Decapping before or after tumbling?

The only time you need to deprime before is when using liquid cleaners so you don't trap fluids. So on a normal vibrating tumbler after their clean, when you start the process. In my case I just dump them into the brass feeder and start loading on the LNL-AP.

I have been depriming before because I use a hot water/soap/lemishine bath first. Then its resize and tumble. it reduces tumble time on dirty brass from 5+ hours down to 1 1/2 to a "like new" shine. the water also seems to catch a lot of the carbon/lead residue preventing it from getting into my media as much in theory.

I prefer to decap before cleaning. I suppose there is an argument for cleaning first so as to keep the lead styphenate more or less contained during cleaning.

I use a wet tumbler, so I resize/ decap and other case prep before tumbling. I like this because it cleans the primer pockets out and is less hassle. I use a little bit of vinegar or Pinesol with a dash of dish soap and fill the rest with water. Tumble for 30min to an hour, depending on how many cases and then I rinse and blow them out with an air gun. Never had any damage to the case and they always shine. You can see the reflections inside the case.

With dry media, from what I've been told, you have to leave the spent primer in during cleaning. And then do your resize and other operations. I didn't go for this because you'd have to manually clean your primer pockets. Also you'll be lubing the cases if you FL Size them and then you'd have to wipe that off before loading.

The tumbler I use is a home made one. It's a modified rock tumbler. I see you can buy ultrasonic tumblers that allow both wet and dry media.

I decap before wet tumbling in stainless, so it cleans the primer holes, if it really dirty old range brass I dont . and after initial cleaning of really dirty brass I re tumble to get it really clean. after tumbling in stainiless ,lemishine and dawn I vibratory tumble in walnut and a dab of polish. SO I am anal retensive about my cleaning, I want it spotless.

I never clean primer pockets or use liquid cleaners, so it only makes sense to de-prime after tumbling.

I do both.

A short tumble to knock the grunge off before sizing & depriming.

Then a longer tumble to get the case lube off and a final polish on.

rc

When I tried decapping before tumbling I found that media became stuck in the primer hole of some of the casings. Since then I have always decapped after tumbling.

I deprime after tumbling. Right now I use a vibrating tumbler and corn cob media but will change to deprime before when I switch to SS tumbling. I clean primer pockets with a few twists of a Lee hand tool. I know it doesn't make much difference, especially on pistol rounds. I do it because I am there anyway inspecting the flash hole because sometimes the media gets stuck and needs to be poked out with a paper clip.

I always tumble for a short bit before I resize, just knock off any grit. Then I resize, clean primer pockets, trim, R&C, and then I do a complete tumble to spiff them up and remove any remaining lube residue.

GS

I know this is OCD but I ultrasonic clean, deprime with universal depriming die. Tumble with corn cob then resize with the deprimer pin in place to clean out the flash hole if any cob is it there.

I tumble an hour, decap, and then tumble again for a couple more hours. it gets the grime off of the case before you decap.

I always decap prior to "tumbling".

I think it depends on if you are loading progressive or single stage. On a progressive, I tumble first. With a single stage, I size first. I tumble after sizing to remove the lube. Most of my rifle brass is all single loaded and ejected into my hand, it never touches the ground. Most of my pistol brass is shot from revolvers, so it gets ejected into a coffee can. My auto brass gets picked up in baggies and sent home with my son who loads it on a progressive. He cleans it, then runs it through the newfangled automatic thingamajig that plops out a live round every time he pulls the handle.

I decap first. I also keep a roll pin punch handy when running brass through the autoprime

If I'm going to wet tumble I decap first because it'll totally clean out the primer pockets. If I'm just going to dry tumble (like most pistol brass), I decap when I resize because corn/walnut doesn't do much to clean out the primer pockets.

I don't tumble. All of my brass is recovered, sorted, rinsed, and then sprayed with lube. When the spray lube is dry (about 1/2 an hour) I resize, decap, and bell the mouth...I prep the brass so it's ready to be reloaded.

Then it gets soaked in soapy water in a container with a lid and agitated over the period of a couple days....dumped, rinsed, dried, primed and charged.

Never have tumbled brass.

VooDoo

Since I load most of my ammo in a progressive and the spent primer is removed in the process by the sizing die it is usually after cleaning in the vibratory tumbler.

I avoid decapping unsized ammo, unless there's a really good reason. A tumbled and decapped piece of brass looks a lot like a tumbled, sized, and decapped piece of brass. I am afraid one will end up with a powder charge, primer, and a bullet in it, but no neck tension.

There is enough going on with reloading. I try to keep it simple.

I do a quick rinse of used brass in a water and dish soap mix, in a Tupperware. Switl it around a while and then rinse, then rinse gain.

Then dry, spray lube, and decap and size in one step. then tumble.

I have always tumbled then decap. Granted, I am using progressive press and stage one resizes, decaps, and primes. That said, first stage decaps and pushes out any debris.

Pistol rounds only here, Dry media tumbling only.

Good point Gloob. I'm also of the mind set that eliminating as many possible problems, or over sights, as it were, is always in the best interest of a hobby such as reloading.

GS

I dry tumble. I also use a progressive press, most of the time.

I tumble then toss the clean brass on the press and start reloading.

Always before. Always have, always will. I like my brass clean and shiny, including the pockets.