Cleaning brass with or without primers?

BCMac

BCMac

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New to reloading and all set up. Well almost all. I don't have a tumbler yet, and probably won't until I come across a used one for a good price.

So in the mean time I plan to clean my brass with the vinegar, dish soap, salt solution I've been reading about. Question is, do you guys clean your brass before depriming or would I be better off getting one of those universal decapping dies prior to popping the brass into the solution?

Or is there a different cleaning alternative that I'm unaware of?
 
When using fluid to clean ... which I don't do , always take the primers out. I find when I first started to anneal, I would leave the primers in just because I would deprime when I resized ... which you obviously do after the annealing process. Anyway , when I would dump the brass in the water with the primers in, the primes would " from soaking in the water " leak all kinds of residue on the brass. Sometimes I would not want to tumble after annealing, so it was very inconvenient.

If you clean your brass with fluid and the primers are left in, you will find all your hard work will be for nothing
 
If you're reloading multiple calibers, get a universal decapping die. When you come home after the range, just dump all your spent cases into a big heap and decap them all. Soak in your wash, dry and sort and then resize. With rifle cases you'll have to clean the lube after resizing. I just toss 'em into a vibratory tumbler with treat corn cob media for 30min and I'm ready to reload. One of the reasons I don't like wet tumbling is the extra effort in having to dry them etc. :p
 
I tried once tumbling before decapping, never again, I bent so many decapping pins and a $15 decapping rod in my S series die when they struck media stuck in the flash holes and diverted into the case base instead of the flash hole, it was a costly experiment.
 
pilot2001 said:
When using fluid to clean ... which I don't do , always take the primers out. I find when I first started to anneal, I would leave the primers in just because I would deprime when I resized ... which you obviously do after the annealing process. Anyway , when I would dump the brass in the water with the primers in, the primes would " from soaking in the water " leak all kinds of residue on the brass. Sometimes I would not want to tumble after annealing, so it was very inconvenient.

If you clean your brass with fluid and the primers are left in, you will find all your hard work will be for nothing
Click to expand...

Makes sense..
 
The contrarian in me is awake early this morning...

pilot2001 said:
I resized ... which you obviously do after the annealing process.
Click to expand...
Why is that obvious? Any caliber I load on my progressive press gets resized precisely three strokes of the handle before the bullet is seated, not much time for annealing in between.

I tried once tumbling before decapping, never again, I bent so many decapping pins and a $15 decapping rod in my S series die when they struck media stuck in the flash holes and diverted into the case base instead of the flash hole
Click to expand...
Harsh luck. I tumble all my brass before decapping, I find much less media sticks in the flash holes that way and what does gets ejected by the decapping pins pretty easily. I wonder what the difference is?
 
BattleRife said:
Harsh luck. I tumble all my brass before decapping, I find much less media sticks in the flash holes that way and what does gets ejected by the decapping pins pretty easily. I wonder what the difference is?
Click to expand...

Me too. I've never had an issue sizing after tumbling with the spent primers in place. I give each case a good rap on the bench, mouth down, and all the walnut seems to come out OK.
 
For the first 40 years I never cleaned brass with anything.

Then I got a tumbler. I clean brass before decapping. this makes sizing easier and the flash oles don't get plugged up. I use mostly Lee sizers and the decapping pin is very strong and stiff. never an issue. I also tumble for an hour after loading if any lube needs to be cleaned off the cases.
 
Ultrasonic before decapping

I tried to decap before ultra sonic but I found it to be a waste of time just to get the primer pocket clean
 
I tumble with primers if using corncob, but absolutely deprime before wet tumbling or you cant dry brass really well (223), and there is always water and crap around the primer.

What I do now, is dump all dirty cases in rotary media sifter and rotate for a minute or so until almost all grit and crap has fallen. Then dump all in corncob.
I am less crazy about cleaning brass than I was a while ago. I like clean brass, but I don't like to waste my day cleaning brass.
 
I always deprime with a universal die prior to SS wet tumbling, allows the pins to pass through the flash hole, and end up with spotless primer pockets.

I haven't tumbled with dry media or with primers in the brass for long time. The only time I use the vibratory tumbler with dry media anymore is with corn cob for fine polishing of parts or once in a while for a quick polish of loaded rounds.
 
I tumble them first, I find clean brass goes through the size die better ( I use Hornady Unique lube) After I size them I tumble them again to get the lube off and get the primer pockets cleaner (I twist a flat screwdriver in the primer pocket prior to tossing them in the tumbler again)

After the 2nd tumble I prime them and load them.
 
Decap with a universal decap die, quick swipe at the primer pocket with appropriate tool and then sonic clean (RCBS 3 litre unit) with lemishine and a dash of Dawn. Rinse, resize, prime, reload, shoot.

Repeat all previous steps.
 
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Tumblers aren't horribly expensive.
Go to your local shop and see what's there.
The cost of freight might make it worthwhile to shop
somewhat local.
 
I have looked for a Lee universal decapping die but can't find it anywhere. Anybody have any suggestions to find it or an equivalent?

Txs, Ron
 
I didn't want to pay the asking price at my local gun store for a tumbler, so I rigged up a stand for a plastic 5 gallon pail and hooked an old fan belt to my drill press, worked like a charm and didn't cost a dime. I tumbled a bunch of 45 acp with the primers in, then thought they might get cleaner with them out. Almost every one came out with a piece of corncob stuck in the flash hole that I had to take out with a pick. And I won't be tumbling .357 together with .45 again, they got wedged in each other pretty good.
Kristian
 
Thanks BCMac. I just emailed asking about the decapping die.

I do have a Hornady Tumbler NIB never used that I would sell. I have been swayed to the SS pin tumblers and will probably buy one of those soon. At the moment I am using nosler custom brass and haven't gone through all of them on first firing yet.
 
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