What's your take on dry tumbling primed brass?

[TommyFun]

No.
Last thing you want is a squib because media is stuck in the flash hole and you get incomplete detonation.

Change your process.

+++++++++++++++++
Let me edit this and state that I do lube cases prior to processing. When I'm going batch processing 1K+ of a brass, I do inspect and discard (or separate) the dirty ones that need a cleaning before processing.
Typically though, most cases are clean enough to run through my press and dies. They are sprayed with 10:1 99.9% iso/lanolin then left to flash, processed then wet tumbled. At that point they are dried then loaded with primers/powder projectile. Only my sizer/deprimer die gets dirty. The added step doesn't add much time when you consider the quantity of brass that's being processed.

When brass is clean from being shot once non-subsonic/suppressed, it will and can go straight to loading, skipping the lubrication step and wet cleaning. It wasn't picked up in the gravel or mud so it's safe for the dies. A little carbon doesn't hurt as long as it's cleaned out every so often.

 

[coreymet]

How about trying a "small" batch (50? 100?) and see if they work properly? If you chronograph, are they where they should be? Just be sure, as Dozer99 suggests, to give them a couple taps to shake loose any media.

 

[foxmeadow]

Over the years I've done about any combination of reloading steps one could dream up. Currently, I dry tumble fired rifle brass, lube, resize and deprime, then wet tumble with SS to get every nice and clean. After drying, I put them in a clean dry tumbler drum to shake any pins loose. Then trim to length, prime, charge and seat bullets. With pistol brass, I wet tumble, dry, shake any pins loose in the empty tumbler tub, lightly lube with spray lube size and size, deprime, reprime charge and seat'em. If they're a little greasy/sticky, they go into the dry tumbler with media for an hour.
So far, this has worked out for me just fine.


Edited to add trim to length. I never fail to trim...

 

[lucusloc]

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.

Dealing with other peoples mistakes or changes of mind.

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.

Ok, so someone else needs to ask those people about their process. I don't leave cases just primed, when I am ready to do a batch of reloading I prime, powder and seat the bullets all in one session. I do this regardless of if I am using a single stage press or a progressive. It just never occurred to me to prime thousands of cases and then not finish the loading process in short order. I have left clean, deprimed cases in storage for long enough that they needed a quick once over before loading, but since they were not primed that was a quick process. Next someone is going to tell me they keep trays of thousands of rounds of primed and powdered cartridges that sat for years waiting for the bullets. That makes about as much sense to me as leaving the cases primed and not finishing the job.

 

[gmerkt]

Ok, so someone else needs to ask those people about their process. I don't leave cases just primed, when I am ready to do a batch of reloading I prime, powder and seat the bullets all in one session. I do this regardless of if I am using a single stage press or a progressive. It just never occurred to me to prime thousands of cases and then not finish the loading process in short order. I have left clean, deprimed cases in storage for long enough that they needed a quick once over before loading, but since they were not primed that was a quick process. Next someone is going to tell me they keep trays of thousands of rounds of primed and powdered cartridges that sat for years waiting for the bullets. That makes about as much sense to me as leaving the cases primed and not finishing the job.

Every word above makes sense. BUT: This is 'Murica, where any danged fool can do what he wants, and it doesn't need to make sense in matters of personal choice like this.

The most tedious and time consuming phase of reloading is case preparation. Once done. that's a big chunk of work finished. Priming, charging and bullet seating combined take less time. So my usual method is to do the case prep, then leave the final steps to a time that is closer to actual use. Meaning, I don't like having thousands of rounds of reloads sitting around for years.

Unless properly stored, those loaded rounds sitting around unused for years can wind up looking shabby and dirty just like the neglected cases that are subject of this discussion.

Further, if something unforeseen comes along that results in these supplies not being used, it's easier to dispose of components than it is "somebody else's reloads" that are nearly always distressed merchandise.

Then there is the issue of neck tension of seated bullets in reloaded cartridge brass.

 

[BMGMAN]

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.

Just wet tumble and then put in your oven on broil, to dry em out real good. Juuuust kidding. In the grand scheme of life, primers are cheap. I wouldn't but I am very very anal about my reloading process.

 

[CLT65]

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

I've read enough of your posts to realize that you know what what you're talking about.

I haven't done it for a long time, but my experience was the same. 20+ years ago, I had a bunch of .30-06 and .38 Special brass from an estate. It had all been sized and primed, then left to sit for decades, all grungy and sticky with ancient lube. I tumbled it in walnut media so it was at least usable, but was concerned about the little bits of media stuck in many of the flash holes. Out of curiosity I loaded some up and shot them over the chronograph. Velocity was fine, with no misfires or problems.

I used them for plinking and I wouldn't make a habit of it, but I was impressed at how durable primers are - sitting out in the open all grungy for who-knows-how-long, and they still worked.

 

[Richo877]

Just wet tumble and then put in your oven on broil, to dry em out real good. Juuuust kidding. In the grand scheme of life, primers are cheap. I wouldn't but I am very very anal about my reloading process.

This is the first time I've ever bought (or traded) into someone else's process. By the looks of it, it seems to be some amateur got a buttload of random 5.56 brass, decapped without resizing and tried to stuff primers in them to turn around a quick buck. I tried to save myself a few steps and I'm paying for it. Needless to say, I'm never doing it like this again. I'm pretty particular about the process as well, and I'm regretting my choices, but it's been a learning experience. Normally, I dry tumble dirty fired brass before touching my dies, then lube, decap and resize, brush pockets, trim, dry tumble again, then swage. I do have a couple hundred on deck that I'll prime and have ready for a charge, but I keep them stored in plastic airtight ammo cans with desiccant packs, which is how I've got my primers stored anyway. No powder, primer, or completed cartridge sits out in open air. My prepped brass looks like new production before it sees a primer, but these ones are giving me chest pain. As of today, I've gone through the 26lb batch multiple times with the case gauge and calipers, separated into groups of primer condition, which ones pass the gauge and calipers for shoulders and case length. It's been a tedious process before I decided to just FL resize and trim all of it. Some need a little light filing on the rims, but at this point I'm almost through all 26+lbs.

 

[lucusloc]

Every word above makes sense. BUT: This is 'Murica, where any danged fool can do what he wants, and it doesn't need to make sense in matters of personal choice like this.

The most tedious and time consuming phase of reloading is case preparation. Once done. that's a big chunk of work finished. Priming, charging and bullet seating combined take less time. So my usual method is to do the case prep, then leave the final steps to a time that is closer to actual use. Meaning, I don't like having thousands of rounds of reloads sitting around for years.

Unless properly stored, those loaded rounds sitting around unused for years can wind up looking shabby and dirty just like the neglected cases that are subject of this discussion.

Further, if something unforeseen comes along that results in these supplies not being used, it's easier to dispose of components than it is "somebody else's reloads" that are nearly always distressed merchandise.

Then there is the issue of neck tension of seated bullets in reloaded cartridge brass.

Yeah, this whole thread has been one big "WTF mate?" for me. I always thought of "case prep" and "reloading" as two totally separate things, largely to be handled at separate times. I saw the title of the thread and wondered how the hell someone got themselves into a state where that question would need to be asked, then read the first page of posts only to find that not only does this seem to be a common question but there seems to be a decent amount of experience behind it to boot.

I absolutely agree that it is far more versatile to keep things separated until you have need for them, especially if there is a question of moving them on. But I do sometimes keep thousands of rounds of reloads on hand if I can. Always plinking loads, because those are the only kind I make in bulk. Other loads I will typically only make in the 10s to low 100s at a time, depending on use case. But I see no reason to keep a huge stockpile of specialty rounds on hand, especially since I like to play with the load parameters on a regular basis. Having a ton of rounds from one batch will just mean burning them off as plinking ammo when I obsolete that load in favor of the next new hotness, and that is a lot of work in bullet/case sorting and other precision work to treat like that. Hell, I don't even usually keep a large stockpile of specialty components on hand, and will typically only get a box or two of fancy bullets at a time. And the next time I want fancy bullets I will typically grab what catches my eye rather than what I have a worked up load for. I will only go back to an old load if I just want something that works, rather than something new to play with. and lets face it, for me reloading is more about playing with new stuff than anything practical. Sure it can sometimes help save a few pennies per round on plinking ammo, but really only if you do not count your time against the costs. I only put in the effort to make a bunch of plinking ammo if I can get a great deal on bulk supplies, and that has not really happened in years now.

At this point I don't even care about what the answer is to this question or how much data there is to support it one way or the other. I simply cannot wrap my head around the process where people seem to take priming as part of case prep rather than reloading. It simply does not compute for me, especially with how I treat reloading in general. I will bulk process case prep, and I think I have a few thousand cases of various types ready to go at any given time, but those get treated just like every other raw component and just sit there until I want to actually reload something. Then I pull out everything I need to actually reload, and only then do cases get primed, because that is the first step before all the others.

I do know I am going to carry on with my general practices, so any wisdom to be gleaned from this thread is largely moot to me, but it does make me wonder what other crazy shenanigans people get up to with their reloading process. I am not sure I really want to know.

 

[lucusloc]

This is the first time I've ever bought (or traded) into someone else's process. By the looks of it, it seems to be some amateur got a buttload of random 5.56 brass, decapped without resizing and tried to stuff primers in them to turn around a quick buck. I tried to save myself a few steps and I'm paying for it. Needless to say, I'm never doing it like this again. I'm pretty particular about the process as well, and I'm regretting my choices, but it's been a learning experience. Normally, I dry tumble dirty fired brass before touching my dies, then lube, decap and resize, brush pockets, trim, dry tumble again, then swage. I do have a couple hundred on deck that I'll prime and have ready for a charge, but I keep them stored in plastic airtight ammo cans with desiccant packs, which is how I've got my primers stored anyway. No powder, primer, or completed cartridge sits out in open air. My prepped brass looks like new production before it sees a primer, but these ones are giving me chest pain. As of today, I've gone through the 26lb batch multiple times with the case gauge and calipers, separated into groups of primer condition, which ones pass the gauge and calipers for shoulders and case length. It's been a tedious process before I decided to just FL resize and trim all of it. Some need a little light filing on the rims, but at this point I'm almost through all 26+lbs.

Yeah, that sale wold have had me scratching my head. I have never seen primed brass as it's own thing before, and if I had that offer in front of me I would have been asking why the hell they had 26lbs of primed brass all by itself. I would be thinking there has to be some crazy story behind it, it would never occur to me that this is part of someone's normal process.

 

[Lilhigbee]

We've bought a number of batches of reloading equipment and supplies and I think every one of them had primed brass. Some a couple of boxes, others several hundred, maybe a thousand. I don't get it either, but apparently it is common. As stated above, your heirs will have a much easier time selling the new components than they will half-finished reloads.

 

[CLT65]

I always thought of "case prep" and "reloading" as two totally separate things, largely to be handled at separate times.

That's how I do it too. In recent times I don't even do case prep unless I'm going to load them in the near future, because if I change my mind and don't load them, prepped brass generally isn't worth any more to the next guy as unprepped brass..

 

[gmerkt]

I simply cannot wrap my head around the process where people seem to take priming as part of case prep rather than reloading. It simply does not compute for me, especially with how I treat reloading in general.

I have never seen primed brass as it's own thing before

Here I have to point out that major firms (ex. Winchester, Remington) used to sell primed new brass for reloading. I haven't seen it lately but at one time it was fairly common.

These days, some of the salvage sales (for lack of a better term) dealers like Rocky Mountain Reloading, Combat Disabled Veterans Surplus, Jeff Bartlett, et al, have offered lots of de-milled brass that contained live primers. So it's around. But I think for this discussion, the subject is small lots from amateur reloaders.

 

[Richo877]

for this discussion, the subject is small lots from amateur reloaders

This specifically, yes. I've seen primed brass for sale from a variety of outlets, new, pulldowns, etc. But this is a one-off predicament I find myself in because I was enticed by the idea of buying into the convenience of skipping some steps. Like I said earlier, I'm learning that shortcuts aren't worth it. I don't see a general problem with pre-priming my own cases in advance, so long as the prep steps are correct. That's where this ordeal became messy; I took a gamble that the original owner was competent, and I was wrong.

 

[edzz]

For those that don't understand why anyone would have primed brass just sitting around for a future load date just search Factory Primed Brass there are deals to be had.

Another situation would be such as the few hundred .308 Winchester I have sitting that came to me loaded from an estate sale. Ammo looked great to me however didn't know the loader or the load so safer in my view to pull the bullets and save the components. I had a good idea what the powder was might be but, for my peace of mind it was better to just scrap the powder. Only took a few seconds to safely render the powder a thing of the past...

When working up loads I will commonly have a bunch of brass primed and waiting till I decide on bullets and charge, especially in these times of uncertain powder supplies. Hopefully as we put the times of Joe behind us we'll once again be able to walk in the store and buy the powder we want rather than what we're lucky to get.

 

[Cerberus Group]

I've read enough of your posts to realize that you know what what you're talking about.

I haven't done it for a long time, but my experience was the same. 20+ years ago, I had a bunch of .30-06 and .38 Special brass from an estate. It had all been sized and primed, then left to sit for decades, all grungy and sticky with ancient lube. I tumbled it in walnut media so it was at least usable, but was concerned about the little bits of media stuck in many of the flash holes. Out of curiosity I loaded some up and shot them over the chronograph. Velocity was fine, with no misfires or problems.

I used them for plinking and I wouldn't make a habit of it, but I was impressed at how durable primers are - sitting out in the open all grungy for who-knows-how-long, and they still worked.

Thank you for your kind words.

To the OP...I often buy primed brass by the thousands, and have come across it in estate sales...it's not uncommon to some of us in the industry. But as @CLT65 stated, there may be bits of media in the flash hole, but it didn't affect the performance....and it is amazing how durable primers really are, they aren't susceptible to many things as much as we all have come to believe.

 

[osprey]

Plinking ammo = go for it! Hunting ammo or ammo I would trust my life with = hell no!