Wet tumbling with sanity

Yep I can soon chase them up also the other stuff like citric acid and detergent pretty much got the rest then if I can’t find some s/s pins i’ll resort to the wire cutters

@anon19591382 You can also use cream of tartar (tartaric acid) or vinegar. But i guess some are better than others. All are available at the local super market.

Even dilute battery acid. :wink:

I have only ever used the dish soap, salt & vinegar in a bucket method.

@bentaz Same here. Oh and welcome to the forum mate. :grinning:

Thanks bentaz and welcome mate

Yeah Oldbloke as well thanks, this tumbling I’ve never done before but should pick it up ok I normally use the vibrating one but it’s not too good in my eyes so now waiting for the tumbler to arrive and the mission will begin

Cheers buddy, :+1::grin:

@anon19591382 The most important thing is to make sure the cases are well dried out. Be patient it has caught a few guys out in my rifle club. All of a sudden they have shots that have dropped way low or not even made it to the target. Slow but steady is my method others use a dehydrator, not sure if there is ever a way to know until it is too late so err on the side of caution. Dont put in a hot oven annealing the whole case would ruin your day not just the case.

Yep right-o i’ll take care I will be using a dehydrator as well I also have a small dehydrator with a manual temp regulator so may be I can down the heat and up the fan might be a good way to go I hope until I get it sorted and maybe reload them a day or so after drying for extra piece of mind

Tumbler arrived at the sons place just have to pick it up also ordered some stainless media from rebels 5lb for $99 now the question after seeing on google a lot of people in the US tumble their brass with the primer in the brass so which is the best way to do it primer in or primer out their reason for leaving the primer in was it doesn’t wear the primer pocket out so as not to loosen the new primer or is it wishful thinking on their part

Alright, so first there is zero chance that you will wear your brass out in any way at all with SS media. None. Not an issue.

Primer in or out - easy. Do you want the primer pocket to be cleaned or not? That’s all it is. If I am doing a hundred or so or even a couple of hundred rifles cases, then I will de-cap them first and they get a good clean. If I am tumbling (as I recently have) 10kg of brass in multiple batches, then primers stay in, because I am not adding another operation to the cleaning process (read: I am lazy) and decapping 1000s of cases.

Really, it all depends how much crud you have in the primer pocket and whether you want it clean or not.

I would think depriming first would be the way to go.
Only reason to clean brass before decapping them would be if they were really dirty and you didn’t want them fouling your dies, but then you would want to clean the brass again after decapping. Much easier to clean your dies from time to time.

De prime first. I used to tumble for three hours but have cut it back to one hour which gives just as good result. The reason for changing was the small amount of wear that can occur is at the case mouth. If you trim and debur the tumbing will also help debur. The three hours was too much on this part of the case.

I may go to a short tumble after resizing or a 5 min in the ultrasonic not decided what as yet if at all anything.

Reason being for sizing you put lube on I dont want any trace of that on the case that I am going to load. I use one shot and a wipe in a cloth may be enough then no need for lengthy drying.

As the others said it is up to you.
I do both, if they are due for a trim then I deprime first otherwise it is primers in.

Except for range brass that I have brought, I will deprime them first.

Thanks all for the tips much appreciated I’ve been shooting for many years but all this cleaning and such is new with these new machines I’ve always used steel wool until I bought the vibrating do-dad but it wasn’t cleaning that well I don’t clean that many probably a couple hundred each year but enjoy every minute thanks again.

Sungazer would you recommend deprime ,resizing ,trim then tumble then dry then load would be a good way to go
my son has about 500 223 cases to do so i’ll do them with the primer in just to have a look although I would prefer nice shinny brass even in the pockets OCD problem or bower bird syndrome i’m not sure

That is the way I used to do it as the cases are never that dirty if at all that would cause any issues for my dies. Perhaps a little bit of carbon soot on the outside of the neck.

I have since added the annealing step to the process and just for good looks more than anything I didnt want to tumble after annealing as it polishes that nice little bit of discoloration away.

The annealing really needs to be before the resizing as well so that had to be taken into the equation and I was also concerned (I think unnecessarily that the carbon on the inside could make the anneal inconsistent)

I dont think any of that helps but your post sounds like a good plan.

I would take out the primer though. Think about it. Its a tiny hole that we want consistent ignition to occur from the first case to the 500th. how can it do that with bits floating around in that pocket. of all the places to clean I think the primer pocket is one of the most important.

Ok then Sungazer thanks for that and yes the next step will be annealing my brass so i’ll take your advice and do it before tumbling I’ve been reading plenty on annealing so should be able to manage that ok
so thanks for your info mate

@anon19591382 don’t forget some before and after pics for us mate!

Yep right-o

1 Like