Primer pocket cleaning...

[dkf]

I would say for pistol rounds the majority of guys dry tumble brass with the spent primer in the case and then deprime when they resize the case. Obviously this way the primer pocket does not get cleaned.

I don't do very large quantities of either right now and time is not a huge issue so I decap, clean the primer pocket and if the brass is dirty tumble it. I make sure their is no media in the primer hole before a new primer is put in.

For rifle I will say most guys clean primer pockets with maybe the exception of higher volumes of .223 for ARs. You usually go through far more pistol rounds than rifle in a year so you can afford to take more time for rifle in many cases.

Clean primer pockets is why wet tumbling with small stainless media is prefered by some. It is more time consuming because you have to remove the primer and wait for the brass to dry but it gets the brass squeaky clean.

To get started you really do not need a tumbler. Before I bought a tumbler I washed my brass with dish soap, warm water and some vinegar after I deprimed the brass. Then lay out on a towel to dry. If you do not decap first using this method water can stay in the primer pocket and foul up the new primer or powder. This method cleans the primer pocket pretty good.

Again it is all what you prefer.

For a press a Lee Classic Turret would be a good press to start as it can be used as a single stage or a turret press. Or you could step up to a Dillon 550.

[DucatiRon]

Yes wet stainless is more time consuming. But when loading in bulk the 4 hours while it is tumbling or the the dry time is usually spent doing something else. Currently I'm loading about 3k 38special and about another 1k of 357. While I am loading these I may have tumbler going with the next caliber I plan to reload or brass is drying for the loading session. I find that if I start cleaning on a weekend morning the brass is dry by the time I need to load it during the week after work. I usually spend about 1-2 hrs a night after work loading and maybe 3-4 hrs a day in the weekend. Not everyday but most. It's my relax/hobby time. Also by reloading in bulk I can reload almost a years worth of ammo in a very short time and spend the rest of my time shooting it. Nothing is worse than only having 500 shells and having to load them every other week.

[imp81318]

To get started you really do not need a tumbler. Before I bought a tumbler I washed my brass with dish soap, warm water and some vinegar after I deprimed the brass. Then lay out on a towel to dry. If you do not decap first using this method water can stay in the primer pocket and foul up the new primer or powder. This method cleans the primer pocket pretty good.

Again it is all what you prefer.

For a press a Lee Classic Turret would be a good press to start as it can be used as a single stage or a turret press. Or you could step up to a Dillon 550.

Yeah, I'm thinking that I'll either end up going with a Lee classic turret or a single-stage lee press. I'm thinking that if I am going to take the time to clean the brass either using wet media or with soap and water, I'll have to de-prime the brass as a separate operation anyway, so I might end up just going with a single stage press. I could also even just use a hand primer and only have to change the die in my press at the start of a given session of work (put sizing/de-priming die in, size and de-prime, wash brass, wait for drying, hand prime, put seating/crimping die in, load bullets), although I could obviously speed up my process down the road if/when I get a tumbler by having the turret press. Ultimately, it will probably come down to what I can either get a good deal on as part of a package/kit or used.

For washing your brass by hand, are you just putting it in the soap/vinegar/water solution and letting it sit for a while? Agitating/mixing it around by hand? Or do you actually take a brush and 'scrub' the brass around? Sorry for so many basic questions...

[imp81318]

Yes wet stainless is more time consuming. But when loading in bulk the 4 hours while it is tumbling or the the dry time is usually spent doing something else. Currently I'm loading about 3k 38special and about another 1k of 357. While I am loading these I may have tumbler going with the next caliber I plan to reload or brass is drying for the loading session. I find that if I start cleaning on a weekend morning the brass is dry by the time I need to load it during the week after work. I usually spend about 1-2 hrs a night after work loading and maybe 3-4 hrs a day in the weekend. Not everyday but most. It's my relax/hobby time. Also by reloading in bulk I can reload almost a years worth of ammo in a very short time and spend the rest of my time shooting it. Nothing is worse than only having 500 shells and having to load them every other week.

How long do you let the brass go in the tumbler for to get clean, and roughly how long does it have to sit out to dry fully? It seems obvious to me that there would be a possibility of having moisture in the primer pocket that you can't or don't see that could ruin your round if you try to load too soon, but you wouldn't necessarily know it until you got to the range days or even weeks later.

I have no intentions of reloading in the kind of bulk you're talking about, and I can't even imagine having the time to shoot that much.

[cephas]

Have my handgun/5.56 brass in segregated groups and use a universal decapper. If pockets need cleaning I'll utilize a chemical cleaning with a hot citric acid solution. Any crud left in the pockets wipe out with a q-tip. Dry in oven. Seem to clean rifle every loading. Exhaustive link to discussion on it: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...-brass-cleaner
If pockets are passable I tumble brass for an hour or so to clean.

[DucatiRon]

4 hrs in the wet stainless seems to get the best results. I also use a mild citric acid to polish the brass while wet tumbling. Any longer than 4 the citric acid can lead to premature oxidation of the brass. When working with chemicals it is wise to know the limitations.

As far as drying times it varies. In the summer I've hung stuff outside and it's dry in 2 hrs or so. Brass can get really hot in the sun in a 90deg day. Same if you would use the oven on low heat method. In the winter I hang mine in the basement near a register/furnace vent and after a day or so it's dry. But I usually leave mine hang until I'm ready to load. I've also found after the wet bath rinsing with very hot water accelerates the dry time.

[dkf]

Yeah, I'm thinking that I'll either end up going with a Lee classic turret or a single-stage lee press. I'm thinking that if I am going to take the time to clean the brass either using wet media or with soap and water, I'll have to de-prime the brass as a separate operation anyway, so I might end up just going with a single stage press. I could also even just use a hand primer and only have to change the die in my press at the start of a given session of work (put sizing/de-priming die in, size and de-prime, wash brass, wait for drying, hand prime, put seating/crimping die in, load bullets), although I could obviously speed up my process down the road if/when I get a tumbler by having the turret press. Ultimately, it will probably come down to what I can either get a good deal on as part of a package/kit or used.

For washing your brass by hand, are you just putting it in the soap/vinegar/water solution and letting it sit for a while? Agitating/mixing it around by hand? Or do you actually take a brush and 'scrub' the brass around? Sorry for so many basic questions...

Since you plan on reloading pistol as well as rifle I would just get the turret and skip the single stage. The single stage is just slow and the turret will do everything the single stage will do.

I was taking 1 gallon screw top turkey hill bottles filling them with brass, hot water, Dawn Ultra Power Clean and a splash of vinegar. Then shake it up and let it sit for a few hours. Then rinse and let dry on a towel.

[JohnGalt]

On the flip side of the coin... When I reload my rifle rounds I remove the primer, tap the case (neck down) several times to get out any loose debris, run a q-tip down the inside of it once or twice, then tap again. Run the same q-tip through the primer pocket & call it a day.

The person who taught me to reload didn't want contaminated media in his house & didn't really care about firing dirty brass. I've followed his practices & have never had one of my rifle round misfire (have had 2-3 with my pistol rounds).

I only reload 308 with my rifle & shoot moa/sub (depending on MY day) @ 100 yds. If there is a downside to what I'm doing I haven't seen it yet.

EDIT to add: I also use a Primer Reamer.

[imp81318]

Since you plan on reloading pistol as well as rifle I would just get the turret and skip the single stage. The single stage is just slow and the turret will do everything the single stage will do.

I was taking 1 gallon screw top turkey hill bottles filling them with brass, hot water, Dawn Ultra Power Clean and a splash of vinegar. Then shake it up and let it sit for a few hours. Then rinse and let dry on a towel.

Thanks for the feedback. Regarding single stage vs turret, if I am breaking the process up by cleaning the pockets after de-priming anyway I do not see where the turret press would really save me much time, especially considering I see myself loading 100 or 150 at a time, not thousands at a time. Having the turret press would enable me to speed things up a bit if I decide later on that cleaning teh pockets is not necessary on my pistol rounds, but even at that I'm really not sure how much more $$$ the additional speed of a turret press would be worth to me given the low quantities I expect to be dealing with.

Regarding the washing, that's about what I was thinking. Thanks again. I know that my buddy who reloads says that he hardly ever tumbles his brass, but he's basically just reloading his own brass that he picks up as soon he fires it and he's primarily reloading rifle rounds for hunting (he does clean the pocket on every round he loads).

[imp81318]

4 hrs in the wet stainless seems to get the best results. I also use a mild citric acid to polish the brass while wet tumbling. Any longer than 4 the citric acid can lead to premature oxidation of the brass. When working with chemicals is is wise to know the limitations.

As far as drying times it varies. In the summer I've hung stuff outside and it's dry in 2 hrs or so. Brass can get really hot in the sun in a 90deg day. Same if you would use the oven on low heat method. In the winter I hang mine in the basement near a register/furnace vent and after a day or so it's dry. But I usually leave mine hang until I'm ready to load. I've also found after the wet bath rinsing with very hot water accelerates the dry time.

How are you 'hanging' your brass to dry? Just hanging it in a mesh bag? I would think that the stuff in the middle of the 'ball' in the bag would take a long time to dry.