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I buy & sell range brass, I have bought & sold well over two tons of range brass. I wet tumble it with the primers in. I will not spend the time to deprime that much brass befer I process it and sell it.

My personal brass I deprime then wet tumble. I have a bunch of 223 and 38spl brass thaty grandson shot over the last few weeks that I will deprime and wet tumble today.
 
Depriming first to clean pockets is a major waste of time for me. Since bulk loading I have never first deprimed or cleaned pockets. For pistol cases it would add 50% more time to the reloading process and rifle cases 25% more. That is not much when you load 100-500 rounds a year. However, for years I have been shooting 1000's of rounds per year.

Now I do sort of clean pockets in my process for bottle necked cases. When bulk sizing rifle brass I use lanolin spray lube. After resizing the cases get a quick wash with hot soapy water followed by a triple rinse. That part of the process indecently removes most loose soot in the pockets.
 
Compulsive (avoiding the previous posterior references) tumblers, that believe it is a necessary part of every reloading session, or that tumble their brass to the point of polished gold should be aware that finely polished rifle brass can and does create unsafe conditions when the brass surface does not grip the walls of the chamber as it should upon firing.

Tumbling brass should be done when necessary, never with appearance the goal.
 
Oh. I'm anal! But you ain't gettin' pitchures!
Compulsive (avoiding the previous posterior references) tumblers, that believe it is a necessary part of every reloading session, or that tumble their brass to the point of polished gold should be aware that finely polished rifle brass can and does create unsafe conditions when the brass surface does not grip the walls of the chamber as it should upon firing.

Tumbling brass should be done when necessary, never with appearance the goal.
Killjoy!

But, mi compadre, you do speak with a silver tongue!
 
Compulsive (avoiding the previous posterior references) tumblers, that believe it is a necessary part of every reloading session, or that tumble their brass to the point of polished gold should be aware that finely polished rifle brass can and does create unsafe conditions when the brass surface does not grip the walls of the chamber as it should upon firing.

Tumbling brass should be done when necessary, never with appearance the goal.
Do you have any data to back that up? I've never seen that proven. Factory brass is just as shiny...

my priorities: 1. consistently good shooting ammo. 2. It looks good.

These two don't have to opposing goals.
 
Compulsive (avoiding the previous posterior references) tumblers, that believe it is a necessary part of every reloading session, or that tumble their brass to the point of polished gold should be aware that finely polished rifle brass can and does create unsafe conditions when the brass surface does not grip the walls of the chamber as it should upon firing.

Tumbling brass should be done when necessary, never with appearance the goal.

Oh. I'm anal! But you ain't gettin' pitchures!

Killjoy!

But, mi compadre, you do speak with a silver tongue!

Do you have any data to back that up? I've never seen that proven. Factory brass is just as shiny...

my priorities: 1. consistently good shooting ammo. 2. It looks good.

These two don't have to opposing goals.



No, no, no, DaaahLING…..
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Do you have any data to back that up? I've never seen that proven. Factory brass is just as shiny...

my priorities: 1. consistently good shooting ammo. 2. It looks good.

These two don't have to opposing goals.
It's been observed and written about more than once by more than one scribe. I apologize that I cannot recite chapter and verse. Rick Jamieson may have been one of them.

There is no issue with tumbling brass toward your purposes. If your brass isn't any shinier than factory, you probably won't have any trouble at all.

A much more common issue that exhibits itself in the same way is leaving case lube on the case: Gas leakage traces observable behind the shoulder. Perhaps you have seen this (or read about it). Once again, the case cannot grip the wall for a perfect seal, gas is allowed where it shouldn't, with a possible increase in thrust on the bolt face.

I like a cartridge that looks good too. Tumbling is okay with me, and I enjoy the side benefit of appearance when its done for other reasons.

It is not necessary for consistency, and need not be done on each cycle of the case, and it is possible to overdo it.
 
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It's been observed and written about more than once by more than one scribe. I apologize that I cannot recite chapter and verse. Rick Jamieson may have been one of them.

There is no issue with tumbling brass toward your purposes. If your brass isn't any shinier than factory, you probably won't have any trouble at all.

A much more common issue that exhibits itself in the same way is leaving case lube on the case: Gas leakage traces observable behind the shoulder. Perhaps you have seen this (or read about it). Once again, the case cannot grip the wall for a perfect seal, gas is allowed where it shouldn't, with a possible increase in thrust on the bolt face.

I like a cartridge that looks good too. Tumbling is okay with me, even when I do it for looks alone.

But It is not necessary for consistency, and need not be done on each cycle of the case, and it is possible to overdo it.
Interesting point. I had recently loaded some 6.5 Swede and gone the the range. Four different powder weights. The second seemed most accurate. The first had overly sooty necks. In my case it was the lack of pressure I believe. But that is a point you have. Turns out with the Swede I do all processing before tumble. And then I tumble W/walnut to remove all lube, and pretty it up. The load.
 
When I wet tumble the brass is far too clean to even run through a carbide sizer. It needs lube to avoid stuck cases. If anything, wet tumbling, done correctly, will increase the traction in the chamber. YMMV
 
Done it both ways. Can't tell you I saw I difference on paper, nor through the chronograph. I HAVE, however, deprimed, then cleaned without marking they aren't sized, then put in a primer and powder only to have my bullet plop into the powder reservoir. Therefore, I no longer deprime first.
 
Done it both ways. Can't tell you I saw I difference on paper, nor through the chronograph. I HAVE, however, deprimed, then cleaned without marking they aren't sized, then put in a primer and powder only to have my bullet plop into the powder reservoir. Therefore, I no longer deprime first.
I've done that, it's pretty frustrating. Waited until last minute before a sage rat trip only to find out my box marked "prepped" really wasn't the night before leaving. Was a late night but had ammo for the trip, LOL
 
Yes actually both!

1. Range brass is "washed" wet no stainless chips or citric acid, just water and light soap. (Large loads I run in cement mixer)
2. Brass is sorted.
3. Brass is shot with homemade case lube (pistol and rifle always), is deprimed (universal deprimer), Resized (9mm and 45ACP are undersized) (very dirty process as the old primers come out, for me best to clean these post removal)
4. Brass moves to roll former. 9mm, 45ACP, 10mm and 5.56/300BLK, the case lube continues to help this process. But by the time they are finished with this step they are "grimy, greasy" looking.
5. Brass is "polished" wet w/ stainless chips w/ citric acid and light soap. Primer pockets look amazing and brass is incredibly bright.

Brass is better than new ready to load. It's so clean it "rings" pouring it into the holding bins.

Reason I do this process, is #1 make sure NO "devils brass" aka .380 Auto makes it into my 9mm!!! By pre-prepping my before loading I eliminate the risk of jams in my progressive press the increase the odds of miss loads. Undersized and roll sized brass case gauge checks 99% of the time, it flat out behaves just like commercial new ammo. Since doing this process I have basically a 100% feed rate at the range.
 

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