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Two pass reloaders, is the 1st pass before or after cleaning brass???


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I'm on my way to using two passes through my RL1100 press to load 9mm.  I was just wondering if the first pass to decap, swage, and size the brass should be done before or after cleaning the brass.  I tumble dry with corn cob media, if that matters.

 

I was thinking of doing it first, then cleaning the brass so the primer pockets get cleaned, but then I figured that would get the press pretty dirty since my brass is mostly range pickup from outdoors.

 

What are you guys doing?

 

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2 hours ago, Cuz said:

I was thinking of doing it first, then cleaning the brass so the primer pockets get cleaned, but then I figured that would get the press pretty dirty since my brass is mostly range pickup from outdoors.

 

What are you guys doing?

 

 

Same here.

 

Tumble in Corn Media, with spent primers still in the cases (1  1/2hrs). Resize and remove spent primers. Wet tumble. Once I get to this point, I store the cleaned and sized brass until I am ready to reload (about 2k ready to go).

 

Then in the press, primer, bellmouth, powder, bullet, seating and Lee Full Length Die (just enough to remove the bellmouth) and into Ammo Boxes of 100. On the shelf I currently have 635 rounds ready for July. Then gradually reload 200-300 at a time to get the round count up for Aug. 

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6 minutes ago, Lastcat said:

 

Same here.

 

Tumble in Corn Media, with spent primers still in the cases (1  1/2hrs). Resize and remove spent primers. Wet tumble. Once I get to this point, I store the cleaned and sized brass until I am ready to reload (about 2k ready to go).

 

Then in the press, primer, bellmouth, powder, bullet, seating and Lee Full Length Die (just enough to remove the bellmouth) and into Ammo Boxes of 100. On the shelf I currently have 635 rounds ready for July. Then gradually reload 200-300 at a time to get the round count up for Aug. 

yep-do the same.  brass goes into walnut hulls tumbler to clean up.  then is deprimed and resized in a single stage press (lee challenger with the quick change breech lock system.  rifle brass also then gets primer pocket swaged and trimmed to length.  finally, it all goes into a wet tumbler.  end result is all brass is ready to load later on a 650.  piece of cake at that point.  plus, you can also use the M die for the rifle brass if yer using a mister bullet feeder.

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I use corn cob media(usually dillons) and nufinish car polish  BEFORE  any brass   gets near my reloader.  a day before I start reloading, I spray hornady one shot  lube into a plastic bag, load in some clean brass and  give  it a good shake to coat the outside of the brass. even though the  cases  dry off by spraying  them a day in advance, the dies tend to pick up carbon and dirt anyway. Every  few thousand  rounds, I clean out the  dies of the gunk that accumulates

 

I clean brass while reloading. it is the only multi tasking I can  do :)

 

by the way, why 2 passes through the reloader? --just curious

Edited by boatdoc173
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2 hours ago, Johnnymazz said:

Shiny new all primed ready for powder and bullets. Its a 5 step process for me.

143256261_2306739896116436_2221881788006305995_n.jpg

When do you prime the brass?

is it a separate step all by itself?

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1 hour ago, boatdoc173 said:

 

by the way, why 2 passes through the reloader? --just curious


Im planning to use two passes because the primers don’t always get ejected which causes the whole loading process to keep getting interrupted. With a second toolhead I will process brass with multiple sizing and decapping dies to make the actual loading process go much smoother. I am thinking that sometime next year I will automate my press, and preprocessing makes everything run better. 

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Cuz - I am right there with you on your future plans. I too plan on automating my RL1100 next year - that is why I decided to purchase the extra toolheads now so that I will have everything I need.. 
 

I will tell you that on Friday of last week I switched out my Lee “U” die in station two for a Dillon SPRING loaded 9mm depriming/resizing die. I have run the Dillon spring loaded depriming/resizing die on my 650 for 10+ years with zero case gauging issues (Wilson single and Hundo 100 unit)….I ran 1000 rds. total on Saturday/Sunday/Monday on the RL1100 without a single primer draw back and I had three rounds that did not gauge out of the 1000 rounds I loaded.  When running the Lee “U” die (sharpened pin) I would average about 1-2 rounds per hundred that would experience primer draw-back. 

 

When I automate I will go to a two pass process for sure but for now since I am still pulling that handle I will work to managing a one pass process - at least for now….Mark 

Edited by Sigarmsp226
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10 minutes ago, 2tuf4u said:

I decap  only in 1st pass.

 

How dirty does the press get during decapping before the brass is washed?  Been giving consideration to de-priming and roll sizing before tumbling the brass to clean it.  Worried about how much grit gets into the press from dirty brass.

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13 hours ago, Boomstick303 said:

 

How dirty does the press get during decapping before the brass is washed?  Been giving consideration to de-priming and roll sizing before tumbling the brass to clean it.  Worried about how much grit gets into the press from dirty brass.

Not bad. I have a Cp2000 for that stage

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22 hours ago, boatdoc173 said:

I use corn cob media(usually dillons) and nufinish car polish  BEFORE  any brass   gets near my reloader.  a day before I start reloading, I spray hornady one shot  lube into a plastic bag, load in some clean brass and  give  it a good shake to coat the outside of the brass. even though the  cases  dry off by spraying  them a day in advance, the dies tend to pick up carbon and dirt anyway. Every  few thousand  rounds, I clean out the  dies of the gunk that accumulates

 

I clean brass while reloading. it is the only multi tasking I can  do :)

 

by the way, why 2 passes through the reloader? --just curious

Yes the first pass is primer only. I full length resize on my Cp2000

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Johnny - That is one impressive US cleaning machine….When I saw your earlier photo of the volume of brass you pictured I also asked myself - what size US machine can clean this much brass at once…Now I know….Thanks for sharing….Mark

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3 hours ago, Johnnymazz said:

My Ultrasonic is from Infante. They sell to the military and police departments. It will set you back $1,500.00 Well worth the coin, blows away the China junk machines.

158105894_1881365168708231_2767247945478132604_n.thumb.jpg.a675ddba239f2e3d8d5e6c2fb0742e24.jpg

Does that thing hold more than Dillons large size tumbler?  Very impressive. 
I definitely can’t afford to hang with you guys…

 

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