Removing burrs from trimmed brass

[Cowguy]

I’m planning to prepare some 223 brass by de priming, trimming and case gauging. Then clean them in pins, hoping this removes the burrs. Has this been tried and were they accurate?

[Chills1994]

It depends on a few different things.

 

First off, it might depend on the bullet you are using.  If you are crimping the case mouth into a cannelure, you should be good to go without the usual chamfering/deburring.

 

Second, it might depend on if you are using say a Dillon 550 / 650 / 750 with two different toolheads.  The first toolhead is your prep toolhead.  The second toolhead is your load toolhead.  Let’s say you are wet tumbling with pins between toolheads.  Then once your brass is dry and ready to load, if you have a Lyman M die in station #1 of your load toolhead, whatever inside burrs that remained after the wet tumbling will get taken care of by the Lyman M die.

 

Third, it depends on what your idea of accuracy is.  If it is just bulk 55gr FMJBT “whammo blammo”  , you will definitely be good to go with just wet tumbling with pins to knock the burrs off/ down.    If you were loading up 77gr SMK’s for some prairie dog shooting at 400 plus yards with a heavy barreled bolt action, yeahhhh, you might want to pull out all the stops and do for real chamfering / deburring.  But then if you are trying to wring out that much accuracy, then you will probably be doing flash hole deburring, primer pocket uniforming, and weighing cases.

 

Lastly, to put this bug in your ear….you may not need to trim after every firing/resizing.  If this is for .223, in my mind if the case is shorter than 1.760” , then you do NOT need to trim.  RCBS does make an X-sizer die where you trim once to 1.740”. Then on subsequent re-sizings, you screw down the X-die’s mandrel, and that keeps the case from growing.  Supposedly.  
 

Before wet tumbling and pins became all the rage, I used to knock the burrs off with just crushed walnut shells in a regular vibratory tumbler.

 

EDIT:  slight thread drift ahead…

 

For any of you enterprising machinists out there, I would pay good money for an automated (i.e. casefeeder equipped) machine that would separate .223 brass into two bins.  One bin for brass 1.760” and longer.  The other bin would be for brass shorter than 1.760”

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by Chills1994

[DougCarden]

Corn cob media will take the lube off the brass and clean up the burrs as well.

[Chills1994]

11 minutes ago, DougCarden said:

Corn cob media will take the lube off the brass and clean up the burrs as well.

Yessir!

 

I would listen to this guy.

 

He has probably forgotten more about reloading and case prep than I will ever know.

 

FAKE EDIT:  slight thread drift again…

 

I would also pay good money for a machine that would automatically sort the Remington and Winchester 12 gauge empty hulls from all the eurotrash and bulk hulls.

 

REAL EDIT:  about the corn cob media, you just gotta make sure the media size will be consistently small enough to NOT get stuck in the flash holes.  The solution for that is to put a universal decapper at station #1 in your load toolhead.

Edited December 21, 2023 by Chills1994

[Tom Freeman]

On 12/20/2023 at 9:03 PM, Cowguy said:

I’m planning to prepare some 223 brass by de priming, trimming and case gauging. Then clean them in pins, hoping this removes the burrs. Has this been tried and were they accurate?

Toss it in a tumbler with corncob media as stated above.

 

I overload my tumbler a little bit so the cases will bang against each other and knock the burrs off.  The corncob just makes it look pretty.

[IVC]

The amount of burrs will depend on how you press your handle. If you go firm and positive, then pause for a moment while the trimmer cuts, you usually end up with minimal to no burrs. And if you reload FMJBT-style bullets, you don't have to worry about what little burrs might remain, they'll get cleaned up as the bullet is seated. 

 

Over-tinkering with brass is something I try to avoid with passion. 

[ubet]

On 12/21/2023 at 8:29 AM, DougCarden said:

Corn cob media will take the lube off the brass and clean up the burrs as well.

I just got a rt1500. If I tumble in the Lyman media, I won't need to debur after? I was going to let a Lyman m die take care of the chamfer, and I crimp, but it a non cannelure 77smk and 175smk for 308. Thanks

[DougCarden]

If you use small 2040 size corn cob media and run it with an additive like flitz or nufinish car wax it will polish the case mouths.  3-4 hours should take care of it and they will look like brand new.  

[dwbethue]

Are you trimming on press or off press? If you're trimming off press, I'm using a Giraud Tri-Way in a Harbor Freight drill press and it trims, chamfers, and deburs in one step. Really cut down on my .223 prep time as I was having to do each separately before. I've been very happy with the results.

Edited February 18 by dwbethue
Adding image

[usmc1974]

 

Edited March 11 by usmc1974