Deprime, before or after ,wet tumbling?

Brianma65

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
197   0   0
Location
Canada
I've been using my Frankfurt wet tumbler ,for a few months now and I like how it cleans the brass.

But my process involves cleaning the brass twice.
First I clean the brass with the primer still in, then I deprime and tumble again,to get the pockets.

Reason I do this, is because I heard that resizing dirty brass , is bad for your dies.

So ,what you think? Is this true,or am I just wasting time.
 
Depends how fouled the brass is. If it's fresh off the floor, I tumble after depriming. If it got some dirty/patina on it, or not my own loads or factory, I do a twice-over.
 
If your concerned about die wear use a decapping die then wet tumble. I've had issues with wet tumbling then trying to deprime. Usually issue is the decap pin in the resizer die draws the spent primer back in. YMMV
 
I deprime after as I found the dry media did not clean out the primer pocket. The bonus to the dry tumble is I don't have to lube my cases, as the media lube does the job :)
 
I have a universal deprime, I haven't used it though.

It just adds another step ... ugh

Just wondering if resizing dirty brass ,ruins your dies.:)
 
Dirty brass with sand/grit on the case can scratch up your dies and potentially put a burr on it. Don't get lazy, deprime and tumble.
 
Dirty brass with sand/grit on the case can scratch up your dies and potentially put a burr on it. Don't get lazy, deprime and tumble.

Lol,that's what I thought.
I bought the universal deprimer,for my low volume,rifle rounds.

I'll just keep tumbling my high volume,pistol rounds,twice.
 
Depends

For 45/9mm pistol I just wet tumble then deprime/reload - not concerned with the primer pockets.

For 223 rifle I dry vibrate with walnut/corn - then deprime - then wet tumble and continue reloading.
 
Lol,that's what I thought.
I bought the universal deprimer,for my low volume,rifle rounds.

I'll just keep tumbling my high volume,pistol rounds,twice.

lol, that said, I have cheated before by just wet tumbling them before depriming, drying them a bit longer 'cause there's water in the primer pockets that take longer to dry. Deprimed/sized all in one go during reloading on my LNL AP. The primer pockets are still dirty but good nuff to keep working. Kinda like dirty underwear on your brass.
 
Last edited:
For my pistol ammo all I do is run it on my tumbler for 2 hrs with the fired primer . You may call me lazy but see no reason to exaggerate the cleaning process, i just make sure that the soil/ dirt are gone, I dont even bother/clean the primer pockets , been doing this for last 20 years . For my rifles , tumble with primer and wash/ rinse for the lube by water and Dawn then dryer for 30 mins.
 
I`m still finding my feet but for 9mm I give it a quick whirl in the ultrasonic which gets them clean enough to deprime without scratching/dirtying up everything

Once deprimed I wet tumble which leaves the cases like new
 
I`m still finding my feet but for 9mm I give it a quick whirl in the ultrasonic which gets them clean enough to deprime without scratching/dirtying up everything

Once deprimed I wet tumble which leaves the cases like new

That's like taking a shower after you had a bath! lol Just get a cheap Lee universal depriming die. :)
 
I start with tumbling the brass, lee universal de-primer die, then trimmer, then back into my tumbler.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom