wet tumbling and depriming

[greyling22]

I'm toying with getting into wet tumbling with stainless steel. And I've read articles and watched youtubes, but I still have 1 question:

Do you HAVE to deprime before tumbling?

I load both pistol and rifle. I don't care about clean primer pockets at all. I don't mind deprimng for rifle, but I am just not even going to deprime all my handgun brass before it run it though the progressive press.

 

[X-Ring]

Do you HAVE to deprime before tumbling?

No, you just will not get the primer pockets clean.

 

[9mmepiphany]

If you aren't going to deprime to get the primer pockets clean, why would you go to wet tumbling?

 

[konertjm]

Not de-priming can cause drying issues. Sometimes resulting in water spots on brass stored in containers.
There is also this nasty rumor about primer separation in wet cleaned brass.
I had it happen twice in 3k rounds.

I de-prime everything in a universal depriming die. A little extra work, but imho well worth it.

 

[Havok7416]

I don't deprime before (dry) tumbling and I have yet to burst into flames. Some people like every part of the case spotless, so they deprime before tumbling. No problems either way though.

 

[konertjm]

That's why I wet clean. No fear of bursting into flames.

 

[greyling22]

it is/was wet primers potentially causing a problem that I was concerned about.

I pick up a lot of range brass, and some of it is pretty sad, so so stainless tumbling has some appeal there, but primarily I was looking at a 22 suppressor that has titanium parts that you can't dip and I am too lazy to hand scrap/scrub. I could tumble it, but I am not going to buy a tumbler just to clean a suppressor. However, if I could significantly improve my case cleaning as well, then that is a different story.

 

[lbs]

i will usually deprime rifle brass but doing hundreds of pistol cases is just too much trouble for a very little gain.:banghead:

 

[scythefwd]

couldnt liquid get into the old primer pocket (not much, but a little)? If you didnt get perfectly dried out, could it cause less consistent ignition of a primer to the point it could mess with accuracy?

 

[judgedelta]

It seems to me that if you don't deprime before cleaning, you are going to have to be really careful in drying your cases. With the primer hole open, you have a channel for the moisture to escape and for air to circulate. I deprime mine as I shoot, about 50 or so at a time, doesn't take very long. I like for brass (and ammunition) to look pretty much new when I get through. Just OCD, I guess...

 

[USSR]

As previously mentioned, you will have a drying problem with brass wet tumbled without the primers removed. I tried it once; never again.

Don

 

[tcj]

I actually wet clean twice using an Ultrasonic - if I was to buy again today would get the stainless pin tumbler.

I do a short cycle on range brass to get grit and carbon off of the outside of the case. Then let it air dry but am not worried about getting it 100%.

Then I lube, deprime (universal die) and resize on the press. That is followed by a longer wet cycle and a full dry.

I process all of my brass in large batches (minimum of 300+) and have lots of range brass that I have collected and so am not in a hurry.

The reason for the 2x cleaning is not so much being anal over the primer pockets but I like to get the lube off after resizing as I find that it reduces how often I need to clean the magazines.

Also, I found that when I wet clean if I use a cheap salad spinner I can get most of the water out of the cases so that they dry faster.

 

[cfullgraf]

I do things similar to tcj although if I clean to get rid of range grime I dry tumble.

I like to clean the cases after sizing and prep to get rid of all sorts of stuff. Depending on quantity and the level of dirt, I switch between dry and wet tumbling.

Wet tumbling is great but I do not always have batches large enough to make the extra time involved worthwhile.

 

[greyling22]

so it sounds like yes, you do need to deprime. And I think I'm out on that then. I just don't shoot enough rifle to make it worth it. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[brutus51]

Considered wet tumbling after I tried a sonic which didn't do a thing for the primer pockets, instead I bought an RCBS case prep tool and now I clean the primer pocket on the way to the flaring die ( only use a single stage press).
As I've said before:
"tumbling your brass and not cleaning the primer pocket is akin to washing your pants but not your underwear"

 

[z7]

I have found that depriming rifle to be necessary, 308 and 223 cases hold onto water for a long time if the primer is in. 9mm or 40sw will dry in a day regardless. Sometimes I will clean with primers in, give it a day and go.