To deprime and size cases prior to vibrate polish or no?

[Hondo 60]

Steve C: Putting deprimed brass in the cleaner just gets media stuck in the primer pockets and you have to pick them out by hand.

Yup thats my experience but wanted to know if this is what others have experienced.

Doesn't happen if you use fine enough corn cob - 20/40 grit.
Delivered to your door $26.93/40 pounds

http://www.drillspot.com/products/521055/econoline_526040g-40_40_lbs_blast_media


I wouldn't put dirty brass in my reloading dies.
So all my brass gets tumbled 2-4 hrs (depending on how dirty the media is)

 

[Captaingyro]

Metal Tiger, you have opened one of the most popular cans o' worms in reloading. For some reason, people are almost religious in their beliefs about tumbling de-primed cases. Some folks do it and have no problems, others swear that it is unholy, will clog flash holes, make your hair fall out and your wife howl at the moon. Besides, it won't clean your primer pockets, and anyone who wants clean primer pockets must be a fussy OCD case anyway. So there.

If you still want to do it (and my experience is that this will clean your primer pockets, although not to a like-new state), here's the drill:

1. Deprime with a dedicated de-priming die. They're cheap, and they laugh at dirty brass.

2. Tumble with fine media from Drillspot that has already been mentioned above. Fewer than 1% of your flash holes will be clogged with this stuff...many fewer. Any that are clogged are usually the result of media clumping around drops of polish.

3. Size as you normally would. If any flash holes are clogged, the de-priming pin in the sizer die will make short work of it.

4. Resign yourself to the fact that, should anyone ever find out that you're doing this, you will be advised, in no uncertain terms and for your own good, that powdery, finely-ground corncob is tougher than any de-priming pin, will obstruct the flame from a blow torch, let alone a primer, you're going to blow up a gun, and dirty primer pockets are just better because...well, just because.

 

[helotaxi]

Steve C: Putting deprimed brass in the cleaner just gets media stuck in the primer pockets and you have to pick them out by hand.

That's what the collet sizer in station one of the press if for. No need to waste the time picking out the media if a decapping pin will do it for me.

My process involves two runs through the tumbler for rifles and one for pistol; the first after coming from the range to get any carbon, etc... off the case that may scratch the die (this is for either rifle or pistol) and the second is after lube/size/trim to get the lube off the case. With pistol cases, I'm usually just after getting the carbon off the outside of the case and since I don't lube them for resizing, the second trip isn't needed. Everything is done in one run on the 550 after the initial cleaning. For my bolt rifles I follow much the same process since I neck size only with the collet die. For the ARs, the brass gets the "full monty" every time and I process in large batches so it isn't much of a hassle.

 

[David Wile]

Hey folks,

I like bright shiny brass, and I clean it each time I reload it. My time line is a bit different, however. I load my ammunition and then put the finished rounds in the vibratory case cleaner for nice shiney brass. No, I have never had any cartridge go off, and it does not affect the powder inside. What I get is bright shiny cartridges ready for use, and I do not have to mess with cleaning media stuck inside cases or in primer flash holes.

Best wishes,
Dave Wile

 

[beatledog7]

I guess one of those tinfoil hat wearing idiots. I clean primer pockets, and I check flashholes to make sure they're unobstructed.

I look both ways before I cross the street. And I wear a helmet when I'm on a horse or on two wheels -- over my foil hat, of course.

 

[David Wile]

Hey Beatledog,

I look both ways crossing the streets, but I started playing football before they had faceguards. Yep, my nose shows it. I was one of the dumb linemen who played center, and I found things like hip pads, thigh pads, and rib pads were too confining. For me, it was a helmet, shoulder pads, knee pads, and cleats. A helmet while riding a bike??? No way! Never did it as a kid - wouldn't do it now. Is that risky on my part? Yep, but so is walking down the street. One has to balance risk with pleasure.

Best wishes,
Dave Wile

 

[dbarnhart]

The brass goes into the polisher when I get home from the range. AFter sizing and decapping (and if necessary, trimming and swaging), it goes back into the polisher for a short while mostly to remove the lube.

 

[Metal Tiger]

Resign yourself to the fact that, should anyone ever find out that you're doing this (depriming sizing then tumbling...my addition), you will be advised, in no uncertain terms and for your own good, that powdery, finely-ground corncob is tougher than any de-priming pin, will obstruct the flame from a blow torch, let alone a primer, you're going to blow up a gun, and dirty primer pockets are just better because...well, just because.

Thanks Captain, I needed that. For now I will keep it simple and polish the brass in bulk and send it to the reloading bench 1000 or 2000 cases at a time. Thats for pistol of course. Otherwise I won't tell anyone that I am depriming then tumbling

 

[FROGO207]

My method I used prior to getting the Thumlers and SS media was as follows.

If the brass was really tarnished I would run them through the IOSSO liquid case cleaner first.

Tumble in walnut 10-15 min to remove dirt from brass.

Size with only decapper removed for either rifle or pistol brass. I would leave in the sizing ball. I pulled the decapping pin out of the Lee dies with Vise Grips.

Tumble till I was happy with the shine/cleanliness in walnut, or in corn cob for more shine if wanted.

Decap using a universal decapping die (I used my Lee 500 S&W die for this). I did not worry about dirty primer pockets on blasting ammo and cleaned them on hunting or SD ammo only.

Load as usual.

This worked well for me YMMV.

 

[cfullgraf]

First of all, I resize and prep brass shortly after shooting. I never have a large quantity to work on at any one time. I then store the prepped brass for later loading. Goes quickly. For me, it beats allowing the fired cases build up to a huge number.

When processing fired brass...

I tumble to clean off range grime.

I resize and expand the neck if pistol.

i tumble again to finish cleaning and/or remove the lubricant (rifle). Tumble time is over night because I am not going to get up in the middle of the night to process the tumbler.

As I am removing the cases from the tumbler, I inspect the flash holes and punch out debris with a piece of stiff wire. The added benefit is I also inspect the cases again. i have found split and damaged cases at this point.

Cases are then stored away until I have enough to make a good run on the progressive.

Also note, I hand prime my cases before running them through the progressive. Most of my rifle cases are still loaded on a single stage press.

 

[JohnM]

I pulled the decapping pin out of the Lee dies with Vise Grips.

Um, why the vise grips?

 

[FROGO207]

WHY??
Because they are stuck in good on rifle dies and I wanted to use the correct expander button to size the necks without removing the primer at that point. With straight walled pistol brass I just removed the decapping stem and stored it in the die box. I want to do ALL my tumbling before removing the primer that way will keep the flash hole clean.

 

[JohnM]

Never used a Lee rifle die.
Figured they'd be held with a collet just like in their pistol dies.

 

[CozMoDan]

I have a lee de-primer, it does not resize. After de-priming I tumble with Lyman Green. I use the green because of its small size and gets stuck in the primer pocket rarely. Then I resize and leave in the de-priming rod just in case a pocket does have media in it.
The Coz.

 

[GLOOB]

I have a lee de-primer, it does not resize.

Just be careful you don't get an unsized case mixed in with your sized brass. I had that happen once with my pistol ammo. Got a "click." Opened the slide. Found a bullet set back in the case just about down to the nose. Unsized, charged case. Thankfully, it had also never been decapped, since decapping and priming is part of my sizing procedure with pistol brass. Now, how did I not feel this when seating? No clue if it got by me or by my friend who helps out, sometimes. I mean, I have my suspicions. But it happened, nonetheless.

With my rifle brass, I prime separately from sizing. So if I didn't decap and size at the same time, then I imagine it would be possible to accidentally trim, chamfer, prime, and charge an unsized case that found its way into the wrong bin. And more than half my fired brass passes my Wilson case gauge before sizing, so if I didn't detect the lack of neck tension while seating, a dangerously set back round could easily find its way into my rifle.

 

[CozMoDan]

Gloob that is good advise for everyone that does separate stages. I bought several 1 gal buckets from the dollar store and mark them so I don't get confused.
The Coz.