Recently I cleaned all my dies and boy was I surprised at how dirty some were. I was wondering does anyone else clean their dies on a regular basis?

Surprising how many folks overlook this simple operation that spend time cleaning the bores and chambers on all their rifles. I found it helps if you use a universal decapper and deprime and clean cases before resizing. Clean cases going into the dies help stretch the time between cleanings.

Which brings up a question.

I've always cleaned my brass before decapping. On the odd occasion where I've had to clean deprimed brass, I spend a lot of time poking media out of the flash holes. I should note, 99.9% of my reloading is straight wall pistol cases.

Does one use the universal decapper, clean the brass, and then use the decapping pin on the resizing die to clear the flash hole?

I'm another reloader who cleans caseas before decapping,because I'm tired of poking media out of primer flashholes.
I only clean dies when crud is appearant,or I'm having a problem.
Frank

I clean pistol brass before decapping because I can see into the bottom, but I still use a universal decapper for the bottlenecked cartridges and clean after decapping. Just a fear of getting media stuck in a bottle neck case I guess.

I do poke out some of the primer holes, but not to many. I then use my old hunting partners RCBS case prep tool to clean primer pockets and chamfer the cases. I'm cleaning with corncob media an Cabela's case polish (a capful per tumbler load). I use one of the Lee case trimmer/length gauge's with a ball handle to poke out any stuck media and it's quick and comfortable to do that way.

I usually take a glance inside my dies everytime I set up to reload for a specific caliber. Since I use a bit of sizing lube on everything, I look for lube accumulating at the top of the sizer die and bullet lube accumulating in the seater plug area on the seater die. A squirt of parts solvent or brake cleaner gets the crud out quickly. Standard procedure with me is to decap, clean primer pockets outdoors, then tumble in walnut for at least an hour so that all cases going into the dies are/or near clean. Guess all great minds think alike:D here. My dies are cleaned at least once a year and the ones that I use most probably three times a year. YMMV

More often than I used too. I like to start clean on every batch.

I'll be the oddball here, I clean my dies after each loading session before puting them away. Yes, really I do. I didn't start out doing this, but I evolved in to it after 15 or so years. I will also clean them sometimes in the middle of a large batch. It just makes sense when you think about it, but it is soooo much easier to just put them away at the end of the sesson...

To continue the wierdness, I tumble my cases and then decap them with a universal decapper in a Lee hand press, wipe them off and place them in the loading trays. Fortunately the universal decapper is very easy to clean (and it does get GUNKY this way).

I don't know how much it helps with the hunting and plinking rounds, but I am absolutely certain that clean dies make all the difference with target and match loads. I have recently taken to treating all loads as match loads since otherwise "what's the point"?

Also note, I only use a single stage press. I do use a hand press for some "progressive" operations like crimping after seating, but otherwise I am a "one operation at a time" person.

As always YMMV :)

I recently went through a rust problem with my dies. The worse of the rust accumulated wherever there was sizing lube in the die. I now clean my dies after every loading session. You can do wonders just by squirting something like Rem oil up into the die before putting it away.

My relading equipment is in a damp basement and everything needs to have film of grease on it to prevent rusting. My dies get claened and greased after every use. Some of my dies are from 1970 and still look like new. Take care...
Oberndorf

I am interested in keeping clean dies, however Marshall was the only one who touched on "how to clean" the dies. I'm gathering, just a squirt of brake or carb cleaner up in there will do the trick? or must they be dissassembled to be cleaned more thoroughly? I am open to any proceedure.

If you maintain your dies in pretty clean condition, a good squirt of aerosol brake or carb cleaner will easily flush out any case or bullet lube without having to disassemble the dies. I follow this up with a clean patch wrapped around a stick. Eventually, you will want to disassemble just to get at that last bit of crud hidden in the dies but this doesn't have be done everytime you clean the dies unless you want to.;)

a good squirt of aerosol brake or carb cleaner will easily flush out any case or bullet lube without having to disassemble the dies. I follow this up with a clean patch wrapped around a stick. Eventually, you will want to disassemble just to get at that last bit of crud hidden in the dies but this doesn't have be done everytime you clean the dies unless you want to.;)

I use this method along with a nylon bristle brush in the drill, it gets them CLEAN!, and I give a squirt of Hornaday OneShot into them before I start loading again.

Guess I'm the odd man out. I've never cleaned my dies.:eek: May be time for a procedure change.