Cleaning before depriming

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Nikuser

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Hi all,

I just assembled my Dillon SDB (set for 9mm) and have a question before I start.

I have kept and collected most fired brass cases since I started shooting a few months ago. So far close to 2000 cases. Most fired from my own M&P and some donated from other shooter.

I have an ultrasonic cleaner, and realize it would be ideal to deprime the case before cleaning, however, if I run it through stage 1 of my press, I'd be running dirty brass through my resizer. Which defeats the purpose of cleaning before reloading.

My question is, should I bother deprimming or just use my ultrasonic cleaner as is and run the batch through the press to reload it?

I realize, those who use dry tumblers don't deprime, so what would it matter anyway, but still, I'm curious.

Thank you in advance for your advice.
 
I’m by no means an expert, just started myself. I just got back from the range. I fired 170 rounds that I reloaded. They were a mix of once fired blazer’s and remanufactured Wolff. I cleaned them with the primers in, then ran them through my Dillon 550c. All performed flawlessly.
 
DAgunlvr said:
I’m by no means an expert, just started myself. I just got back from the range. I fired 170 rounds that I reloaded. They were a mix of once fired blazer’s and remanufactured Wolff. I cleaned them with the primers in, then ran them through my Dillon 550c. All performed flawlessly.
Click to expand...

Do you clean wet or dry?
 
Following procedure might not be the best, but it's only my humble experience.

I clean before depriming : Dillon cartridge case cleaner tumbler with corn cob and Dillon Rapid polish.
After cleaning I check there's no remaining corn in my bras, deprime and resize withe the same die.
If the unprimed brass look too dirty, I clean with RCBS Primer Pocket Brush Combo the old primer hole.
Very seldom I need toi do it.

But I check the correct caliber for every and each reloaded cartridge with Lyman multiple caliber checker.

Hope it will give you some useful hints.
 
I always deprime and clean the primer pockets before cleaning the cases.
Deprime with a LEE universal deprimer die.
I clean the primer pockets With a Sinclair International brand primer pocket uniformer cutter, mounted in a Forester crank handle beburring tool base.
This is the same tool I used to uniform the primer pockets on new cases after the flash holes are uniformed and inside deburred.
I use a Wilson case length trimmer to insure all cases are the same length. Then case mouth are deburred.
During all this case handling the cases get inspected every time a case is picked up.
The cases get cleaned after this initial prep work is done.
Cleaning in a tumbler with stainless steel pins or my ultrasonic cleaner, sometime I use both types of cleaner tools.
 
Nikuser said:
Hi all,

I just assembled my Dillon SDB (set for 9mm) and have a question before I start.

I have kept and collected most fired brass cases since I started shooting a few months ago. So far close to 2000 cases. Most fired from my own M&P and some donated from other shooter.

I have an ultrasonic cleaner, and realize it would be ideal to deprime the case before cleaning, however, if I run it through stage 1 of my press, I'd be running dirty brass through my resizer. Which defeats the purpose of cleaning before reloading.

My question is, should I bother deprimming or just use my ultrasonic cleaner as is and run the batch through the press to reload it?

I realize, those who use dry tumblers don't deprime, so what would it matter anyway, but still, I'm curious.

Thank you in advance for your advice.
Click to expand...

One other option, which I started to use many years ago - buy a depriming ("decapping") die. They're fairly cheap and you can likely use the same decap die for most if not all your different calibers - maybe not for a .17 Hornet or similar, but almost anything larger than a .224 sized brass throat. I use an RCBS unit, which is stated for .22 to .25 caliber, but actually works right up through my 444 Marlin brass. I also use it for 9mm and .38Spl/.357 Mag cases.

I used to thread it into my Rockchucker single stage press, but now I stick it in the Lock 'n Load AP with the Hornady bushing (I had spares) to speed set up, and just feed the empties into the load station and keep pulling the handle. I can deprime/decap about 8 to 10 a minute if I concentrate on it.

I'm told that the Lyman decap die is better, but I can't confirm that since I've not used it.

The beauty of a decap die is that the brass isn't even touching the inside portions of the die, so there is no damage. The only part of the die which comes in contact with the brass is the pin to push out the old primer.

Once deprimed/decapped, I stick them all into the bucket with the stainless pins and water/Dawn/Lemishine and have at it for a couple of hours. My sizing/seating dies never see a dirty brass casing, so the chance of damage is pretty well eliminated. With one exception, I can also mix the brass (different calibers) in the tumbler to optimize the cleaning cycles and time. The exception, from hard experience, is that I know now NEVER to mix in my 444 Marlin brass with 9mm Luger brass - the 9mm is a perfect fit inside the 444 empty, and it is well nigh on to impossible to get the 9's out once they're stuck in there. I've had to toss several pieces of 444 Marlin brass out due to that.

You don't need a progressive to decap using the decapping die, but I do because it's really fast. I have the shellplates for all my pistol/revolver/rifle calibers that I bother reloading. A single stage works nicely, if more slowly - but on a winter night, when it's been as cold outside as it has, what else is going to take your time up?

O.N.G.
 
Lee depriming die. Old primers go to the scrap for $$.

I wet tumble and then dry my brass. Brass is ready to reload.

I leave the decapping pin in the sizing die just as a check.
 
Since I'm never really in a rush to reload, and have a pretty good supply of already cleaned/deprimed cases, I wet tumble dirty brass before I deprime, then tumble them again before I reload...never a mess on my press.
 
Wow! Thanks for all that info.

I am getting into reloading for the volume, which is why I got the progressive SDB.

Adding the step of depriming one a single stage with a universal die seems slightly counter intuitive. If I had a dry tumbler, I would still not be depriming first (because the media gets into the flash hole). but then once cleaned I could load them into the SDB and churn out some loaded rounds. Although, the primer pocket would still not be cleaned.

This is slightly confusing...
 
I deprime before wet tumbling as well, I always have a supply of clean brass on hand to reload during the winter months.
 
There's a few questions you need to answer. The first is how much time do you have to reload. The second is how much value is there to you to have shiny primer pockets.

The first question is important. You have a SDB, proprietary dies, no case feeder so you might as well use a single stage press with a universal decapper to protect your sizing die from damage from dirty brass. This will take you 3-5 seconds per piece of brass. You're looking at 1-2 hours minimum to pop out primers per 1000 cases.

The second question is based on the fact that the primer occupies most of the surface area inside the pocket and doesn't allow it to get "caked" with stuff. For most pistol round there really is no benefit to cleaning primer pockets which is why progressives do it for you after you have cleaned your brass.

I load in the neighbourhood of 40,000 round of pistol per year, never do I deprime before cleaning.
 
I use a "Harvey" hand de-primer for all my brass. It works great and I can sit at the bench and de-prime quickly with a beer and some tunes. It also gives me the chance to look at each piece of brass and decide if it has flaws, cracks or a lose pocket. It's really easy to tell with the hand de-primer. From there they take a nice hot bath in a wet tumbler. At this point, Pistol and rifle go different. Pistol goes straight to reloading on the Dillon and it's done. Running about 20,000 9mm/year and 7000 45's/year.

Rifle get annealed, sized and trimmed if required. Then rinsed again in an ultrasonic before priming and reloading on a single stage press.

On pistol brass this is just OCD and giving me something to take my mind off the world. For rifle it is still OCD but helps make really good rounds in my opinion. Feeling good about your rounds increases confidence and helps me shoot better. Low ES, consistent neck tension and CBTO help a lot as well. How ever you get there is up to you...
 
Given that I load between 12-15k rounds per year or more there is zero chance it is getting deprimed prior to cleaning. Perhaps if I had an automated press and could use a depriming die like others have suggested I might do it but on a SDB not a chance. Since I wet tumble I clean my brass, dry it in the oven for about 90 minutes at 225 degrees and then usually try to let it sit for several days before reloading.
 
Pistol brass I never deprime before (wet w/stainless) cleaning. I honestly don't see the point as clean primer pockets won't make a difference IMHO.
 
JohnnyPython said:
Lee depriming die. Old primers go to the scrap for $$.

I wet tumble and then dry my brass. Brass is ready to reload.

I leave the decapping pin in the sizing die just as a check.
Click to expand...

I'm new to wet tumbling but this is what I do now and so far I see no reason to change. The universal depriming die works very well. Even with 5.56 mil brass. No problems. And the wet tumbling really does a nice job. (as would an ultrasonic)
 
About 20 years ago I had enough of the Lee 1000 that I was attempting to run and was going to get rid of it and buy a Dillon 550 to reload on. I bought the 550 and tried to sell the Lee 1000 in the bargain finder and had no luck which is understandable. It sat for years in the bottom of my reloading cabinet until I had a great idea one day, why not use it to deprime my brass before I clean it. I bought a Lee universal depriming die and mounted it with the proper shell plate and away I went. I can deprime brass extremely quick when you don't have to worry about powder or primers.

Run my brass thru the Lee 1000 and deprime
Tumble clean and set out to dry and inspect
Load on the 550.
 
Paul_T said:
Pistol brass I never deprime before (wet w/stainless) cleaning. I honestly don't see the point as clean primer pockets won't make a difference IMHO.
Click to expand...

The only reason I deprime before I wet tumble is so the primer pocket can dry out good. With the primer still in the case it can hold moisture for quite a while, and I dont want to risk loading wet primer pockets.
 
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