My $0.02 FWIW, just buy a cheap tumbler. It will save you money and lots of work later. I mean lets face it, would you rather spend the $60 on a tumbler and be able to throw your brass in it for a few hours, pull it out, then be ready to reload it. Or would you rather hand scrub each and every single piece one by one?
The main reason I use a tumbler is so I can see cracks and splits in the brass. When you have dirty brass you can't always tell if it has cracked or split. If you reload brass that has a crack or splt in it... well, you can imagine the outcome.
Just do it. You won't regret it. I started off my first set of reloads cleaning the brass by hand. It took forever and a ton of elbow grease. After that I bought my tumbler and media. I haven't even had to change my media yet and I started using it back in January!
The main reason I use a tumbler is so I can see cracks and splits in the brass. When you have dirty brass you can't always tell if it has cracked or split. If you reload brass that has a crack or splt in it... well, you can imagine the outcome.
Just do it. You won't regret it. I started off my first set of reloads cleaning the brass by hand. It took forever and a ton of elbow grease. After that I bought my tumbler and media. I haven't even had to change my media yet and I started using it back in January!