Tumbling Brass before or after depriming?

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I have never tumbled brass before.....my experience in reloading was 15 years ago I purchased the equipment to load and loaded around 2 boxes of British .303 and a few 300wm. Then I had children lol and reloading and shooting took to the background. I am now getting into target shooting and reloading but really its as if I am a beginner.
When tumbling brass, I will be using crushed walnut, is it better to tumble before d-priming and sizing or after?
 
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Sometimes I do both, I don't like running filthy cases through nice dies. And if I use a case lube, I use the tumbler to remove the lube lol
 
I find that walnut or other media doesn't really clean the primer pocket so probably easier to tumble without depriming. You will still have to clean the pockets separately (assuming this is rifle reloading you are talking about) On the other hand, I use a wet tumbler with stainless steel pins and it does a marvelous job of cleaning the pockets, cleans brass inside and out incredibly well.
 
Thanks..I purchased Mastercraft parts tumbler from Canadian Tire as it was on clearance....I have brass that's tarnished pretty bad that has been in storage for years.

If I tumble with walnut before d-priming should I clean brass off in any particular manner before it goes into a die?
 
ekoso said:
Sometimes I do both, I don't like running filthy cases through nice dies. And if I use a case lube, I use the tumbler to remove the lube lol
Click to expand...

I like to have clean brass, too, before resizing it but I run the brass through a sonic tumbler first for about 25 minutes, dry it in a warm oven, and then deprime and size the brass. Because it has case lube on it I like to throw the brass in the dry tumbler (crushed walnut and a bit of Nu Finish that I got from CT) for 2-3 hours to get it all the lube off,,,,plus it makes the brass nice and purdy. Then I'll clean and ream the pockets, trim the brass, deburr, chamfer, and possibly use my Hornady pocket uniformer tool on them if the brass has been fired a few times. Then I'll put in new primers and store them for when I want to reload them. I do about 50 -100 at a time.

I usually prep over one or two sessions and load during another session which is the longest session. That way I'm not spending hours and hours at one time. Sort of treat it like an assembly line.
 
I tumble before sizing/decapping, don't need to clean the dies as often that way, I just wipe the lube off after, very rare I'll tumble a second time.
 
It depends.
If the brass I'm about to resize is grungy, I'll tumble before resizing/depriming.
Depending on the caliber (mostly rifle), I will sometimes tumble for a bit after resizing to clean off the lube. I have to pick chunks out of the flash holes on probably 80% of the cases.
Nut shell media before, untreated corncob after.
 
I asked why wouldn't one decap before tumbling, because isn't the point of tumbling to clean? Kind of like draining the oil in your engine but not changing the filter. I know, a bad analogy but you get the point. If you tumble before you decap, then remove your primers, then you have a dirty primer pocket. What's the point of that?

Oh well, maybe I'm missing something.
 
6MT said:
I asked why wouldn't one decap before tumbling, because isn't the point of tumbling to clean? Kind of like draining the oil in your engine but not changing the filter. I know, a bad analogy but you get the point. If you tumble before you decap, then remove your primers, then you have a dirty primer pocket. What's the point of that?

Oh well, maybe I'm missing something.
Click to expand...

I have an RCBS prep center and clean the primer pocket with that after decapping. I usually do pistol and AR loading by the thousand so doing it by hand is painful. Automation costs but I'll never go back after having the prep center and chargemaster combo. Now I just need a faster/easier trimmer setup.
 
Here's a test to try wet tumble your brass leave some of the spent primers in and some out. Clean the pockets manuallly on depriming after tumbling brass. Now prime the brass; I have found the manually deprimed brass (after cleaning) to have a tighter pocket than the stainless cleaned pockets.
enjoy.
 
My brass is always picked up from sandy range floors, so I tumble with the primer in, then deprime.
If the brass is still looking stained or I see the primer pockets look grungy, I then run the cases through the sonic tumbler then rinse with hot water.
 
I tumble for an hour or so before, mostly to keep my dies cleaner and have a good look at the cases.

Size and deprime

Tumble for a couple hours after to shine em up and and I don't like wiping lube off cases anymore so let the machine do it. Primer pockets ain't shiny clean but haven't worried about it yet.
 
I tumble before and after sizing / depriming as well. A rough, tarnished case has a lot higher chance of sticking in a die IMHO.

Edit: depriming, not depriving! Damn autocorrupt!
 
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