Lee Loader

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.

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 .

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.

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 .

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

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:)

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..

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.

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.

Dave

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...