poll: when do you ?

how & when do you tumble brass?

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moooose102

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when do you tumble your brass, before you size / deprime, do you deprime only then tumble, or tumble with the primer in? and why? i have been depriming, tumbling, then resizing. but i have always (until now) done only small lots. now i have been buying lots of 500 to 1000 "once fired" brass, and i am starting to question my choice.
 
I tumble til clean and shiney, hit them in a tray with a little spray lube, aloe and water, then run them through the loadmaster (love the case feeder) to deprime and size. Then the first full inspection. Clean pockets, etc... This catches the defective cases before a loading run. My thoughts are a little different than most, but my sequence for loading:
Station 1 - universal decapper to make sure flash hole is clean and case is aligned
Station 2 - Universal flare die to set bell on case mouth and hold case rock solid for primer insert. The Loadmaster primes at top of stroke.
Station 3 - Powder through die, mouth flare is NOT done here because of station 2. This seems to help the case life span. The powder through die expander seems to overwork the case, so I do not use it.
Station 4 - Bullet seating - NO crimping done here.
Station 5 - FCD taper crimp.

It works for me, I get good, accurate ammo this way.
 
The first thing I do is tumble in corn cobs, then deprime and size, then tumble AGAIN in ground up walnut media, as the corn cob will get stuck in the flash hole, but walnut cleans out the primer pocket and flows easily through the flash hole.
 
I do most steps the hard way. I de-prime with the Lee decapper & base, then re-size in a Lee Reloader press, then trim with the Lee trimmer, then tumble with walnut and Nu-Finish and half a dryer sheet cut into 1" squares. Dump the tumbler into a colander sitting over a bucket and use the decapper to clear the flash holes, then prime and load.
 
I find it is easier to tumble in order to remove any possible grit and grime that might harm the dies diring the sizing/depriming steps.
 
I'm an extremist on tumbling!

First I deprime in a dedicated decap die. Clean primer pockets. If theyre really nasty they take a dunk in Isso case cleaner for 5mins or less. Then they dry overnight. First trip through the tumbler with Frankford Arsenal polish and walnut. Resize, trim and chamfer on the Gracey. Back into the tumbler with corncob and more F/A polish, run for at least 8hrs. Ready to load, looking like new! I don't use the Isso any more than once on a batch of brass.
 
I de-prime. Then re-prime. Then expand, charge, and seat.
But then again, I'm reloading practice ammo for a pistol, not precision long range rifle.
 
Tumble first. Dump, sort, store. Any media crumbs in the flash hole get pushed out by the decapper, and I personally would rather not run dirty brass through a die. I've picked up some .38 SPL that had a network of scratches longitudinally along the whole case which were obviously from a dirty die. Scrap! The scratches are cracked-mouth failures waiting to happen.
 
Tumble first. especially when shooting rifle. the tumbler can help reveal things on the brass. Say hair line cracks things you may have not seen until you have spent some time on them. Last thing i want to do is deprime and size everything just to find out there is a hairline spider crack on the case. so tumble first then inspect. deprime and size.
 
I tumble then resize and deprimer then tumble them again some times I will have the kids use the lee decapping die and then I will tumble them then resize them then tumble them again.
 
Going forwards...

Tumble... Walnut with sheet and flitz.
De Prime..
Cold wash .. SOAP and Water.
Dry
Prime
Obsess over COAL, Powder, Load, Bullet wieght...
Post 2-3 threads around specific loads...
Read and compile the information
Obsess some more..
Finally select a Load for a batch...
Change my mind and load something else
Log
Wait for weekend
Go shoot


And while upset at range... waiting for the barrel to cool between shots.. do something stupid like try to load a VZ-24 by directly placing a cartridge in the chamber, or shoot a string of .22 LR's with a suppressor and no hearing.
Then pick up the .300 Win Mag with a brake and light one off without hearing protection. :eek:

Come back and cry... because the new shiny rifle is spraying...
Repeat all steps as necessary...
 
The order with in which I do the process depends on where the brass is comming from. If it is my brass, I simply put a little brakekleen on a rag, wipe the necks, then lube, decap, size. All my weapons are bolt action, so my brass does not even make it to the table, much less the floor.

If I have newly acquired brass, in to the corncob it goes. After a little time, it is removed, decapped, then tossed in to the walnut/rouge for a polish. Then in to the cob again for about 10 minutes to remove excess rouge, then off to sizing......
 
I de-cap and resize first . I look at them as I remove the from the separater and inspect the primer pockets to remove any stuck media. I just use a large thumb tack to remove debris.
 
I tumble, then lube & size, trim, chamfer, tumble again to remove lube & brass shavings.
 
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