Do you decap before you tumble?

[cash--]

Just curious to see how everybody else does it.....

I tumble then deprime, which is easier for me, but dosent clean the flash hole out very well.

 

[Steve in PA]

Always tumble. Too easy to get the primer pocket clogged.

 

[res45]

If its range brass I pick up and it dirty enough I tumble it for a few hours to clean it up then I deprime later,my own stuff I deprime clean the pockets first then run it through the tumbler. I just try and keep as much crap out of my dies as possible. Once cleaned I inspect ever case for cracks and signs of weakness.

 

[Big Boomer]

I like to have clean cases go into my resizer/decapper. You have to use a primer pocket cleaner anyhow why add an extra step?

 

[Shooters Plus]

Straight to the tumbler unless their extra dirty with dirt or sand, then I run them through the media seperator first.

 

[Zeke Menuar]

Depends.

Everything but .223 gets deprimed first.

My AR is hungry. I load .223 in 300-500 round batches.

Tumble
Spray with lots of One Shot
Resize
Tumble again to get the one-shot off the cases
decap
etc. etc. Repeat hundreds of times.

ZM

 

[Noxx]

When I started on a single stage I would run through a decapper first, then clean, then clean primer pockets.... ad naseum.

Now that I generally run about 500 rounds a week in a couple different calibres, I just tumble em and send them on their way into the progressive, hasn't seemed to have made any difference so far.

 

[evan price]

If you tumble before decapping/resizing, the decapper pushes out the media crumbs that get stuck in the flash hole. Case closed.

 

[missoulaz28]

I tumble, lube, size/deprime, tumble for 30 mins, polish, hand prime/check flash holes, load.
thats for the rifles

pistols i tumble, deprime, load. since im not lubing them.

 

[mjrodney]

Tumble first, deprime later.

 

[Kimber1911_06238]

depends, if I'm reloading for my revolver or the case are clean, i'll decap and then tumble. If I'm reloading for a semi and the brass has been all over the ground and covered with dirt/sand I tumble first. No need to have all that crud going through the resizing die.

 

[Ala Dan]

Tumble first~!

 

[Walkalong]

Pistol brass:

Tumble. Size/deprime. Hand prime. Load. No I did not forget to clean the primer pockets. I skipped it on purpose.


Rifle:

Tumble. Size/deprime. Hot rinse/dry. Tumble. Clean primer pockets. Hand prime. Load.

ROLL TIDE

 

[JoeHatley]

I deprime before I tumble, using a decapping die. Any media that gets stuck is popped out by the decapping pin when I resize the nice clean brass.

Joe

 

[The Bushmaster]

Tumble brass first for about 15 to 20 minutes to remove dirt and grit. Decap/resize. And tumble for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Then store or reload.

I use a media that will flow through the flash hole like sand in an hour glass.

 

[ReloaderFred]

Tumble first, then resize and decap. Clean primer pockets. If lubed for sizing, then tumble again for about half an hour in untreated corn cob to remove lube.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[ocabj]

Deprime first. This is mainly to keep the lead dust down since the spent primers consist of quite a bit of lead waste. No point of 'cleaning' spent primers in the tumbler.

 

[mainebear]

Yeah, what Evan Price said. Works the best for me.

 

[halvey]

For pistol, I don't decap.

Sometimes I do for rifle.

 

[Texas Colt]

Tumble
De-prime/resize
Clean primer pocket with a brush
Flair case mouth
Tumble again with polish

I like purty brass

 

[gandog56]

I have yet to see any kind of media get the built up crud in a primer pocket clean, so I don't deprime first.

 

[cpttango30]

I clean then deprime and size then tumble again then Prime with a hand primer then load with powder and then seat bullet. I am have extra free time on my hands (which I normaly I do not) I will get out the primer pocket cleaner and clean them out. Other wise I do not really care what the primer pockets look like.

 

[trueblue1776]

For pistol, I don't decap.

wow, where do you get those primers?

 

[eliphalet]

Decap and wash in the tumbler, I stopped using that messy media some time back. I might under the right circumstances but in the last few years haven't.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

I won't send dirty brass through my resizing die.