Easy way to seperate stainless steel pins from bottle neck cases?

I use the Dillon media separator and fill the tub with water. Being submerged gets rid of the surface tension of the soap, to let the pins fall out and is a final rinse too.

Some case's they just fall out. The pins will come out easier if the case is under water.
I use a magnet from a old hard drive, it will pull the pins out if you
slide the case over the magnet.
I know others use a plastic tumbler with holes in it to shake the pins out.

jmorris said:

I use the Dillon media separator and fill the tub with water. Being submerged gets rid of the surface tension of the soap, to let the pins fall out and is a final rinse too.

Click to expand...

^^^
This. Its so much easier to get the media out when you use water to remove them.

Use bore-tech case cleaner. No pins, still clean. Doesn’t get any simpler.

Gumby0961 said:

Just started doing the wet tumbling, straight wall cases are great, is there an easy way to seperate pins in bottle neck cases?

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Don't use pins.

What do they actually do for the inside of brass cases?? Does it matter if they are surgically shiny?

Welcome to THR, Gumby0961!

Gumby0961 said:

Just started doing the wet tumbling, straight wall cases are great, is there an easy way to seperate pins in bottle neck cases?

Click to expand...

After wet tumbling any of my cases, whether straightwall or bottleneck, the remaining (adhering) s/s pins just naturally fall to the bottom of my RCBS Rotary Case/Media Separator during the Rinse-Bath Phase.

^^^ That's what I discovered too. You need to buy a rotary separator. Then you don't have to give "where the pins are" a thought. I rinse them in the sink, then let them dry in the separator bottom. I use the RCBS version of Berry's. Several other companies use it too......pick your color, or buy it direct and get Berry's blue.

Rule3 said:

Don't use pins.

What do they actually do for the inside of brass cases?? Does it matter if they are surgically shiny?

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Not really, but for freshly trimmed rifle brass, not having to chamfer the inside of all my cases for blaster ammo saves me alot of time when reloading a 1000 at a crack. The media takes the sharp edges off, and I use bullets with a boat tail, so I dont have to mess around.

For pistol, Im on the fence. If its really grungy range brass, Ill use pins. For new or brass Ive previously reloaded, Ill skip the pins.

What do they actually do for the inside of brass cases?? Does it matter if they are surgically shiny?

Click to expand...

Makes them look like new inside and out. I don’t think it matters much as far as accuracy goes but I don’t put my benchrest cases in a tumbler, I just wipe them off with a rag.

I do not know if being that clean makes a difference, but if you pull the bullet
from a factory cartridge you will find it is spotlessly clean.

i just bump them out. i grab a hand full of brass turn them all in the same direction and bump them with my other hand. the pins fall out. i don't have that many that has pins in them anyway. i only pin clean rifle cases.

I don’t wet tumble with pins unless I de-cap first. Let a batch of wet tumbled brass set until dry, de-cap and odds are you’ll find the spent primer is still wet.
I’m with others on straight wall pistol cases. Dry tumble unless they are black powder loaded.

Once I started wet tumbling I stuck with it. It gets ridbof all the dust, carbon, lead contamination and other crud.
Dry tumbling just doesn't get the cases as clean in my oppinion and I don't like that stuff gettingbin to my resizing dies.

When I wet tumble I will dump the nasty contaminated water, put another gallon of water in the tumbler and let it go another ten, fifteen mintes and dump the water out.

Then I will put water in a small plastic bucket and grap a small handful of cases, get them upside down and give them a swish so most of the pins fall out.

I then put the cases on drying racks I made.
I let them drain a couple of minutes then hit them with the air hose. Any remaining pins fall out and it gets most of the water off of the cases.

If it is dry & sunny I let them sit out on the picnic table to finnish sun drying.
If it is cool/cloudy i let them set i nside on a towel and them place them in the oven for 1/2 an hour with the oven set at 190°

I made drying racks with wood dowels and 16 penny galvinized finnish nails.
I put polyurethine on the wood 2x wood so it repells the water.

Heck, I just pour the cases out of the second pre-drying towel into cardboard flats (think cases of small tuna or catfood cans) that I place in front of my 18" always-maintain-some-basement-air-movement fan. I leave them there for at least 24 hours (but usually for [much] longer).

... and , yes, I decap cases prior to starting my wet tumbling process.

If I had allowed myself to get into a jam and had to have them ready to use sooner, I would not hesitate to put them in a low-heat oven for awhile.

I found out early on that the process jmorris uses is the best method. Yes I size/decap first though.
And a big welcome to the forum.

I shoot in a couple of gravel pits and pick up any range brass that is left behind by other shooters. Some of it gets sand & dirt inside the cases.
I seperate it by caliber, knock the stuff out and decap it with a Lee Universal Decapping Die then wet tumble it before i process it any farther.

The cases I shoot I keep seperate from the range brass and still decap & tumble before I go any farther on reloading it.
When I get bad cases after shooting them I crush the cases before I toss them in the large brass recycle case I have.
The spent primers get tossed in another large brass military case I have.

Every one has their own way of doing things and it's all good.
I get alot of enjoyment in.my reloading/gun room.
Doing simple stuff I can spend couple of hours decapping, resizing and putting the flare on straight walled cases and have a few brewskies in the mean time.

I shoot in a couple of gravel pits and pick up any range brass that is left behind by other shooters. Some of it gets sand & dirt inside the cases.
I seperate it by caliber, knock the stuff out and decap it with a Lee Universal Decapping Die then wet tumble it before i process it any farther.

The cases I shoot I keep seperate from the range brass and still decap & tumble before I go any farther on reloading it.
When I get bad cases after shooting them I crush the cases before I toss them in the large brass recycle case I have.
The spent primers get tossed in another large brass military case I have.

Every one has their own way of doing things and it's all good.
I get alot of enjoyment in.my reloading/gun room.
Doing simple stuff I can spend couple of hours decapping, resizing and putting the flare on straight walled cases and have a few brewskies in the mean time.

jmorris said:

I use the Dillon media separator and fill the tub with water. Being submerged gets rid of the surface tension of the soap, to let the pins fall out and is a final rinse too.

Click to expand...

I do the exact same thing. I then dump the wet brass into a short walled tub lined with a bath towel to dry the brass to prevent water spots/tarnish, then let them air dry
a day or so.

Bill

If you get one that, possibly aside from color, looks like the one in Post#8, just be gentle when spinning the cage while it is full of water/cases/pins.

It was originally engineered for separating dry media and, so, is of a bit lighter-than-ideal construction.

I have been using my RCBS unit that looks like that (but, o'course GREEN ) for 5 years and it does a dandy job. Just don't get in a rush and go to applying too much muscle to those handles.

Enjoy!

EDIT: BTW, to work with the Separator I always have it in a bathtub. For me, it keeps the mess localized and easier to clean.

The Dillon separator doesn’t have any problem even with more than 2000 45 ACP cases per batch. The tub on the right shows the water level I use.

During a sunny summer day here in Texas they are not only dry but too hot to hold in your hand in 2.5 beers...

jmorris said:

During a sunny summer day here in Texas they are not only dry but too hot to hold in your hand in 2.5 beers...

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You could drink faster.

Dave

Like everyone else I just put them in a rotary separator filled with water. The pins just settle down to the bottom of the separator.
I have never had a pin stuck in a case before. Until this last weekend. Bridged across the neck, and stuck. Never saw that before.
Got me wondering if it would hurt anything if you took a shot that had a pin in it? Probably not, but its something to think about.