Decapping process?

[Redaye]

Relatively new to reloading. Most of what I think I know has come from watching YouTube vids and some direction from fellow shooters/reloaders. I jumped all-in about 4 months ago and bought out another shooters, almost new Dillon xl650 with a lot of extras like, case feeder, alarms, brass in various stages of prep, tumblers, media, gauges, etc., etc. 

What's the recommended procedure for decapping 9mm, range gathered brass? I like my brass clean and shinny. Especially the inside and most 'specially the primer pockets. I've found (mostly through trial and error) that ss pins, dawn and lemishine give me an acceptable casing and requires decapping prior to tumbling. The question is: if you decap before you clean/tumble, do you run them through the press or use a Frankford Arsenal decapping tool,,,,,, or what? 

[DRock]

I have a Lee Universal Decap Die on it's own tool head for my Lee Classic Turret press. When I get about 8 lbs of brass decapped I run it thru my Frankford Arsenal Tumbler.

 

Dave

[tomj44]

Decap first, cleans all, dry fast. This works with most brass  https://www.dillonprecision.com/universal-decapping-die_8_4_24510.html

[michael.flitcraft]

I’ve found that it makes no difference on the primer pocket cleanliness on a progressive. I’d even say leave the pins out and you’ll be amazed how clean they are after 45 minutes on the outside. Interior, again, haven’t found a bit of difference. Just more time and mess.


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[promtcy]

I wash/rinse mine in a colander in the sink to get the sand and dirt out. To dry I put them in the oven at 150 for about 15 mins. Then I throw them in a bin until I get enough to mess with. I throw them in a box and spray a little home made lube on and toss them around in the box. I deprime on my Hornady LNL with the sizing die. I have a U-Die, just never used it. I use SS Pins, Armor-All wash & wax and some lemishine. When I was using Dawn the cases would tarnish in storage, with the Armor-All they don't. I only chose Armor-All because it was cheap. 

 

At some point I'd like to try a decapping tool just to save the wear and tear on my press. 

 

I like my brass shiny as well, it just doesn't really make any performance difference as far as I could ever tell. Before I got my wet tumbler I just washed the cases out, deprimed them and loaded them. Other than looks the only advantage for me in wet tumbling is that I get a couple extra steps to inspect the brass in case I missed something the first time. 

[USSR]

Redaye,

 

I would suggest you buy a Universal decapping die, and look for a good used single stage press.    While a progressive press is nice, there are just some things that are best handled on a single stage.

 

Don

[Matt1]

If you shoot any kind of volume (and shooting is more important to you than loading) then forget all of this.

Wet tumble (without pins) brass straight off the range, dry either on a towel in the sun or using a cheap dehydrator. Put the cases in a bucket with a few squirts of case lube and give them a shake. Then tip them into the case feeder on your progressive (650 or 1050) and load away.

This gives you maximum return for the effort you put in.


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[stick]

No need to decap brass before loading.  I use a vibratory tumbler with walnut and nu-finish.  I sort the brass by headstamp to remove unwanted cases (380, stepped brass, Aluminum, etc) lube the cases and them in your 650.  I tumble again for 5-10 minutes to remove lube.  my brass is shiny enough, besides 99% of my brass I pick up from my range if from other shooters.

 

[9x45]

No need to decap pistol brass. Just take right from the tumbler to the loader. My method is first in walnut with mineral oil, then in corn with NuFinish car polish. Run them overnight because it's an offline operation. Turns nasty range brass into slippery shiney ready to load, with no case lube needed. 

 

 

[PhillySoldier]

I have a single station press setup for decapping only.  I then clean all my brass in an ultrasonic cleaner. I can clean 1k rounds in 20 minutes as well as a gun or two at the same time (separate bins). I couldnt stand the noise, time length and mess the tumblers made. I then reload in a dillon progressive press regardless if Ive already decapped or not

[GregJ]

I hopped on the wet tumbling w/SS pins for a while. I blew up a barrel due to a squib that was caused by damp brass, totally my fault.  My drying process was not sufficient.  I switched to a FA dehydrator and that fixed that issue.  But to me the juice was not worth the squeeze to wet tumble.  I have gone back to the good old dry media, tumble brass, decap/size on my 1050 with AmmoBot (several 5gal buckets at a time), and load 'em up.  No need for squeeky clean brass unless you are doing it as a biz. 

[MemphisMechanic]

Life is too short to deprime then tumble 9mm brass. Clean it with the primers in and then run it through the 650 to deprime and reload it in a single pass.

 

It performs identically either way, so skip it. The purpose of running a reloader is to create ammo to go practice and compete and improve with.

 

Put your time into dryfiring if you want to enjoy match day, not into making your ammo. (I just don’t get guys who turn loading ammo into the primary hobby, and shooting it becomes secondary.)

 

 

Edited March 29, 2018 by MemphisMechanic

[Steve RA]

Here is a sequence showing various stages of brass cleaning.

[Kenstone]

I remove primers on another press...a drill press

2 fender washers stacked/screwed to a block of wood with the top washer drilled out to the rim diameter.

A 2nd lower block of wood with a big cavity to hold the primers.

The knock out pin came out of a die and clamped in the drill chuck.

I can feel a crimped primer by the extra force needed and chamfer out the crimp.

I have more top boards with washers sized for different calibers.

I do this to keep the primer smooge off the loading press, and gumming up the primer seating pin.

Just an alternative method thatt works for me, and what others think about it really doesn't matter to me...

 

Edited March 29, 2018 by Kenstone

[Balakay]

18 hours ago, MemphisMechanic said:

Life is too short to deprime then tumble 9mm brass. Clean it with the primers in and then run it through the 650 to deprime and reload it in a single pass.

 

It performs identically either way, so skip it. The purpose of running a reloader is to create ammo to go practice and compete and improve with.

 

Put your time into dryfiring if you want to enjoy match day, not into making your ammo. (I just don’t get guys who turn loading ammo into the primary hobby, and shooting it becomes secondary.)

 

 

This should be a sticky.

The only possible motivation for me to wet tumble, even without pins, is the lead/dust. After watching some videos of the process, I grabbed a box of surgical gloves and masks from the office and continue to dry tumble with walnut.  Reloading is annoying enough and squeaky clean brass is irrelevant to me

[MemphisMechanic]

17 hours ago, Steve RA said:

Here is a sequence showing various stages of brass cleaning.

 

I’m good with loading and shooting the stuff on the left.

 

You guys have fun with the rest of these silly steps.

[Kenstone]

19 minutes ago, MemphisMechanic said:

 

I’m good with loading and shooting the stuff on the left.

 

You guys have fun with the rest of these silly steps.

You gotta love a deprime thread morphed to a tumbling thread, should be good for 10-12 pages....

I have to ask though, why did you read/post here ?

 

 

I'm kidding...

[tcazes]

deprime- wash- dry- reload. i only deprime because it seems to let the stainless media fall out better

[USSR]

On Monday, March 26, 2018 at 5:24 PM, Redaye said:

I like my brass clean and shinny. Especially the inside and most 'specially the primer pockets. I've found (mostly through trial and error) that ss pins, dawn and lemishine give me an acceptable casing and requires decapping prior to tumbling. The question is: if you decap before you clean/tumble, do you run them through the press or use a Frankford Arsenal decapping tool,,,,,, or what?

 

Back to the OP.   If you want clean and shiny and "most 'specially the primer pockets", then you will deprime the brass prior to wet tumbling.   Personally, I do it on my single-stage press using a Lyman Universal Decapping Die.

 

Don

[RiggerJJ]

19 hours ago, MemphisMechanic said:

 

I’m good with loading and shooting the stuff on the left.

 

You guys have fun with the rest of these silly steps.

Amen...I see no need for a progressive loader when you make more work for yourself and can do it your way with a single stage. Shiny brass (including the primer pockets) do nothing to improve the function of the ammo...

 

Tumble it, load it, and shoot it for God's sake! ?

[Steve RA]

But then they do not look pretty !!!   

[Redaye]

Based on the variety of responses to my OP, it appears I'm on an acceptable track. Albeit, it's a little more time consuming and maybe a little OCD to go for clean and shinny. I'm retired so, my time is mine and since I'm new to reloading, I'll probably get less picky about the brass as i become more confident. My current process is decapping with a Frankford decapping tool, wet tumble in ss pins and dry under a fan for at least 8 hours. Allows an additional opportunity to inspect and sort out unwanted casings. I acquired a lot of prep equipment in a trade. Rotary and vibrating tumblers and various media. I'll try all of it eventually. One thing I will say about decapping off of the progressive press first is it seems to operate much smoother and I don't run into hard stops due to small flash holes. I'm able to cull those casings before I get on the press. The tiny flash holes are rare but annoying. (See Tiny Flash Port topic in this category) Thanks for all your comments. It's great to have all this experience to draw from.

[Steve RA]

Have to admit that I'm retired and it's just something to do with my spare time - but it does look good.  

 

Back when I was shooting a lot I just bought ammunition from John Dixon so wasn't too worried about looks as it all shot very well.

[Furrly]

20 hours ago, MemphisMechanic said:

 

I’m good with loading and shooting the stuff on the left.

 

You guys have fun with the rest of these silly steps.

Memphis> dirty brass like the photo of the far left has no effect on your match ammo  vs the shinny stuff on the far right??

[MemphisMechanic]

30 minutes ago, Furrly said:

Memphis> dirty brass like the photo of the far left has no effect on your match ammo  vs the shinny stuff on the far right??

 

Why do we tumble used casings?

 

To make it pretty? Not at all. We do it so that the rough corroded brass won’t chew up the dies in our reloading press, and so that it’s slick enough to feed through our magazines, chamber, and extract cleanly.

 

To do that I find 30 minutes in a walnut dry tumbler is more than sufficient in most cases - I’m not picking up corroded green cases in the first place.

 

My brass often still looks like the stuff on the left. Wherever it was corroded you will still see a visible stain. It’s smooth to the touch, but I don’t continue to work on it until it’s fully polished.

 

My ammo fuctions just like the rounds I’d load with the cases on the right, and since I’m both experienced in reloading and the exact opposite of “retired with lots of free time” ... I cut the corners I can.

 

Edited March 30, 2018 by MemphisMechanic