New Reloader, Lots of Questions

Reloading
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I am getting close to having all the equipment required to make my first hadloads. I plan to use box ammo fired brass for a while until I learn the process for my 6.5 prc Sako S20. Before I begin, I would like to hear from the experienced community about a few things.

  1. I see a lot of back and forth on the cleaning / no cleaning argument. If I DO end up cleaning brass, is there a clear advantage between dry and wet cleaning? If dry, which medium is suggested?
  2. If I wet clean, is an ultrasonic parts cleaner a good option? I have had one for years for working on carburetors. Can I use that or would i also need to tumble with pins?
  3. Some of the Federal (and nossler?) brass is silver, which is believe means it is nickle plated. Is there any difference relaoding these cases? (I do not plan to aneal).
  4. How do you guys store your powder in a house? My garage and basement is not air conditioned and can get damp in the summer months. However, putting a few pounds of gun powder in my closet doesn’t sound super appetizing either.
  5. How important is it to check concentricity? Sub question - how is an acceptable amount of runnout on the test? I.e. - at what point do you pull the bullet and scrap the brass.

My apologies if these have been asked/covered elsewhere. Been reading up as much as I can on the process, but there is a lot of information out there and it can be a little disorienting.

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  1. I now clean brass about every 4th or 5th firing with either a media tumbler or the Frankfort min wet tumble with pins. The wet tumbler gets everything looking brand new , inside and out and pretty much the primer pockets too. The down side is I find those pins for days afterwards so you need one of those magnetic picker uppers. Decap the brass first. On the in between firings I just clean the primer pockets and run a brass brush on a Dewalt drill in the mouth. Dry tumbling/cleaning is ok but don’t decap or you will be digging media out of the flash hole with a pick. 4. Since I am the only critter in my house I keep powder in the gun room and have no issues.
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I don’t really clean anymore except to get the lube off the brass after sizing. I use a wet tumbler but dry is probably the better bet if I were starting new.

I just store the powder in my garage because my garage is relatively stable in temp throughout the year.

I wouldn’t even bother checking concentricity. It’s way way down the priority list for my reloading.

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