NEWBIE... decapping before tumbling

[Hooda Thunkit]

I went many years without a tumbler of any kind. I would wipe the brass with a rag, then size/deprime and load.

Now, I decap, wash in soapy water, rinse, soak in Lemi-shine, dry out in the sun. Then a stint in a dry tumbler, walnut media and Nu-shine.

Maybe excessive, but I'm usually not in a hurry. And, the shiny brass is purty....

 

[redbullitt]

Tumble with the primers in, otherwise you get to pick walnut out of the flash hole : ).

I dont worry about cleaning the pockets really, especially in most pistol shooting.

Just shot a handful of 2.5 inch groups doing load development at almost 500 yards with dirty 308 primer pockets lol. Mind you if they are really nasty and built up enough to affect the primer seating then that is a different affair. Does not happen often really for me though.

 

[Blue68f100]

If you use the finer 20/40 corncob blast media you will not have the problem of media in the flash hole. The 20/40 media is fine enough to flow through the hole.

 

[Dudedog]

Welcome to THR lots of great people here.

My range has a nice combo of clay (sticky) and sand (abrasive).
I usually sort picked up brass and toss the various flavors into different buckets of soapy water to soak while I am running the first cleaning pass on it all.
I then do a quick run through the wet tumbler with pins (1/2 an hour or so), citric acid and car wash and wax, let dry and then resize/deprime.
I will run these through again for about an hour and they come out great.
Let them dry then prime them at some later point in time.
(I use a Lee hand primer and can prime cases while watching football on the TV etc.--Wear Safety Glasses!)
Later when I go to load on my LNL progressive or Lee turret I just use the primed brass.
Some extra steps but I really like not having to mess with priming while I am loading.
I also feel having the cases already resized helps me get more consistent OAL when loading on the progressive.

Do the primer pockets really need to get cleaned, probably not, but the shiney brass makes me happy even if it does not shoot any better.

For pistol no difference if you resize with the pin in or not.
For most rifle the case neck expander is on the pin so you need to use it.

 

[hdwhit]

I always decap before tumbling.

The reason I do it is that I want to clean any dirt or contaminants off the brass before running it through my sizing die and having the primer knocked out helps the brass dry out after wet tumbling.

 

[Doublehelix]

I wet tumble my brass, and I as I mentioned earlier, I used to decap before wet tumbling (w/ ss pins). Once I started leaving the old primers in place for tumbling, I noticed that the water was way dirtier than with the decapped brass, and the brass was not as clean. Now, tend to wet tumble for an hour or so, then dump the dirty water, and add fresh water, soap and Lemishine. Works great, but adds another step. My brass looks much cleaner now.

 

[mdi]

Welcome to the wonderful, oft confusing and frustrating world of reloading!

With a question like that you are going to read from reloaders who do everything you asked about and some who do none. What do you think would work best for your ammo? Some don't want to deprime on their press because of the primer debris causing possible extra wear on the press. Some want pristine primer pockets and deprime and tumble before sizing. Some will say they want extra clean brass to protect their dies. Some will tumble before putting a case in their press. Every opinion has it's facts to back them up. And then there is those that don't give a darn what their brass looks like as long as they are accurate.

So, pick out an answer from the above and try it that way. If it fits your "style" then use it, if not try something else. Personally I started reloading in '69 and reloaded 12 years before I got a tumbler and just wiped my cases with a solvent dampened rag as I inspected it. No ruined/scratched dies, and I could spot any defects. Today I inspect, tumble, inspect then process the brass...

 

[gonoles_1980]

I tumble with walnut, deprime, then tumble with corn cob and Franklin polish. Probably over tumble, but it really doesn't cost much.

 

[santacruzdave]

Welcome! Good to have another beginner to the reloading game. Lots of great answers here. I like that there are many different approaches to making our own ammo. I use a Lee Classic Turret press and I like to batch prime before I reload pistol cartridges. So I decap and wet tumble with SS pins so the brass is squeaky clean. Prime with an RCBS bench primer then store until I'm ready to reload. I have a process that I like and serves my purposes. I watched tons of youtube videos, read a few reloading manuals and sketched out a work flow on paper. Then I tried a few small runs and made adjustments. It's been a fun process and a necessary skill if you live in California.

 

[Captaingyro]

When I get home from the range with pickup brass I just dump it all in a bucket and rinse it well with water. That's all it takes to get off any grit that will hurt the sizing die. Throw it all on a towel to dry. Then:

1. Size and deprime in a single step. Even though I use carbide dies I still use a little Imperial Sizing Wax on my fingertips to make the sizing go easier.

2. Wet tumble with SS pins.

You now have brass that is pretty much the way it left the factory.

 

[Chuck R.]

The method that works for me:

For the brass I'm going to clean using the vibratory cleaner, I do not de-prime 1st, as other pointed out, it takes a gazillion hrs to clean a primer pocket using corn/walnut, and the media get's stuck in the flasholes and primer pockets.

For the brass I'm going to tumble wet with SS pins, I do de-prime the rifle brass. Pistol? there's way to much to bother with, but I have noticed that on the pistol brass I've de-primed after tumbling the primer pockets have less residue in them.

Chuck

 

[Ru4real]

Consider any debris on your range pickup brass will likely end up in the next process you do. Size or tumble.

Once a small piece of silica embeds in your sizing die, it will scratch all subsequent brass until you get it out of the die, my personal example.

 

[sbwaters]

So it is possible to resize without the decapping pin in the die?

The sizing die decapping pin is too narrow to affect resizing on my .45 and 9MM. Different for a narrow-necked rifle case. Besides, sometimes, when the case is not well centered, the pin almost misses the primer hole risking getting bent. I’m happy not to use it.

I wet tumble with stainless steel pins and love the results after 1-3/4 hours with Lemishine and Armor All wash and wax. I stopped using the dry walnut vibrating tumbler located on my bench when my lead levels tested slightly elevated. Glad not to have dust.

 

[Master Blaster]

In over 20 years of reloading I have never found any need for depriming before I tumble. I have .45 and .38 brass that has been reloaded over 10x and see no issues with cleaning or not cleaning the primer pocket. Precision bench rest rifle loads may benefit from cleaning the primer pockets, but pistol ammo it makes no difference and is just an extra step.

 

[HardwarePro]

My 2 cents:
If you monitor the process, deprime before or after.
If you deprime after and forget that the brass is in the tumbler for an extended period, or don't dry it, you run the risk of stuck primers and the bottoms popping off.

 

[jgh4445]

^^^^^This. GBExpat nailed it. Its a stress reliever for me, and I really enjoy my time loading. Its like crafting something special. I like to hear how others do it. For this thread, I decap on a Universal, wet tumble, dry and put away till I'm ready to load it. Reloading and speed have nothing in common for me. I do use a 650, but I'm never in a hurry, never feel like I'm in a race with time.