Tumbling Brass before or after depriming?

I'll usually just wash the brass in a bucket of soapy water first to get the dirt off the range pickups, then dry it, and decap. You would be surprised at how much dirt comes off just by swishing it around in a bucket, plus it makes it much easier to spot split, or damaged brass.
 
I used to tumble before depriming and then after resizing to remove the lube. No I have a dedicated depriming die as I didn't like running dirty brass through my resizing dies. Now my process looks more like deprime, tumble to clean, resize, tumble to remove lube.
 
cbh560 said:
I used to tumble before depriming and then after resizing to remove the lube. No I have a dedicated depriming die as I didn't like running dirty brass through my resizing dies. Now my process looks more like deprime, tumble to clean, resize, tumble to remove lube.
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I do the same as I feel keeping the dirty brass out of the press is generally a good thing..
 
Tumble first. I have done it both ways and hate having to pull media out of most of the primer pockets with my dart tip. It's very time consuming. But to each his own. OCD had me doing it before and after but ADD made me quit.
 
cbh560 said:
I used to tumble before depriming and then after resizing to remove the lube. No I have a dedicated depriming die as I didn't like running dirty brass through my resizing dies. Now my process looks more like deprime, tumble to clean, resize, tumble to remove lube.
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I have a separate press and die as well for depriming, but still give it a quick wash first, sometimes the cases have a lot od mud or dirt depending on how wet the range was the day I picked up the brass.
 
SKIBEEDOO said:
Tumble first. I have done it both ways and hate having to pull media out of most of the primer pockets with my dart tip. It's very time consuming. But to each his own. OCD had me doing it before and after but ADD made me quit.
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Try blowing it out with a compressor outside, you can stand all the cases with the pockets facing upwards in a container and give them a blast of air with an air gun. Or if you have to do it indoors you could try a vacumm cleaner with a small nozzle on the hose.
 
I've always (decades) resized, wipe off case lube with a rag and tumble between 4 to 6 hours. Usually half the flash holes have a one single piece of media which I flick out with a very small pick.
 
I never resize any brass before it is cleaned, then when it is resized I tumble again to remove the sizing lubricant. Never fire a cartridge that has remnants of Lube on it.
 
I always deprime before I tumble. Sure, about 80% of the cases will then have a piece of media in the primer pocket, but it takes a second to pop it out with a dental pick when I examine the cases. Up here in the 'territories specialized media is hard or impossible to locate. I use cheap bulk rice for rifle calibers, and the crushed corncob that they sell for hamster and rabbit litter for large calibre rifle and handgun. If the brass is really grundgy I'll add some Lyman Turbo media. I find it has too much rouge to use by itself but it will really wake up cheaper medias.
 
sahara said:
I always deprime before I tumble. Sure, about 80% of the cases will then have a piece of media in the primer pocket, but it takes a second to pop it out with a dental pick when I examine the cases. Up here in the 'territories specialized media is hard or impossible to locate. I use cheap bulk rice for rifle calibers, and the crushed corncob that they sell for hamster and rabbit litter for large calibre rifle and handgun. If the brass is really grundgy I'll add some Lyman Turbo media. I find it has too much rouge to use by itself but it will really wake up cheaper medias.
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Dry Tumbling rarely cleans the pocket after the primer has been removed as the pockets get clogged hindering any movement. The extra work and the chances of missing a piece of material in the brass increases with the numbers cleaned. Wet tumbling with the primer removed is the preferred and safest method.
 
Sqr said:
Dry Tumbling rarely cleans the pocket after the primer has been removed as the pockets get clogged hindering any movement. The extra work and the chances of missing a piece of material in the brass increases with the numbers cleaned. Wet tumbling with the primer removed is the preferred and safest method.
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I found the same results, a couple hours of wet tumbling gets it perfect.
 
Sqr said:
Dry Tumbling rarely cleans the pocket after the primer has been removed as the pockets get clogged hindering any movement. The extra work and the chances of missing a piece of material in the brass increases with the numbers cleaned. Wet tumbling with the primer removed is the preferred and safest method.
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Well said...
 
I used to dry tumble,lube, deprime.and then throw back in the tumbler for 20 minutes.
A PITA to remove the small bits of media from the flashole,but at least the lube was gone.
I know that some people say that a bit of lube on the inside neck don't hurt, but it bothered me.
 
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