Long Range Rifle Brass Prep

[Varminterror]

What process do you use to clean your brass? I read somewhere not to wet tumble with pins because the pins will damage the case neck. It sounded like a bunch crap to me but I thought I would ask.

Don’t over tumble.

I hate pins because they’re a pain to dump out of every case. Chips are less prone to get stuck in flash holes, but still have to dump out every case. Most often, I simply wet tumble brass in solution for large batches, or ultrasonic clean small batches.

 

[AJC1]

What process do you use to clean your brass? I read somewhere not to wet tumble with pins because the pins will damage the case neck. It sounded like a bunch crap to me but I thought I would ask.

Longer is not better for wet tumblers. 30 minutes should be plenty unless your running a wet gas gun that just makes a huge mess. You pien the necks and cause more work that's not nessary.

 

[RMH]

Again thank you for all of your insight.

I do have another question. Do you use any neck lube when seating bullets?

 

[AJC1]

Again thank you for all of your insight.

I do have another question. Do you use any neck lube when seating bullets?

Most of the bullets have a little polish on them. If they are not seating easy I dip the bullet in redding graphite.

 

[bluejay75]

Most of the bullets have a little polish on them. If they are not seating easy I dip the bullet in redding graphite.

And that will throw off your spreads.

You either have to do them all or do none. While annealing I noticed I was burning something OUT of the cases. Not sure what it was but for years I always wondered what made bullets seat harder than others. So it was either the tarnish on the bullets or something in the necks. Bullets with tarnish get washed with warm water, salt and vinegar and dried in the oven.

Then I scrubbed necks with a bronze brush in the Lyman case prep center. Even on sparkly clean cases you will have a brush with black goop after cleaning 500 or so necks. When it gets too dirty I wash it in vinegar and salt as well.

Almost all of my accuracy loads were 6 or below SD after just paying a little attention to case to bullet contact surfaces, deburring flash holes and weighing charges to the hundredth (or as close as I could get).

 

[Nature Boy]

Longer is not better for wet tumblers. 30 minutes should be plenty unless your running a wet gas gun that just makes a huge mess. You pien the necks and cause more work that's not nessary.

I agree. I wouldn’t wet tumble rifle brass you intend to use for precision work. The case mouths get beat up, which you end up having to fix.

Just tumble in a corn cob vibratory case cleaner

 

[Walkalong]

Do you use any neck lube when seating bullets?

Absolutely not.

 

[AJC1]

And that will throw off your spreads.

You either have to do them all or do none. While annealing I noticed I was burning something OUT of the cases. Not sure what it was but for years I always wondered what made bullets seat harder than others. So it was either the tarnish on the bullets or something in the necks. Bullets with tarnish get washed with warm water, salt and vinegar and dried in the oven.

Then I scrubbed necks with a bronze brush in the Lyman case prep center. Even on sparkly clean cases you will have a brush with black goop after cleaning 500 or so necks. When it gets too dirty I wash it in vinegar and salt as well.

Almost all of my accuracy loads were 6 or below SD after just paying a little attention to case to bullet contact surfaces, deburring flash holes and weighing charges to the hundredth (or as close as I could get).

I should have clarified the entire lot or box.

 

[bluejay75]

On mandrel dies do you lube the cases or the mandrel?

Does anyone use the Lee neck collet die? Tell me about your findings.

 

[Varminterror]

On mandrel dies do you lube the cases or the mandrel?

I spray my cases with One Shot in racks at a ~45* angle, from two sides such I get lube in the necks and on the shoulders for sizing and expanding.

 

[bluejay75]

I spray my cases with One Shot in racks at a ~45* angle, from two sides such I get lube in the necks and on the shoulders for sizing and expanding.

So I should be ok with some imperial SDW on a bore mop into the necks for sizing and mandrel sizing in two consecutive steps? Then back through the tumbler, trim then deburr.

 

[The Glockodile]

One thing about handloading, though...

There's a lot of Voodoo involved, hand - me - down information from "Champion Shooter X" who followed "Methodology Y" resulting in "Results Z."

While there likely is some good practice involved, take everything with a grain of salt...

Most of us don't really know which intervention definitively results in what outcome, and just go through the motions to satisfy our obsessive - compulsive tendencies

There are some articles online which attempt "all else being equal" experiments, which - while yielding good information, are limited by equipment / venues / etc.

For instance - I doubt any of these trials were attempted in an indoor 100m range to begin with.

 

[bluejay75]

@The Glockodile. I concur with the voodoo. I’m getting .003 neck tension from my RCBS x die in .308. I noticed that spring back made some cases size easier and some bullets seat easier. And with bullets with hard cores (Scenar) the seating force is so hard it deforms the bullets in half of the cases. I think the mandrel is what I’m missing. I have started annealing and it seems to be helping with spring back but I’m still not sure my process is refined enough.

 

[Walkalong]

On mandrel dies do you lube the cases or the mandrel?

I use nirtided mandrels with no lube

 

[Walkalong]

Most of us don't really know

A lot of us are proving our process on paper, repeatedly.

 

[Varminterror]

So I should be ok with some imperial SDW on a bore mop into the necks for sizing and mandrel sizing in two consecutive steps?

I don’t use Imperial SDW, and when I did, I wet tumbled it off before charging. I can’t say whether it’s compatible as a neck lube or not.

I have only used mica powder, graphite powder, and One Shot as neck lube.