Brass prep...

[barnfrog]

How are you guys trimming straight wall pistol brass. I used to trim pistol brass years ago but got tired of cranking the handle. I use Lee case length gage and cutter powered by a drill for my rifle brass.

Same.

 

[Seedy Character]

I definitely get down with your square containers. If I don't cradle to grave a group of brass I put a sticky in the container with current status. Writing on the container means you have no idea if this batch or the last...

Only caliber is on container. Post-It is inside

 

[AJC1]

Only caliber is on container. Post-It is inside

I was recalling a failure of mine... said rtl on the outside and that was a lie.

 

[Goofball84]

I pick up a lot of brass from sales when the price is right. This is unknown origin brass. Sometimes I find stones, screws, mud wasp nests, etc. So, before adding the brass to my stocks I go overboard on the process. I actually enjoy the process. The sorting, the cleaning from mud crusted lumps to shiny good as new, feeds my OCD and gives me a sense of accomplishment. After a miserable day at work, processing some brass helps me unwind.

1. Maybe sort calibers, maybe run everything together. Run quick through the tumbler with SS pins, dawn, and citric acid. (if its a clean bunch of brass, I skip to step 3)
2. Then dry and sort by calibers into bags/bins.
3. Lube, size/deprime.
4. Another run through the tumbler to clean off the lube and clean out the primer pockets. Then dry.
5. Trim to length using lee gauges on the lyman prep center. (no trim on 32acp, 380acp, 9mm, 40, 45, 10mm) Then ream crimps if needed. Then chamfer/debur anything that got trimmed. Shorties go in another bin. I check the shorts at the end and if they are within 0.002" of my trim length I toss them into the processed bin. If shorter than SAMMI, they go in the scrap.
6. Then they go through the vibratory with corn/walnut and nufinish. This helps remove any brass shavings/burs that may have hidden away in the cases and leaves a bit of finish on the cases.
7. Then seal the brass in ziplocks with a note stating all the steps done and its ready to load. Then toss the bags into empty cat litter plastic buckets and stack them. I write the note at each step of the process so I always know what is in each bag laying around the house until it gets finished and stored away.

 

[mdi]

If any one of the many steps in case prep have a measurable impact on handload performance, then by all means, use it. I have tried most of the hints/methods I've seen on forums since 2007 and kept the ones that showed repeatable, measurable improvement in performance. Others that show little or no difference, I discard. Some include chamfering flash holes, trimming revolver brass, "reforming/swaging" primer pockets, weighing cases and bullets, polishing brass for shiny primer pockets and case interiors. Some items I've continue to use are case mouth deburring, ID and OD, case headstamp sorting, some civilian brass gets primer pockets chamfered (my 44 Magnum brass is much easier and positive primer seating if pockets lightly chamfered), case reload count (rifle handloads) and velocity testing.

But, as long as the processes are safe and the reloader likes them (if a reloader likes his handloads they will shoot better), there is no judgement. If one wants to sign each handload or paint happy faces on each bullet nose, cool! I haven't seen any "Reloading Police" since I've been in Oregon, and nobody is gonna kick down my shop door and confiscate my handloads for not being done how "they" say it should. The ammo is mine, the guns are mine, the time and money are mine, so that's the way I roll...

 

[markr6754]

I definitely get down with your square containers. If I don't cradle to grave a group of brass I put a sticky in the container with current status. Writing on the container means you have no idea if this batch or the last...

Another big fan of peanut (and Cashew, Mixed Nuts, Almonds, etc) jugs. My OCD doesn't allow me to mark over the labels. I carefully peel what I can...Shooter's Lube cleaner dissolves the rest, which I rub off with patches. Label maker keeps them separated, as well as labels from bullet/case orders. My in process, generally primed brass goes into jugs; bulk brass (dirty and clean) in Sterilite 6qt locking containers.

 

[CQB45ACP]

I’ve never seen an FC45 video I thought deserved an audience.

I thoroughly cringed at the way he was cutting massive gouges into the sides of his pockets by tipping so dramatically onto the uniformer cutter, and then cringed even worse when he showed the magnified view of those gouges while attempting to show off the uniform corner of his pocket.

I’ve done a lot with 44mag, and reach out past 200yrds with a couple of my 44mag revolvers - doing THAT to my primer pockets isn’t a priority. I don’t even uniform my PRS match ammo, and only do so for the most extreme precision demand applications, which I just don’t do any longer, with the exception of this new adventure into ELR. I’ve uniformed a lot of cases in the past - and I’ll certainly debur flash holes - but I don’t typically uniform pockets, and even when I do, I’m not gouging my pockets by misusing a powered device like that. Statistical probability has blessed me far more often than has pocket uniforming.

What’s an FC45 video?
Edit: never mind