Tumble BEFORE & AFTER sizing?

[Bang!]

pffffffffftttt before, during, and after. Like’em purty!

Wet tumble for two hours (.223 for example), dry in food dehydrator, lube/size/trim/chamfer/debur, wet tumble two hours, load, dry tumble in walnut/nufinish/mineral spirits/dryer sheets about an hour, choot’em, repeat.

Skip second wet tumble for pistol.

Shhiiiiineeeee!!

 

[Muddydogs]

I see no reason to clean rifle brass that comes out of my bolt rifles or brass that's caught out of the semi auto before its sized. I might clean gritty range brass before sizing, it just depends on if its gritty or not. Its not like anything on the brass is going to hurt the steel sizing die, if anything the brass is going to get scratched or dented before the steel die. If it make a guy happy to clean the brass 2+ times then so be it but if your looking to save a step then don't clean before resizing unless its needed.

 

[mcb]

I tumble all my brass before reloading. For pistol brass its crushed walnut shell with a little liquid turtle wax added. The wax is just enough lubrication to go through the carbide sizing dies easily. It also keeps the finish ammo from tarnishing.

Same for my rifle cases except I use One-shot to lubricate the brass for sizing after the tumble. I size all this as a separate step and then wipe the brass clean with a rag. It then gets loaded the rest of the way on the progress press with the sizing die removed.

 

[Schwing]

I'm on the train too. I usually tumble, deprime and tumble again. I like my press and my primer pockets clean.

 

[Bang!]

Working on these tonight. They’ll have to be dry tumbled as described above. Then the magic will really happen.

 

[gojones]

First, dirty bottleneck brass tumbles clean enough for sizing.

Rifle brass I assume?

I have no idea why you might have inferred from what you quoted of my post I was only referring to rifle brass. I assure you, if I were selectively addressing rifle brass, I would have called it out.

I don't size dirty brass, rifle, pistol, or revolver. Period. I might not lube all of my pistol and revolver brass when using carbide dies, so if such was the part with which you took exception, you didn't quote that, hence my confusion. Since you quoted the decapping part and the fact I don't run dirty brass into my dies, I assume you were questioning that part - both are true for all of the cartridges I reload, about 40 of them.

I didn't notice that the bottleneck portion of my response didn't post. I only used part of your statement because that one little sentence was all that I considered relevant to my response. As for the rest of your initial post, if that works for you then good. Now you go ahead and get the last word my friend.

 

[gonoles_1980]

I tumble dirty brass with crushed walnut shells, after I deprime and size after spraying with a mix of Lee's lube and alcohol, I tumble with corncob and Franklin's polish.