How do you start to Process your cases?

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sonic306090
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How do you start to Process your cases?

Post by sonic306090 »

Hi All, I usually wet tumble my Shot 9mm cases when I get home from the range, Out of 200 practice shots, I'm able to pick up around 150 casings. I wet tumble primed bullets with Stainless steel media and Gun Tap.
I wipe and let dry for a couple of days and then I Deprime and size with a bit of lube. I wet tumble again. I wipe off and put it at the end of the line of prepared cases and start my loading on the next cases in line from processed a couple of months ago. I have about 900- 9mm cases in line to reload before I get to these, so They would be up there for few months before I get to them. I only reload about 300 cases a month.
Thank you for any advice!
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Re: How do you start to Process your cases?

Post by RBHarter »

I clean as needed . I cleaned a couple of 20 mm cans of brass in a vibebratory tumbler a while back . Mostly I just wipe it down . Most of my rifles just get neck sized .
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Re: How do you start to Process your cases?

Post by sonic306090 »

Do you prefer Dry tumble? It seems like that would leave a lot of Walnut shell dust residue??
I bought that little Harbor Freight rock tumbler for my cases. I think I may have used it about 15 times already.
Still works well. Not bad for 50 bucks.
Thank you for any advice!
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Re: How do you start to Process your cases?

Post by RBHarter »

I used corn cob . I tried walnut , it was enough for me .

I had no real trouble with dust . There's no real hurry for me , my processes don't allow for getting in a big hurry . I use single stage presses and load only 50-100 in a typical setting . Although I've been known to size/decap 2-300 a night 3-4 nights at a time , then turn around and repeat flairing 380,9,40,45 . I did 12-1300 223 once .
Batch loading .
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Re: How do you start to Process your cases?

Post by jwfilips »

If it is for Rifle brass ( mine never touches the ground): I only Vibrate it in walnut hulls every 8 shooting just before I anneal and FL resize. Otherwise it is only Neck sized and reloaded the previous 7 times:

Now pistol is different! If it is for an autoloader, well they hit the ground and get gritty...so I Decap them with a Lee universal Decap die and Put them in the vibrator to clean them up before putting in my FL sizing dies!
If I find range brass I universal decap Then Citric acid wash then Dry and Vibrate! These will have to be FL sized up front because I do not know what shot them
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Re: How do you start to Process your cases?

Post by sonic306090 »

Interesting, It seems Rifle reloading is somewhat of a different beast, from what I'm learning, but for now, I'll stick to concentrating on loading 9mm. There seems to be a lot to learn! I'm a small size reloader as well. I put the time & care into each cartridge that I load. I'm in no hurry to load them all. Just as long as I can get at least 100 pcs every two weeks, the wife and I are happy:)
Thank you for any advice!
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Re: How do you start to Process your cases?

Post by larryw »

First, everything hits the buzz bucket with walnut shell, just to knock the dirt & crud off.
Next, I deprime & resize. Then new to me brass only, gets wet tumbled.
I then, on new to me brass, process the primer pockets, this only needs done once for
the life of the brass. I then check length & trim as needed.
If it's brass I've had for a bit & already did a full smash.process on, I just toss in the buzz
bucket, deprime, load, shoot repeat until they get really grungie then just wet tumble.
Brass cleaning & prep is without a doubt, the most talked about but least important part
of handloading!!! When I started banging out 38spec with a Lee Loader 55 years ago,
All I did & most anyone did was wipe off the the spent cases with a rag with a little
mineral spirits on it..
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Re: How do you start to Process your cases?

Post by GasGuzzler »

If brass has aged on the ground I do this once before and once after primers removed. Boiling water with a drip of Dawn and 1/8th TSP of LemiShine in my $40 Harbor Freight rock tumbler NO PINS for 30 minutes. Bake to dry in my powder coat oven or air dry in coffee cans in the bed of my truck.

I don't do dry media because it's horribly messy if fine media is used and a royal pain to pick out of primer pockets on larger gauge media.
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Re: How do you start to Process your cases?

Post by barracudadave67 »

I de-cap all my cases first, on a dedicated de-caping press/die, then stainless steel pins/with lemishine, and dish soap tumble them. I like to run "clean" brass thru my dies, less chances of getting scratched dies that way.

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Re: How do you start to Process your cases?

Post by mikld »

My first step is inspection. Even at the range, I'll quick check the overall condition and glance a the headstamp/primer. When I get home my first working step is dry tumbling (corn cob blast media 14-20), but I may look through the cases gain. I tried wet tumbling but my handloads (and ego) don't demand ultra shiny, cases, pristine primer pockets or case interiors and they don't shoot any better. If I want BBQ brass I'll just eave it in my rotary longer. When done cleaning, I'll give them a good close inspection then proceed with my process normally up to primed and ready to charge/seat and box/bag them up for later finishing. I like reloading so I don't use a progressive, no "time saver" gadgets or "improved RPH" methods...
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