How do you clean your shotgun hulls before reloading?

[Missouri Marshal]

Howdy Pards, just wonderin how or if ya clean yur shotgun shell hulls before ya reload them.

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

I'm a trapshooter in another life, so most of those hulls never make it to the ground. They go directly from the chamber of my trap gun and into the shell bag, and they never get cleaned. Just load 'em up again as is.

In Cowboy, our shells tend to hit the ground. So I give them a quick lookover. If theyr'e a little dusty or sandy, I just give them a quick wipe with a cloth, then reload them. If they fell into a mud puddle and are full of sand, gravel, frogs, and sticks, I might rinse them out, then dry them before reloading them.

But generally speaking, I do not treat my shotshell hulls like brass. I do not clean them. Neither do most trap and skeet shooters that I know, and we go through a lot of shotgun shells.

Black Powder though, that's a whole different matter. Usually after I've fired a hull a whole bunch of times at the trap field I figure I have gotten my money out of it. At that point, I load it up one more time with BP, then just leave it lying where it fell.

[Arcey]

Thrown mine in a cloth bag 'n put 'em in the washin' machine with the rest of the laundry before.  That'll wash the ink right off AAs.

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[hellgate]

I am a shameless dumpster diver. Like any street bum will admit, after a while it no longer bothers you. It's a matter if survival. So, if they're really dusty or muddy I do not bother scavenging them. I pretty much go for the Remington STS, other Remington hulls and AAs. As for cleaning, I just visually inspect them for debris or dirt inside. I shake the loose stuff out and wipe them with a towel or rag to get the dust off. Any hulls with  caked on debris get tossed. One big help is to mention your plight to a few others and you might find other folks might even gather a few for you or save theirs before they hit the ground. The discard bucket at the unloading table can be a gold mine. Also get to know a few trap or skeet shooters. They'll save their hulls or show you where the Mother Load is.

[litl rooster]

 Since I shoot BP  I do wash them and just let them dry (plastic ones)  I have run them thru the tumbler but just to see what happens to them.  Like Hellgate I pick thru the buckets and get replacements

[Tensleep]

Jist rub 'em on yer britches leg then load it.

I really pick through the ones I get from the range, anything don't look right, I toss it.

I only want STS and gold Remington Nitros to shoot in my BP double. AA's are fine for the 97s.

[hellgate]

Oh yeah,
I forgot: I never bother to wash my BP hulls (which is every single one of them). I get about 4-5 loadings before the mouth is toast.

[Missouri Marshal]

Thanks ya'll.  I most of the time they aren't too bad but got a bucket full the other say that had allot of sand and dirt in it.  Think I'll jus throw themin the washing machine like Arcey said.  I jus won't put them in the oven to dry them like Poney Racer did with his brass hulls.

[Tricky Trina]

Arcey - what happened to "Sin no more?"   

[Arcey]

I dunno.  Put it sumwheres so I wouldn't lose it........................