What prep work do you put into your brass?

[Good_Steward]

I had a conversation with another TGO member this weekend about prep work on brass. We went into detail, and found out that we do several things different. I thought it might be interesting to see who did what and why. Here's my process:

1.) Tumble (just a little polish)

2.) Clean out any crap from the tumbler with a wire brush

3.) Deprime

4.) Check case length for trimming

5.) Trim, if needed

6.) Deburr / Chamfer inside and outside case mouth

7.) Clean primer pocket

8.) Uniform flash hole

9.) Clean inside case again to clear any debris

10.) Sort brass by manufacturer, and then again by weight

11.) Dip case neck in motor micah

Edited September 1, 2009 by Good_Steward

[Guest beefcakeb0]

thanx for this, as im not yet totally prepared to load. but i am taking notes from anybody willing to give em.

[Guest H0TSH0T]

1 tumble brass with primers in for 30 min in corn media

2 deprime and re-size brass

3 tumble for another 30 min, in the cob this time adding a small circle of brass cleaner

4 inspect and sort

5 cull, and clean primer pocket if necessary

6 prime all brass that i will be loading

7 depending on what i am reloading and what die sets i will lube with

rcbs case lube and pad and lube a little in the neck of the case, or skip this step if

using carbide dies.

8 my dies will flare the case out and remove excess brass when crimped so i don't

worry to much about doing all the little steps in between, but if i have a bad bur

or spur i will campfer or debur in the inspection stage (4)

9 will quality control every 10th round, double check powder loads, caliper brass, and check total round size after seating to insure it is with in specs.

[Guest GimpyLeg]

For clarification, could you specifiy straight walled pistol and/or bottle-necked rifle brass.

[Guest H0TSH0T]

i could also indicate i full size my brass due to i fire it in a semi, not a bolt, if bolt fired some people just neck size the brass. but regardless of the shape of the brass it depends on what die set i will be using( carbide or not). in my rifle rounds i measure each round by hand, on a scale and use a trickle.

[Good_Steward]

Gimpy, either / or. My list was for rifle brass. For pistol brass I don't get as detailed, except for my .454 Casull, which I use for long shots (relatively speaking) when handgun hunting.

Edited September 1, 2009 by Good_Steward

[Guest GimpyLeg]

Pistol:

1 - Tumble (corn cob litter w/ a touch of polish and dryer sheets squares)

2 - Inspect

3 - Deprime/resize (single die)

4 - Prime (hand prime)

5 - Flare (just enough to allow ease of bullet seating)

6 - Powder (I have a single stage press at the moment)

7 - Seat bullet (check OAL every 10 or so)

8 - Crimp

I reload 9mm for punching holes in paper only. Haven't reloaded for my 270 in several years.

[Guest MERRILL]

For rifle cases I deprime, check the length. For pistol cases (straight wall) I deprime. I have yet to see proven that clean shiny brass shoots any better than that which has not been cleaned. when my brass goes through the dies, which are carbide, they are scraped clean enough.

[Guest JTD]

I shoot cowboy action and we put a lot of rounds out at short distances so I don't get too persnickety about brass. I just tumble in corn media (few drops of Dillon polish), then put it through the 550B progrssive (size/deprime/prime; bell case mouth and powder drop; seat bullet; crimp).

For my single shot black powder cartridge it's a whole different matter involving tumbling, neck sizing, case trimming, etc.

[DWARREN123]

I only do 40 S&W. I clean with a little polish in the media, deprime, prime, expand case mouth, and then powder and bullet.

Been working, for me, for a few years.

I inspect at each step for safety and quality.