What's your take on dry tumbling primed brass?

[Richo877]

Sorry if this has already been covered here. I did a quick search and didn't see anything in discussion. Going through the rest of the interwebs, I'm getting a lot of conflicting info. Some say it's possibly damaging to the primers, some say it could plug the flash holes. Some say they've done it a million times without a problem, primers are fine and would blow any debris out of the flash hole and still ignite a charge just fine.
What's your take on this? Have you done it? Do you avoid doing it for some reason? I've got a ton of dingy brass that I'm reprocessing that looks like the primers are new, but the brass wasn't properly cleaned, decapped, resized, trimmed, or swaged before being rushed into the priming stage. I don't like the idea of mucking up my dies with all of it, but I don't want to ruin primers if it's problematic to tumble them.

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[BigGame]

Have you tried gently depriming them? I've done so before successfully when in a pinch and would choose that route over tumbling primed cases.

 

[Koda]

primers are fine and would blow any debris out of the flash hole and still ignite a charge just fine.

I wouldn't trust this at all. Plus primer holes on the inside of the case affect muzzle velocity.
I don't have any experience with tumbling primed brass, and never will. Deprime them and get that over with.

Though, I think if you remove the deprime pin from the sizing die you could resize them with the primer in? Just hand wipe them clean this go around.

 

[Cerberus Group]

Done it a zillion times with no degradation to the rounds...al were within velocity spec of the intended load.

 

[kmk1012]

Done it a zillion times with no degradation to the rounds...al were within velocity spec of the intended load.

This right here! Some people worry about problems that don't exist.

 

[Dozer99]

I have done this with thousands of primed brass cases. I just give each case a gentle tap or two on the bench to shake loose any left over media and then load them up.

I have never had a problem with doing this. I also do loaded cartridges in a vibratory tumbler as well.

 

[Richo877]

I think if you remove the deprime pin from the sizing die you could resize them with the primer in

This is what I started doing, but the ones I've done are lubed up now and I'd like them better polished. If there weren't so many of them, it'd be less daunting to decap the live primers and clean them.

 

[Koda]

This is what I started doing, but the ones I've done are lubed up now and I'd like them better polished. If there weren't so many of them, it'd be less daunting to decap the live primers and clean them.

Id be willing to forgive the uncleaned look one time but if there is that many of them and it looks like most agree it wont affect anything then maybe tumble them.

 

[JuglansRegia]

I wouldn't mainly because the lizzard litter walnut media l use will go through the flash holes, l don't know what effect an accumulation of walnut shells around the primer will do.

 

[gmerkt]

I was okay with tumbling them as-is until I came to post no. 7 where it was mentioned that the cases had been lubed. The tumbling media will absorb some of the lube from the cases, then get back down inside the case. Then there may be a matter of contamination of the primer through the flash hole, maybe. Or maybe not an issue.

For cases that haven't been lubed yet, I don't see an issue with a grit or two of media in the flash hole; my thinking is this will simply get simultaneously incinerated and blasted out at the time of ignition.

I don't see an issue with damage to the external part of primer. I don't know about now, but Winchester used to tumble a lot of their finished ammunition.

I decap live primers out of necessity from time to time. But on the second go-around, they don't always fit the primer pocket with sufficient friction so I'd advise against doing it en masse if you can avoid it.

 

[Richo877]

I was okay with tumbling them as-is until I came to post no. 7 where it was mentioned that the cases had been lubed. The tumbling media will absorb some of the lube from the cases, then get back down inside the case. Then there may be a matter of contamination of the primer through the flash hole, maybe. Or maybe not an issue.

For cases that haven't been lubed yet, I don't see an issue with a grit or two of media in the flash hole; my thinking is this will simply get simultaneously incinerated and blasted out at the time of ignition.

I don't see an issue with damage to the external part of primer. I don't know about now, but Winchester used to tumble a lot of their finished ammunition.

I decap live primers out of necessity from time to time. But on the second go-around, they don't always fit the primer pocket with sufficient friction so I'd advise against doing it en masse if you can avoid it.

At this point, I'm thinking of just completing the rest of the batch as-is. My die is already dirty and I'm cleaning periodically. I'm about 40%-50% through what's salvageable in this lot. It's not the dirtiest brass I've seen, just not as pretty as I'd like. I might give it a 30 minute tumble after I've loaded and crimped some, but at the end of the day, I just want it to shoot. Dirty brass will plink just the same if the primers are good. I still plan on dry firing some of the worst of the worst primers off just to see what I'm dealing with. If they all go pop, I'm in good shape. If I'm looking at a significant fail rate, I'll select a handful of better looking primers to test out. If those have failures too, I may be wasting my time with all of this, and just have to decap and scrap all the primers anyway. If the primers are good though, I don't want to compromise or contaminate them.

 

[lucusloc]

I'm curious why there are so many people here who tumble primed brass. This has not ever been a question that has come up for me, or even occurred to ask, as brass prep comes before loading up primers. Brass is de-primed and possibly sized, then cleaned and tumbled, cut, sorted and whatever else and only then put through reloading steps like priming. I just do not understand how you get to the priming step before all the cleaning/prep steps are done.

 

[Richo877]

I'm curious why there are so many people here who tumble primed brass. This has not ever been a question that has come up for me, or even occurred to ask, as brass prep comes before loading up primers. Brass is de-primed and possibly sized, then cleaned and tumbled, cut, sorted and whatever else and only then put through reloading steps like priming. I just do not understand how you get to the priming step before all the cleaning/prep steps are done.

Well sometimes you end up with a trade for 25+ lbs of "primed" brass that some joker messed with that you've gotta go back and fix. I'm very familiar with the steps.

 

[gmerkt]

I'm curious why there are so many people here who tumble primed brass. This has not ever been a question that has come up for me, or even occurred to ask, as brass prep comes before loading up primers. Brass is de-primed and possibly sized, then cleaned and tumbled, cut, sorted and whatever else and only then put through reloading steps like priming. I just do not understand how you get to the priming step before all the cleaning/prep steps are done.

Dealing with other peoples mistakes or changes of mind.

 

[Cerberus Group]

I'm curious why there are so many people here who tumble primed brass. This has not ever been a question that has come up for me, or even occurred to ask, as brass prep comes before loading up primers. Brass is de-primed and possibly sized, then cleaned and tumbled, cut, sorted and whatever else and only then put through reloading steps like priming. I just do not understand how you get to the priming step before all the cleaning/prep steps are done.

Brass that has been left out over years that's got dusty and/or the outside surface has come in contact with something. I see this a lot with brass that's been primed, left out for years or put in a bucket, or the estate of a handloader where it was packed up and left as is for some years, but kept temp controlled.

 

[orygun]

Media stuck in the flash hole would be my only concern. And not much of a concern at that.

 

[edzz]

If I'm loading lubed hardcast bullets I commonly tumble after loading to remove the bullet lube that has found its way all over...

 

[orygun]

If I'm loading lubed hardcast bullets I commonly tumble after loading to remove the bullet lube that has found its way all over...

I've not done that, but I have tumbled lubed and sized cases to get the goo off.

 

[Texmex247]

I would sooner just load dirty brass I've had various media plug up primer flash holes. Always want to keep your flash hole clean!

 

[edzz]

I would sooner just load dirty brass I've had various media plug up primer flash holes. Always want to keep your flash hole clean!

Problem with loading dirty brass is you can damage your dies. Don't ask how I know.