Last question on reloading .380s, at least for a while

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Samari Jack

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I'll be glade to move on to my .40 S&W. Anyway, I've noticed from time to time a small piece of the corn cob cleaning media stuck in my brass after cleaning. I use polishing "cream" or what ever it is called in the tumbler too.

I try to tap the open end of brass before loading just in case and in some instances a small piece or two will fall out. It is had to eagle eye down the brass to make sure there isn't a piece in there. I suppose I could take a pipe cleaner or something and make a pass but these rounds are at my stage of reloading just for plinking.

I don't want to do anything dangerous. My assumption would be a small amount wouldn't hurt. But would like to hear from people with more experience.

This reloading thing, while a lot of fun, has a certain amount of an art form to it other than just stats in a book.
 
Not dangerous. There's a small chance that a piece of media will block the primer hole, but even that will probably be blasted out when the primer fires. Do you tumble brass after de-priming or before?
 
There have been a lot of threads about this in the past.

My personal feeling is, a spec of media would stand the same chance of being a problem as a fart in a tornado.

Personally, I clean my brass, then inspect each piece for defects before re-priming them all.
If I see stuck media I poke it out with a wood toothpick or something.

More recently, I switched to Zila brand walnut Lizard litter for tumbler media.
It is ground fine enough it does not stick in flash holes.

However a sure cure for the problem is, clean the brass before you size & deprime them and let the primer punch knock the media out along with the old primer.

Polishing does very little good to clean the primer pockets anyway, as once they pack full of media 10 seconds after you turn the tumbler on, no media movement can take place in there anyway.

rc
 
Tumble before de-priming. The first station on the 550B de-primes on the downstroke and re-primes on the upstroke.
 
Oh!

You meant media is sticking inside your brass, not in your flash holes.

You are using too much liquid polish, or not letting the clumps of wet media break up before you put the cases in after the liquid polish.

Also, buy or make yourself a rotary media separator and it will shake all the media out of everything.
http://www.thehighroad.org/showpost.php?p=7699893&postcount=4

http://www.dillonprecision.com/content/p/9/pid/23663/catid/8

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/176956/rcbs-rotary-case-and-media-separator

rc
 
I use the finer 20/40 corncob media. It does not block the flash hole like the larger media does. But if you have stuff sticking inside your brass either your using to much polish or not evenly distributed before you dump your brass in. I have seen some newer brass that has a wax sealer that most any thing sticks to it.
 
I clear all my flash holes of any media and tap the case once or twice to knock any left over media out. But if over look 1 or 2 pieces, it won't make a hill of beans difference once the powder lights up.

But bottle neck brass I'm a little bit more detailed in that, after I've resized, trimmed, and tumbled I give them a quick rinse in acetone, just because I'm overly particular about media dust possibly effecting the burn rate, if that's even possible, doubt it. But this is coming from a guy who use's a Q tip to wipe out the primer pockets after breaking the ash free.
 
Oh!

You meant media is sticking inside your brass, not in your flash holes.

You are using too much liquid polish, or not letting the clumps of wet media break up before you put the cases in after the liquid polish.

Also, buy or make yourself a rotary media separator and it will shake all the media out of everything.
http://www.thehighroad.org/showpost.php?p=7699893&postcount=4

http://www.dillonprecision.com/content/p/9/pid/23663/catid/8

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/176956/rcbs-rotary-case-and-media-separator

rc
Sounds about right. I put a big ole squirt in.

More of the "art" of reloading not found in a book.
 
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