Deprime before cleaning brass?

[Goodknight]

Am I being to Anal that I de prime before cleaning my brass?

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[robertvarner]

I do as well, so NO.

 

[Local Loader]

Cleaning with primer in just makes more cleaning later.

 

[SHPD_Retired]

I deprime then clean. Seems a bit counter productive to me to do it any other way.

 

[kmk1012]

Same, always deprime before cleaning.

 

[HighlandLofts]

I buy & sell large volumes of range brass.

I only wet tumble.

Range brass gets tumbled with primers in.

My personal brass get tumbled with primers removed.

 

[ARFrog]

I also deprime then clean.

Whether you are anal or not is another matter that is indeterminable at this time without more data

 

[po18guy]

Like showering with clothes on. Neither yoiu nor your clothes get really clean.

 

[robertvarner]

I also deprime then clean.

Whether you are anal or not is another matter that is indeterminable at this time without more data

In order to determine whether "anality" is prevalent, a long term study is warranted.

 

[Mikej]

Hand gun I tumble then deprime. Semi auto gets dirty. If I'm at an outdoor range there's more dirt on there. Rifle I've been sizing/depriming before cleaning. No reason to clean bolt action before depriming. I would tumble .223 before depriming. Those ARs make the brass very dirty. The Garand I'll give them a wipe before I deprime.

I'll say it boils down to how dirty you want brass that runs through your dies?

 

[aasbra]

For me, it depends on what process I'm using to clean the brass. For anything I am wet tumbling, I decap the brass with a universal decap die prior to cleaning. This is typically my process for rifle rounds. For handgun brass, it depends on how dirty the brass are, but I usually dry tumble. And When dry tumbling handgun, I don't decap them first, as it's another step that I leave to station 1 on the Dillon presses I use.

When I've tried my RCBS ultrasonic for cleaning brass, I decapped them first. But I prefer wet tumbling if I'm involving liquid in the process.

 

[DizzyJ]

Pistol I just dry tumble then process (decap, etc)

Rifle brass varies depending on the purpose of the load. Anality varies here.

 

[RVTECH]

Depends on the condition of the brass.

I normally take my 'fired' brass, along with any 'pickup' I may find and do a short tumbling with Dawn, lemon juice and spent primers as my tumbling 'media'.

When done the brass is usually pretty nice looking and I dry it and put it into storage. After sizing & depriming if the primer pockets aren't too bad I may just reload it without any further cleaning.

Regardless 'pre - cleaning' removes any debris, powder residue etc. and makes resizing it easier.

It's gotta be bright and shiny!

 

[Koda]

I load only small batch right now but have been wanting to introduce a cleaning step and to me it only makes sense to decap first.

Does anyone have any opinion on this mostly universal Hornady decap die? RCBS makes a cheaper one but its only good for up to 25cal but this one seems to cover most all rifle calibers.

Hornady Universal Depriming Decapping Die

The Hornady Universal Depriming and Decapping Die is ideal for the reloader who wants to quickly and efficiently deprime or decap brass at one time. ...

www.midwayusa.com

 

[aasbra]

Don't have any experience with the Hornady decap die. I use a Lee universal decap die, with a Squirrel Daddy decap pin. Works on everything I've tried it on, other than Berdan primed brass that got mixed in and went unnoticed until I bent or broke the Lee decap pin.

The Lee decaping die was pretty inexpensive IIRC.

 

[dangerranger60]

I deprime before. I like shiny brass. Those I sell just get washed , sorted and sold, primer still in place. DR

 

[P7M13]

Except for 223, bottle necked gets deprimed then wet tumbled.
223, depends whether crimped or not
Pistol, 44 & 357 are deprimed first. The rest, wet tumbled and loaded on the autoloader, deprimed at the first station.

 

[drstrangelove]

I don't like dealing with vibratory media in the flash hole, nor do I like making sizing dies dirty. Clean first.

 

[ARFrog]

I don't have any experience with the Hornady decapper. I use FW Arms

F.W. Arms™ Standard PRIMER POPPER Auto-Case Centering Decapper/Deprimer

DECAPPING DIES

fwarms.com

I really like it and use it on its own Dillon XL 650 tool head and on a RockChucker single stage.

 

[JuglansRegia]

It depends on how dirty the brass is, if its filthy with mud and debris even on the insides, then I'll tumble for 4-5 hours before depriming and then again for a couple hours when l am done processing it.