Hello all, new ish to reloading. In the past I used steel wool to clean the brass but didn’t love it as I thought it would remove too much material from the case. So I picked up a hornady vibratory tumbler and I have been playing around with different mixes to get the brass polished and looking good. Settled on Nu finish and a bit of mineral spirits with walnut crush and the brass came out great. My question is, do I need to clean the polish off the brass before running it through my full length sizing die? Or just throw some lube on the cases and send it? I decap all of my cases before cleaning with a deccapping die and I wanted to clean them before running them through my FL die so I don’t gum it up. Any insight would be great. Loading 6.5 PRC right now with 145 sierra GK
Resizing before or after polishing brass?
- Thread starter Lpills29
- Start date
Dispense with the polish. Are you reloading to make good looking ammo or good shooting ammo?
Tumble before sizing to keep dirt out of the sizing die. Forget the polish. Just lube the cases and size them.
I really don't understand why people fixate on the most irrelevant of issues. Who gives a flying FUKC what the ammo looks like? Seriously?
Spend your time and effort on things that make a difference.
Tumble before sizing to keep dirt out of the sizing die. Forget the polish. Just lube the cases and size them.
I really don't understand why people fixate on the most irrelevant of issues. Who gives a flying FUKC what the ammo looks like? Seriously?
Spend your time and effort on things that make a difference.
Could not agree more.
No polish.
Just make sure they dont have grit stuck to them.
All my brass goes from chamber to hand to ammo box to reloading setup to ammo box to chamber.
Never touches the ground.
Hunting brass hits tue ground as i am in the habit of immediately racking another round when i ahoot at an animal.
I pick that up and inspect it before resizing but “cleaning” and especially “polishing” brass is of no benefit.
Ask Erik Cortina.
No polish.
Just make sure they dont have grit stuck to them.
All my brass goes from chamber to hand to ammo box to reloading setup to ammo box to chamber.
Never touches the ground.
Hunting brass hits tue ground as i am in the habit of immediately racking another round when i ahoot at an animal.
I pick that up and inspect it before resizing but “cleaning” and especially “polishing” brass is of no benefit.
Ask Erik Cortina.
I appreciate the feedback, I am definitely reloading to make good shooting ammo lol
I don’t really care too much about the look tbh but the necks even after tumbling it in the media for 12 hours or so with no additive still had a lot of carbon buildup and that’s why I was trying the polish to pull off all the grime.
This was with brand new lapua brass so with only bumping the shoulders back 2 thou hopefully I won’t get those carbons deposits as bad going forward.
I don’t really care too much about the look tbh but the necks even after tumbling it in the media for 12 hours or so with no additive still had a lot of carbon buildup and that’s why I was trying the polish to pull off all the grime.
This was with brand new lapua brass so with only bumping the shoulders back 2 thou hopefully I won’t get those carbons deposits as bad going forward.
So anyway, I’ll attempt to answer your question instead of giving you trouble for liking clean brass lol.
My big thing is to make sure the brass is free of contaminants other than lube of course. I deprime with a depriming die like you do then I clean the brass in an ultrasonic cleaner. I lube it, resize it and then clean it again so I don’t have lube on the case when I start pouring powder or seating bullets.
I think if you had some sort of residue on the brass (you said something about removing the polish) before resizing, that wouldn’t be optimal. It could negatively impact the resizing or start to gum up your die. I dunno, that’s just what my brain says.
I’ve run some my brass with steel media to ‘polish’ it and have done it both prior to resizing and after - to see which I prefer. I’m going to do it prior to resizing in any future runs that I decide to polish so as to ensure I haven’t deformed any case mouths in the process. I’ll just make sure none of the additives are left on the cases prior to lubing and resizing.
I guess I’m no Eric Cortina - I shoot a lot but not THAT much lol and I even rinse my brass with RO water so I don’t get water spots when they dry.
Cheers and happy reloading.
My big thing is to make sure the brass is free of contaminants other than lube of course. I deprime with a depriming die like you do then I clean the brass in an ultrasonic cleaner. I lube it, resize it and then clean it again so I don’t have lube on the case when I start pouring powder or seating bullets.
I think if you had some sort of residue on the brass (you said something about removing the polish) before resizing, that wouldn’t be optimal. It could negatively impact the resizing or start to gum up your die. I dunno, that’s just what my brain says.
I’ve run some my brass with steel media to ‘polish’ it and have done it both prior to resizing and after - to see which I prefer. I’m going to do it prior to resizing in any future runs that I decide to polish so as to ensure I haven’t deformed any case mouths in the process. I’ll just make sure none of the additives are left on the cases prior to lubing and resizing.
I guess I’m no Eric Cortina - I shoot a lot but not THAT much lol and I even rinse my brass with RO water so I don’t get water spots when they dry.
Cheers and happy reloading.
- Location
- Delta B.C.
A sonic cleaner is the right tool for what your doing... Simple and easy... No dirt for your dies... If you want em all shiny polish them after you sonic clean.
I don't clean primer pockets by the second reload.. they get loose during cleaning.. cleaning removes material.. a dirty pocket is tight.... oh ya...
I just wash my cases with Sunlight dish soap. Washing is a very loose description. I just let them soak in the sink, drain, and rinse, put them outside to dry, or if it's raining, I just put them in the oven at 40 C for twenty minutes, and they come out ready to go.
They aren't bright and shiny, but they're clean.
Sonic cleaners work very well, but takes up too much time, and at my age, time comes at a premium.
- Location
- Delta B.C.
I made a drying rack out of wood dowels and a square of butcher block. 110 cases at a time. Rinse with boiling water and let dry.. Resize, clean again then de-prime and reload...
Bubba Yugga
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Midwestern Ontario
That's actually a good thing, as it keeps the bullet from "welding" to the neck.
People dip new necks in graphite to get the same effect.
