Welcome to WaGuns!

I completely agree with you. Now that I wet tumble, I'm starting to see occasional primer separation . . . but it's not a big deal, and definitely not enough for me to consider changing my process.

That is why!

On an unrelated note, a few months ago I started depriming everything prior to wet tumbling. It was because I like how much prettier the brass is [emoji16] and to eliminate primers possibly retaining moisture and passing the moisture on to the new primer. It's a bit of a pain but the FA hand deprimer works great so if I watch TV in the evening I will deprime a bunch of brass.

Just another reason to reinforce my determination to deprime all brass prior to wet tumbling.

I know this is an old post, figured give it new life.
I pick up range brass and once I get a five gallon bucket full I separate it, knock out the primers with a Lee Universal decapping Die.
I have a single stage Hornady Lock-N-Load press, I have three vibrator tumblers, a wet tumbler and a sonic cleaner. after depriming I tumble the brass in walnut media.
Depending how it looks I might wet tumble it, or tumble it in clean media.
One tumble has dirty media, one has clean
Walnut media, and one has clean corncob media.

About a month ago I bought some used 222 Remington brass that was shabby looking after I tumbled it in walnut.
I wiped it down with Brasso and tumbled it in Corncob.
That came out the best I have ever done..

I agree, although I don't wet tumble but I deprime, clean the primer pockets and tumble before any brass touches my Progressive loader. It's just me, I'm anal this way wanting to start with pristine brass.

For pistol, perhaps dirty pockets are acceptable. However, leaking primers are never acceptable in my book and dirty primer pockets can lead ot all kinds of issues. Improperly seated primers, uneven ignition, leaks, etc.

I shoot very little pistol anymore with my focus on precision rifle, Long Range. This often requires loads that are quite high in pressure. High enough that small primer pocket brass is required to keep pockets from both leaking and stretching. Clean pockets are essential.

One argument for clean primer pockets in all firearms is the primer pocket size after a few firings. I use a "Go-No Go" gauge on all my fired brass after cleaning but before loading. Those cases (pistol or rifle) that allow the no-go end of the gauge to enter the pocket are immediately tossed. Cuts down on damage to bolt faces and excessive soot in your face if shooting a pistol.

Just saying.

Welcome to

So far no problems yet from surgically clean primer pockets. But I get it, there is a line of what works and analness. I probably just don't know enough, well enough to push limits, so I blindly keep brass clean. As stated several times it is easy for me because I treat brass cleaning as whole different process. I essentially stock clean brass in ready to size and load condition.

IMO, this is the best advice given. This is what I do as well. Punching the primers out first allows you to toss EVERYTHING in the wet tumbler. After they are all clean and pristine (mine always turn out to look as shiny as gold...bright as hell, and clean as a whistle)

The next good thing about doing it in this fashion and method is that you can then see any imperfections very easily. If there are any cracks, split mouths, burrs left in the primer flash holes, maybe someone previous to you picking up that range brass beveled the flash hole, etc....you can easily see these types of imperfections and segregate them out. It is more challenging to see these imperfections if they are dirty and heavily set with soot. You need them cleaned in order to be able to see these imperfections clearly and unobstructed.

For me, I always deprime with my Frankford Arsenal handheld deprimer, and then wet tumble them in bulk. After they've been wet tumbled, I carefully inspect, and only then do I proceed to brass prep.

We can all agree that wet tumbling with steel pins is the ultimate way of cleaning brass, right? That wet tumbling gets it super clean. That being said, I would highly recommend not dry tumbling rifle brass, and then resizing with my dies. Dry tumbling is bound to leave impurities in and around the brass. I use very expensive match grade dies. The last thing we want in our dies is dirt, grime, grease with bits of brass or dirt, etc. Introducing dirty brass that is not 100% clean as a whistle, can mar the finish of the inside of the die. That can score your rifle brass, which in turn could score the chamber of your rifle.

The die is such a finely tuned tool of precision, that I always strive to keep my dies clean, lubed, and clean. Even when my dies are cleaned, I make sure to clean them again before I start my brass prep. I never introduce dirty substances in my dies.

Here is an article by Redding to help you with understanding why keeping your dies clean, is an ABSOLUTE MUST.

https://www.redding-reloading.com/tech- ... -and-cures

You may be fine for blaster ammo. But if brass weld build-up occurs, it could just get worse and worse. For my match-grade cartridges, I strive to make sure that everything is absolutely perfectly clean, pristine, uniform, sorted, etc.

I know I'm getting off point of wet tumbling. But I just want to stress the importance of thinking about all of these things, and how they translate into the final product, and groupings on our paper targets.

As for dry tumblers, I used to own and use one. For cleaning...they're garbage in my book. I clean with a wet tumbler. To polish brass, the dry tumbler would be great for that. But polishing is just to make brass pretty. Wet tumbling makes my brass like gold and pretty enough for me.

I wrote essentially the same thing in this or another thread. Kinda angered some people, but your posts make the point. For plinking pistol ammo, ok fine, and yes carbide dies help. I never even started with a dry tumbler. Just seems like a space waster. If a person, de-primes and wet tumbles as a separate operation, it's a no brainer to me.

I wouldn't exactly say that dry tumblers/vibrators are garbage, they just don't do as complete a job.

They also do present an environmental hazard (in your house especially) and that is DUST. Between the corncob that breaks down and the residue from primer compound (often containing lead) and powder, you need to be careful to keep kids and pets away from the area . If cleaning up with a Vacuum Cleaner it should be equipped with a HEPA filter. Now this is the IDEAL way to deal with the dusty process if you "vibrate" inside your home. Doing it in the garage/shop/shed isn't as big a human hazard.

With the wet process all the bad stuff just flows down the drain and doesn't migrate into the air.

FWIW this may never be an issue to you but if someday you are selling your house, and the prospective buyer finds out you were a hand loader, they might have their home inspector check for lead using one of the inexpensive kits available just about everywhere. THAT's when the issue rears it's ugly head.

Great point on the dust, deadshot!

Way back when, I lived in a super small condo in downtown Bellevue. So I had to vibratory clean in my bathroom. The bathroom got dust everywhere. Then I would just vibratory clean outside so the dust floated off in the breeze.

I would never go back to vibratory cleaning ever again. Wet tumbling is faster, cleaner to handle, and simpler to prep for the process.

Love this thread. Love talking about this sort of thing with like-minded fellas.

Does any one use brasso to clean the brass?