bulk question

[moooose102]

i bought 500 "once fired" 40 s&w cases, started reworking them. deprimed, tumbled, sized, chamfered, and then it dawned on me. ok, how am i going to get all of the little brass shavings out of these now that i am done with the cases. can i re-tumble them without oblonging the already sized cases? or should i like wash them in soapy water and rinse them a few times? i originally used walnut shells to tumble them, as i was more concerned with getting them clean rather than polishing the brass. so they are not as bright as i would like, but i can live with that for now, and tumble them in corn next time. it would be nice to get them shiney, but i REALLY DO NOT want to resize all 500 of these again! when i am reworking normally, in much smaller groups, i usually size/deprime, chamfer, then tumble. but not knowing how dirty these might be, coming from an unknown source, i wanted to clean them before i put them through my dies.

 

[uneasy_rider]

I am not sure why you think they need to be re-tumbled.

 

[Griz44]

No reason not too, but it is strictly cosmetic. It certaily will not hurt them. Sometimes I do tumble again to make really shiney loads. Occasionally I have even tumbled loaded rounds with lots of polish to make them really nice!

 

[strat81]

I wouldn't recommend tumbling deprimed ammo since media LOVE to wedge itself in flashholes and primer pockets.

What are you chamfering on a .40S&W case, case mouth or primer pocket?

Tumbling sized ammo should not significantly affect the size of the cases.

 

[SASS#23149]

why not just tap the case on the workbench to knock the shavings out as you do each one?
and why deprime/tumble/size? the media isn't going to clean the pockets,imho,and it's adding an extra step.just tumble,size/deprime in the same die.
You won't need to resized after tumbleing.
for shiny casees,even ujsing walnut,get Nufinish car polish in the plastic bottle.that stuff makes cases SHINE.

 

[scrat]

Nope i would not tumble them either. you sized deprimed and everything. Unless you plan on sizing them again. You know the tumbler can make some of the case mouths out of round again. Just load them. Tap the cases to get the excess brass out and load them.

 

[tding]

moooose102 - Do you have compressed air available?

Stop thinking that you guys with dirty minds!

 

[RustyFN]

I guess I'm curious why you would trim straight wall pistol brass. I know threre are a couple of people that do but not many. Are they just for plinking or are you trying to get something highly accurate? I tumbled some 223 brass in walnut that was deprimed and the stuck media in the flash hole wasn't that bad. It was only 10 to 15 cases and the pointy end on my Lee case trimmer pushed them right out.
Rusty

 

[TexasSkyhawk]

1. Dittos on the compressed air. My air compressor is just a part of my reloading/casting area. You can get a small "pancake" compressor for well under a hundred dollars at Sears and most other hardware stores.

It's also extremely useful for cleaning your guns as well.

2. I doubt you got enough brass shavings in your cases to affect anything. As others have said, just tap or blow them out.

3. For shiny, clean brass, here's my formula--I use a Thumler's Tumbler, so my cleaning times are longer than those who use vibratory tumblers. I use the Zilla walnut you can get at either Walmart or Petsmart for ten bucks. I've found it to be a superb brass cleaning agent.

I clean in two stages--Treated and Untreated media.

1. Stage One--Brass in the tumbler, walnut media poured in. Half a cap or so of NuFinish car wax, a quarter cap of odorless mineral spirits and a dryer sheet cut up into four or six pieces. I tumble for eight hours.

2. Stage Two--Pour treated walnut media back into marked and labeled rubbermaid container after separatin brass and media through my sifting setup. Pour cleaned brass back into tumbler. Fill tumbler with Untreated Zilla wanut media. Tear up a Scott's shop paper towel into four pieces. This helps "shine and polish" the brass. Tumble for four to six hours.

At the end of Stage Two, my brass looks factory new inside and out.

Jeff

 

[moooose102]

i do have compressed air, but not in my reloading area, yet. i will take them to the garage and blow them out. why didn't i think of that? duh!

I guess I'm curious why you would trim straight wall pistol brass

i didn't trim them, just chamfered the mouth to aid in bullet seating. i am not even shure this is necessary, as it appears the factroy does not do it. but better safe than sorry.

No reason not too, but it is strictly cosmetic

well, with my eyes, i need all the help i can get finding my cases in the feild so i can reload them again. shiney cases are just a LOT easier to find!

 

[TexasSkyhawk]

i do have compressed air, but not in my reloading area, yet. i will take them to the garage and blow them out. why didn't i think of that? duh!

Get you one of those little 20lb portable air tanks. You fill it up from your compressor, put a line on it with an air-gun, and you can carry it anywhere you want.

I have several--handy as all get out.

Jeff

 

[RustyFN]

i didn't trim them, just chamfered the mouth to aid in bullet seating.

Sorry I must have read it too fast. If you have a media separator you might be able to get the shavings out just by tumbling the cases around in there.
Rusty

 

[Dravur]

Get you one of those little 20lb portable air tanks. You fill it up from your compressor, put a line on it with an air-gun, and you can carry it anywhere you want.

and if you get a cattle stunner and a really bad haircut, you can star in your own movie.

 

[ants]

Hey, moooose.

For people without compressed air, you can put processed cases in your tumbler without media to remove all the grit, shavings, leftover media, etc.
It only takes a few minutes.
That's what we all did when we first started using vibratory cleaners (tumblers) but they hadn't invented media separators yet. We just tumbled without media for a few minutes.

 

[Shoney]

moooose102 wrote:
just chamfered the mouth to aid in bullet seating.

Not only is champhering straight wall auto-pistol cases not needed, but it is not a good idea! The belling die opens the case to facilitate bullet seating and no camphering is necessary. After the bullet is seated, you then taper crimp.

If the case is camphered when the mouth of the case is taper crimped, the mouth could be bent inward, sort of like a roll crimp. And since the 40 case head space off the front of the rim, you could get uneven head spacing and that will lead to more problems.

 

[kingpin008]

I don't even reload (yet), and I'd have to agree - taking off metal from the case mouth is unnecessary and could be dangerous. If nothing else, it would most certainly reduce the life of the brass, since you're making an area that will be belled and crimped unnecessarily thin.

 

[Shoney]

kingpin008: for clarification. Pistol cases and some straight walled rifle cases are belled to facilitate bullet seating.

Straight wall auto-pistol cases actually shrink with each resizing, albeit only a fraction each time.

Rifle cases stretch with each firing, and periodically need to be trimmed back. Inside and outside champhering of these trimmed cases is necessary. Belling of bottleneck cases is not done.

 

[qajaq59]

well, with my eyes, i need all the help i can get finding my cases in the feild so i can reload them again. shiney cases are just a LOT easier to find!

I must say, that is the first sensible reason I've seen for tumbling cases until they were really nice and shiny.

 

[Griz44]

I wouldn't recommend tumbling deprimed ammo since media LOVE to wedge itself in flashholes and primer pockets.

By the time I reload, the brass has been inspected for firing failures (especially head cracks which are hard to catch after cleaning), then cleaned, lubed, decapped and sized so they can get a really close up detailed inspection. For loading, I put a universal decapper in station 1 of the progressive to make sure there is not a plugged flash hole. I have a taper crimp die in station 5 with a final sizer carbide in it just to make sure the round is to size spec and will fit the chamber. It usually just hits the taper crimper and barely brushes the sizer as it goes through. Just my way, there are many other ways, all are good as long as they make safe ammo and the loader is happy with them.