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how do you guys make sure ALL of the pins are separated from the brass?

Awhile back I tumbled about 900 .223 cases and rinsed over and over, but STILL wound up having some pins in the mix.

Any tips or tricks to removing ALL of them, or is it inevitable you'll have some left over. Last thing I want is to break a decapping pin, or heaven forbid, shoot one out the end of the barrel that got missed....

Thanks in advance!
 
Lots of clean-hot water; lots! Dump the clean brass into those $1.00 oil drain kits from the $ Tree, then into a strainer, as many times as necessary.

Then, I dump the clean brass into a clean/dry beach towel; I make a hammock, and roll the brass back and fourth as many times as necessary to transfer water and any remaining pins onto the towel.

The clean brass goes into a baking pan, and into the oven for a couple of hours; only the light turned on.

;)
 
Any tips or tricks to removing ALL of them,
I dump my brass out of the tumbler cups into a coarse grid plastic cooking colander which is setting in a SS oven pan. I rinse the brass with running water while shaking and 'flipping' the brass and the pins fall through the colander and into the pan. The brass then gets dumped into another pan with a towel and set on the edge of the woodstove to dry. When dry A quick, cursory inspection of the brass again and then into storage trays. NOW I deprime and size BEFORE I tumble so I have 'open' primer pockets and this I believe helps to keep pins out of the brass. I have NEVER had a loose pin in the drying pan. I believe it would be counterproductive to tumble primed brass as it would negate the reasons for tumbling with pins.
 
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Mine has a filter cap. So I put that on and drain the gross water and pins into a bucket. Then I shake the crap out of it over the bucket with the filter cap. Sometimes a few cases end up in the bucket with the steel pins but most if not all of the pins get out and the brass stays in the tumbler. I then dump the brass from the tumbler into a bucket of clean water to rinse them and ensure any left over pins get removed. From there I take a handful at a time and using a colander toss them over the 1st bucket that had the majority of the pins. This usually results in most of the water and pins being in one of the two buckets and clean rinsed brass.

Another thing that helps is removing primers prior to cleaning. This helps water and pins flow through the case so you don't get a bunch of them stuck in the cases.
 
Thee two things:
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@tarster found a 250lb neonydium magnet to replace the one inside the above item for a couple dollars.

Tip:
Rinse with COLD water if using a soap with a wax. Hot water washes wax coating off (such as Armoral car soap with carnuba wax).
 
Keep em coming guys. I did decap ahead of time. Thoroughly washed and rinsed several times. Still kept finding those suckers here and there...
 
Always decap bottleneck cases first, then I use the same device Dyj does, it spins the brass and so far has gotten every single pin out. When I lay them out to dry on a towel I run a big magnet over the cases just to be sure.
 
For starters, after I vibrate clean brass after range session to knock of carbon and other debris, I re-size, de-prime, trim as needed and camfer off any trim edge. THEN I toss into the pins. When done, I set my fine mesh strainer into the garage sink and pour. Rinse a couple times then start picking the brass out of the pins. I never do 900 brass, so that volume is not an issue for me. I toss brass into an old large ice cream container with hot water and a bunch of round magnets from Home Depot in the drink. Any errant pins are caught at that stage. I rinse in the strainer again, then do the same towel cradle thing. That really works good! While I do that I have the oven pre-heating at 265. I spread the brass out on a large cookie sheet, put it in the oven, set the timer for 10 minutes. When the timer goes off I shut off the oven and leave 'em in there until I am ready to deal with them. Usually a couple hours. That works good. Also, depending on the weather, sometimes I just set the batch out in the sun on a deck, or, in Winter, I leave it in front of the wood stove. When they're dry, they are ready to simply be primed and go into a container. For me, the difference in the quality of finished product is worth the effort. Clean brass don't stick in semi-auto blasters. :D
 
I've never felt the need for the SS pins during Reloading. Ground Walnut shells and a bit of metal polish has always done a fine job on my brass.
 
I've never felt the need for the SS pins during Reloading. Ground Walnut shells and a bit of metal polish has always done a fine job on my brass.

Suppose it's just one of those things. I figured just go with wet tumbling with pins (little egg shaped ones, which tend not to get stuck in primer pockets...so far).
 
I've never felt the need for the SS pins during Reloading. Ground Walnut shells and a bit of metal polish has always done a fine job on my brass.
It is less effort and time, but I do like that the SS media cleans the primer pockets!
 
Suppose it's just one of those things. I figured just go with wet tumbling with pins.
Wet thumbing means time spent drying out brass while dry means just separating the brass and media. I'll normally be loading a couple thousand rounds and drying that many WASTES too much time. I'd really rather be loading instead of drying.

But, I'm not saying it's not a way to get things done.:)
 
It is less effort and time,
I STILL rinsed my brass even when I was dry tumbling so I factored in drying time with my decision to switch to liquid and I find my time to be about he same but with vastly superior results. I tumble in smaller batches so it's never a huge undertaking.
 
I STILL rinsed my brass even when I was dry tumbling so I factored in drying time with my decision to switch to liquid and I find my time to be about he same but with vastly superior results. I tumble in smaller batches so it's never a huge undertaking.
Just curious why you rinsed after dry tumbling?

I've never done that or even heard of that. I use a capful of mineral spirits in my walnut media, and there is no dust left on the cases when they're done tumbling.
 
I use a capful of mineral spirits in my walnut media, and there is no dust left on the cases when they're done tumbling.
Probably should have done something like this and I may NOT have had to rinse but I would occasionally find walnut shell specs in the primer pockets so rinsing got them all out. Otherwise I like my brass 'squeeky' clean so wet tumbling was a win-win for me.
 
Probably should have done something like this and I may NOT have had to rinse but I would occasionally find walnut shell specs in the primer pockets so rinsing got them all out. Otherwise I like my brass 'squeeky' clean so wet tumbling was a win-win for me.
Gotcha.
 

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