

[glock45]

Thanks Sonofasniper,

Brass is actually on a closed bin in my garage, which is enclosed and has A/C so I don't have a lot of moisture...

[arby238]

I keep mine in a 5 gallon bucket in the basement. Some has been there for over a year. Still cleans up great.

[houdini]

as soon as i get a lot of brass then I clean it.

[frankmako]

yes you can. it will clean up with no problems.

[dukalmighty]

I got about 500 pounds I need to sort before I clean it and I only sort it when I need to load some

[sgtD]

I just reloaded some rifle ammo, using brass that my dad had in coffee cans and other assorted containers for over 20 years. He always saved his brass during his life, and to this day has never reloaded. Lucky for me. :-)

Anyway, it was never cleaned, and somewhat discolored, but was stored in the house and kept dry.

I cleaned it in a vibrator and maybe five of the cases had coroded and pited a bit so I threw them out. The rest cleaned up and the ones I've fired shot just fine.

[AZ Desertrat]

It should be fine as long as it is not "gritty".....then you won't get scratches on it, or mess up your resizing dies.