Issues with first reloading session

Djsamphard said:
1) I noticed after i tumbled the brass there was 1 small piece of media stuck in at least 50% of the cases. Every time i tried to deprime it, the lee deprimer die would not be able to take out the priimer and the pin would travel up. This happend pretty much with 85% the brass that had the media stuck in the primer pocket. PLEASE HELP ME FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.
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I believe brass tumbling is unnecessary and a total waste of time. The time wasting does not stop when the tumbling is done, as you have found out.
 
Deprime before you tumble, then use a flash hole uniformer. It will remove any media and make all your flash holes the same.

I custom ground some old drill bits that do a nice job.

OCD is a plus for hand loaders :)
 
I've never had an issue with pushing leftovers through with the decapping pin. Are you sure it's tight in the die and are you sure you're using the right shell holder?
 
I use corn media - add Nu Finish for shine and then half of a sheet of Bounce in the media. This seems to help keep the media sticking to the brass. Afterwards, a good spin in a FA separator and I rarely have any stuck media. I do deprime prior to tumbling.

ht tps://www.amazon.ca/Frankford-Arsenal-Quick-N-EZ-Rotary-Seperator/dp/B004J4B2IW
 
Have you degreased the decapping pin and collet ? If you're not breaking the pin and it's just pushing up it may be a simple solution.
 
Ron AKA said:
I believe brass tumbling is unnecessary and a total waste of time. The time wasting does not stop when the tumbling is done, as you have found out.
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Actually no. Tumbling removes range grit from the cases. Most scratches in sizing dies are caused by sizing cases with grit stuck to them. Also, just as crud buildup on slide rails will eventually cause increased wear and malfunctions, so too will crud buildup on cases impede their ability to chamber smoothly. I am always surprised to see people extoll the virtues of gun cleaning and proceed to load their clean gun with dirty, fouled cases. But hey, whatever floats your boat.
 
Contrary to what several people have advised I tumble my brass with the spent primers left in. This prevents any media from sticking in the primer pocket (and lots of it will). You will get the occasional media particle in the flash hole but this is not common and it is pushed out by the decapping Rod. Decapping before dry tumbling serves no purpose anyway as dry tumbling does almost nothing to clean the primer pockets (as opposed to wet tumbling with stainless pins which cleans the primer pockets very well). I've fired literally thousands of handloaded 9mm rounds which were cleaned this way and have never had a single squib caused by a blocked flash hole. I've used both coarse Lyman media and fine ground corn cob and neither have ever caused a problem.

As for the sliding decapping rod you need to make sure the rod and collett interior are free of oil & grease which would cause the rod to slide too easily. And the collett needs to be tightened about as tight as you can get it. It will still slide but needs a lot of resistance (far more than a particle of media will cause) before it does and that's how it's designed.
 
The only time I get media in the primer pocket , is from removing the lube from rifle cases. And the only decapping pin I've ever broken ,was from berdan brass,and that didn't happen on the first one.
 
i use an old screw driver i ground a point on i check the brass as i take it out of the tumbler look through them at a light or light back ground pop out the pieces of media no big deal
 
I used to have the media stuck in flash hole problem. Solution was to go to Princess Auto and buy a 50 pound bag of crushed walnut media - $30. This is smaller stuff and does not stick in anything.

Crimp and bullet seating.

Back the die out a turn so there is no crimping. Adjust stem down until you get the OAL you want. 1.120" is a good number.

Seat bullets in 10 rounds. They will be uncrimped, so you should feel a bit of a flare in the case.

Screw the seater stem up a couple of revs.

With a round in the die, ram all the way up, screw the die down until you feel the crimper hit the case. Turn a 1/4 turn and crimp a couple rounds. The seater stem should not be touching the bullets when you do this.

Examine the crimp. Adjust die in or out a tad, as required, then lock the die in place.

Crimp a few more rounds to make sure the crimp is just right - just enough to take away the flare.

Now run the crimped round up into the die and turn the seater stem back down until it hits the bullet.

The die will now seat bullets to the right OAL and will crimp perfectly.

If this makes sense to you, you can do it faster than you can read this.
 
Also, I'm using a RBCS die,not sure if the lee is the same.
But sometimes get a little bit more or less crimp, I think this has to do, with the cases being a little shorter or longer. I find it has no effect on my rounds
 
Ron AKA said:
I believe brass tumbling is unnecessary and a total waste of time. The time wasting does not stop when the tumbling is done, as you have found out.
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To the OP: The above is BAD advice! This reminds me of the kind of advice that Sunray used to try and peddle and most of us know what happened to him ;)

Tumbling, even if only for half an hour, will remove the many tiny particles of grit that are clinging to, and embedded into, the exterior of the fired cases. If you fail to remove this grit, you will surely ruin many sizing dies in the coming years causing much expense and frustration.

If you really want to clean your cases thoroughly, buy a wet tumbler with stainless steel media or an ultrasonic cleaner.

As for the decapping/sizing pin slipping in the Lee die, read the instructions that came with the Lee Die Set: "Considerable Torque may be necessary. A 1/2" and 3/4"wrench are necessary."

In other words, Reef that sucker down!
 
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