Everybody has their preference, but I don't deprime before polishing. Get tired of poking the polishing media out of the flash hole with a toothpick.
I don't clean primer pockets either.
Everybody has their preference, but I don't deprime before polishing. Get tired of poking the polishing media out of the flash hole with a toothpick.
I don't clean primer pockets either.
deprime and then clean.
I always clean before I size, dirt and sand can screw up a sizing die.
I always clean before I size, dirt and sand can screw up a sizing die.
I use a wet tumbler.
Everyone has their favorite method so you'll get many different answers. I'm a bit OCD about my brass. I tumble with wet pins so I deprime before final cleaning. I've actually started pre-cleaning some of the brass to keep the dirt out of my progressive press that I deprime on.
So with brass picked up from an outdoor range my usually procedure is:
Sort for caliber, while doing so remove aluminum, steel, damaged, and live rounds.
Wet Tumble 30 minutes, rinse, and dehydrate/dry.
Run them through my sorting trays (to catch an odd .40 case that snuck in 9mm that might jam my press)
Deprime with a universal die, no sizing, swage
Wet Tumble 2 hours, rinse, and dehydrate/dry.
Sort by headstamp into groups. This also allows for inspection of cracked or excessively bulged cases and catch the .380s, 9x21, 38 Super, .45 GAP, etc
Then it gets bagged in 1 gallon ziplocks util I'm ready to load.
i use a rcbs summit as a dedicated deprimer. use a rcbs rock chucker/or chunker whatever they call it to size. i wet tumble prior to sizing. then trim using my battery dewalt drill with little crow trimmers. then chamfer the case mouth, deburr, clean primer pockets on a lyman prep tool. wet tumble again with stainless pins. i use 3 stations on dillon 650's, powder drop, bullet seat and finally lee factory crimp dies. i did not like the dillon powder drop so i replaced them with a hornady case activated drop. upon firing the round a couple of steps are no longer in play, after sizing the cases don't usually need trimmed again, but i do check them to be certain. i only load for semi auto rifles and i bump the shoulder of the case back .002
This. I deprime and then wet tumble with SS pins and Dawn soap / Lemi Shine. Tumble for an hour or two. The brass comes out clean and shiny, both inside and out. The primer pocket is also cleaned.
I use depriming dies to deprime a case. I seldom use my sizing dies to deprime.
Same here - Lyman depriming die.
lasher, just wondering what you didn't like about the Dillon drop. I have an extra to run with another caliber but have never had a problem. I'm still building a wet pin tumbler so I clean and then deprime. Once I get the wet tumbler up and running, I'll prolly clean after depriming.i use a rcbs summit as a dedicated deprimer. use a rcbs rock chucker/or chunker whatever they call it to size. i wet tumble prior to sizing. then trim using my battery dewalt drill with little crow trimmers. then chamfer the case mouth, deburr, clean primer pockets on a lyman prep tool. wet tumble again with stainless pins. i use 3 stations on dillon 650's, powder drop, bullet seat and finally lee factory crimp dies. i did not like the dillon powder drop so i replaced them with a hornady case activated drop. upon firing the round a couple of steps are no longer in play, after sizing the cases don't usually need trimmed again, but i do check them to be certain. i only load for semi auto rifles and i bump the shoulder of the case back .002
i didn't care for the linkage and really clunky arrangement/assembly. using the case activated hornady drop is just a better choice for my preferences. the Dillon likely works well, i never tried it after press assembly, bought 2 hornady drops and sold the dillon drops along with the linkage and associated parts. i also do not use the case drop or the primer stage, i prime by hand with rcbs universal primer, gives one last look at all the brass and seats the primers below the case head surface. i tried the primer stage but think it's a giant PIA to use
