Marathon decapping session pains.

[Whiterabbit]

I can't see the pic, but seriously, things go so much faster if you get a progressive with a case feeder, and the LEE is a very cheap way to go, especially if you are just decapping.

It's worth considering to outfit it fully, too, if you are mainly shooting 9/40/45. Espceially by the 5 gallon bucketload

[SixPointEight]

Well, I guess the only other plus is a clean primer pocket if anything...

For wet tumbling, yeah. Dry tumbling I didn't see much benefit, with the downside that media stuck in the flash holes.

[SixPointEight]

I can't see the pic, but seriously, things go so much faster if you get a progressive with a case feeder, and the LEE is a very cheap way to go, especially if you are just decapping.

It's worth considering to outfit it fully, too, if you are mainly shooting 9/40/45. Espceially by the 5 gallon bucketload

He'll have a Dillon soon enough. I wouldn't siphon away money for the Lee.

Maybe pay a neighbor kid $5 an hour to decap for you!!

[Christopher761]

If your head hurts from having the tumbler behind you near your head, move the tumbler outside, where it will bother the neighbor's dog.

[JackEllis]

I did 300 .243 cases last night in about 45 minutes, which is about as much as I can do without going stir crazy. Same thing with sizing, trimming, priming and loading. A little bit at a time eventually adds up to getting the whole thing done.

FWIW, I decap, then wash, then size, then trim, then wash again to get the lube off. At some point I might buy or built a wet tumbler and if I want shiny brass, someone on this thread revealed the secret, which is a little bit of Lemishine or other cleaner with citric acid in it.

[Dragginpanda]

I do my depriming with a progressive press.

It's a Lee, didn't cost much, and goes fast since I only deprime on that press.

[TomReloaded]

Stop doing that! It's a huge waste of time! There's no reason to use a universal decapper on pistol brass. Use your sizer, you gotta do that step anyway. It's not a 1000yd rifle round either, so a little gunk in the primer pocket doesn't matter at all.

Clean them up as is, then resize and reprime in one single step. You could have buckets full of primed brass all ready to load up! You have to do all that work all over again for no reason!

[DueceMcGurk]

Pulling the trigger is fun. Everything that it takes to do that is work. I wet tumble pickup brass. Decap in the LCT as part of the loading cycle. Shooting 45 and 38 Super at parchment. Load 300 rounds of 45 per week rather than watch Oprah. Shoot about 200 of those rounds per week. The other 100 goes into a "lazy week" fund. If I could trust a Home Depot temporary laborer to reload, he would have steady employment. Never intended to be an ammo worker -- but it is fun if kept simple.

[arrowshooter]

I recently devised a "case kicker" for my Rock Chucker Supreme and I can say that it literally cut the time in half because you only touch the brass once for each step. You place the brass in the shell holder, run it up into the die, then the "kicker" pushes the brass out of the holder on the down stroke. (BTW, I size and decap same step.) If you google Case Kicker you will find pictures and videos of what I am talking about. I made mine from a large hose clamp I had laying around which has the perfect springiness. I plan on getting a roller handle to help with the right hand.

As for your body aches, switch between sitting and standing along with shifting your position right and left from time to time. This will slightly change the way your muscles move and help develop that Popeye arm you have always wanted.

[NorCalFocus]

For your right hand woes, look into a roller handle vs the wooden knob. I got a roller handle form Inline Precision for my Lee Breech Lock and doing marathon runs of decapping or sizing are much easier.

[bubbapug1]

Just think. If you were running a progressive you'd have three full buckets of Ammo for your time and effort and it would shoot as good as anything you can produce on your lee.

You just wasted 10 hours of your life.

Think.

[Calguns77]

Just think. If you were running a progressive you'd have three full buckets of Ammo for your time and effort and it would shoot as good as anything you can produce on your lee.

You just wasted 10 hours of your life.

Think.

He's wet tumbling, you still have to deprime before wet tumbling even when using a progressive press.

I plan on decapping all my brass before I tumble in the wet tumbler. My understanding was this was normal procedure for wet tumbling.

I will have a Dillon 650 in about two months with all the bells and whistles. From my reading though it sounded like most people like to decap before they ran it through their progresive reloaders to keep their reloading dies nice and clean. Maybe I misunderstood the intent or execution.

From this point on im just going to set a goal of maybe a gallon and a half or so bucket of brass every day for the next couple weeks till I can get it done. I kind of just locked myself into it over the last couple days because I wanted to start by putting a dent in the pile and because I only just got the little lee single stage Friday night and was chomping at the bit to give it a whirl.

Yes, wet tumbling will keep your press free of carbon and lead.

Jeez how many 5 gallon buckets of brass do you have?

[Sapperforward]

He's wet tumbling, you still have to deprime before wet tumbling even when using a progressive press.




Yes, wet tumbling will keep your press free of carbon and lead.

Jeez how many 5 gallon buckets of brass do you have?

Many.

I started saving every piece of brass I or my friends (none of my friends reload) shot over the last couple years when I started seeing which directions the gun laws were heading. I separated it after each trip into buckets. After a while I had a lot of buckets.

Now I'm in a mad dash to finish gearing up to reload before next year. I did everything bass ackwards. I collected brass for a year before I started buying powders and primers. Now I'm well stocked on both but still need a machine . I'm washing all my pistol brass first. Than I'll start the process of washing and trimming a ton of rifle brass.

Plus I've been putting off reloading for years. It was time to get serious.

Sent from my secret bunker using Tapatalk

[Calguns77]

Many.

I started saving every piece of brass I or my friends (none of my friends reload) shot over the last couple years when I started seeing which directions the gun laws were heading. I separated it after each trip into buckets. After a while I had a lot of buckets.

Now I'm in a mad dash to finish gearing up to reload before next year. I did everything bass ackwards. I collected brass for a year before I started buying powders and primers. Now I'm well stocked on both but still need a machine . I'm washing all my pistol brass first. Than I'll start the process of washing and trimming a ton of rifle brass.

Plus I've been putting off reloading for years. It was time to get serious.

Sent from my secret bunker using Tapatalk

Nice. Nothing wrong with collecting brass first imho. Pre-election was a bad time to start buying components anyways from a value standpoint.

I'm probably in the minority but i really don't see a shortage on components once the regs kick in. Most people in Cali seem to be opting to stock up on ammo before next year vs starting to reload. I doubt we'll even have an affect on the ammo supply at the end of the year.

[stilly]

I recently got my wet tumbler up and running so I decided it was time to start cleaning all the brass I've been collecting for the last year or so.

I don't have a reloading setup yet. Just everything to process my brass. I also bought a cheap lee single stage press, shell holder assortment and a universal decapper.

I started decapping over the weekend. So far I've got about 1 five gallon bucket of .45, one of .40 and 2 five gallon buckets of 9mm decapped. My hands are fried. I can't make a fist with my right hands and my palm is kind of swollen. My left hand is stiff and sore. My lower back is screaming from sitting in a chair for hours on end and my head hurts from the sound of my tumbler going just behind me.

The more I write the more I feel like I'm doing a parody thread of that lib reporter who claimed ptsd and injuries after shooting an ar15.

Anyway I think I'm off the brass for a while. I can't pull that lever anymore with my right hand. Too much of anything can be a bad thing I guess.

I need to figure out a way to streamline decapping of bulk brass.

Sent from my secret bunker using Tapatalk

Although I agree that the progressive IS the best way to go with a universal decapper... You sir are doing it wrong... You should work SMARTER, not HARDER... (Scrooge McDuck)

Spend $30 more for a Lee Hand Press. You can decap very quickly with that loaded with a universal decapper and a pack of shell holders.

HOWEVER. Here are some hints at decapping quicker...
1. Pre sorting is a must for fastest times.
2. ONLY do the same caliber per session.
3. Only do enough decapping for those shells that you intend to wash and use.
4. Make the law work for you. The law of Gravity. It works excellent with the Lee Hand Press and a universal decapper...
5. Have extra decapping pins on hand just in case you need them when using the Lee Hand Press.


I see you have a LOT of buckets of brass to decap and you are NOT a reloader yet. It takes time to change calibers and start making a ladder load for another caliber. You will not be loading 3000 9mm, 2000 45 and 3000 40 cal your first day, so why decap like you need them yesterday?

Here is what I do. I have THREE large 27 gallon bins (now cracking) aka totes. Something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Rubbermaid-Co...ds=rubber+tote

I have three of them sitting side by side on my shelf. They each have a painted DOT in the front, one is blue, one yellow and the last is black.

I purchased one of these: https://www.amazon.com/Shell-Sorter-...s=shell+sorter and they nest inside each other.

I toss ALL of my sorted shells in one of the three bins, keeping SOME sorted ones aside, like .223, .45lc, .10mm, etc. Mostly rare calibers I guess...

Then I use Folgers containers (the plastic ones) for EACH caliber that I want to have clean brass for. These: https://www.amazon.com/Folgers-Class...ywords=folgers or the taller ones when I can get them on sale.

Then I simply only decap and clean the shells that will fill up one or two of the Folgers containers. The rest of the brass will sit in the bin until I am ready to do anything with it. The extras will usually get decapped and stored in plastic ziploc bags and tossed in a large wooden bin that is underneath my middle work bench. Then I can always just grab a bag or two of that caliber and toss them in the cleaner if I need to.

All of my brass comes from the range (mostly) and I store it inside ONE 5 gallon bucket with a gamma seal on it. Once that bucket fills up, it gets sorted and dumped into the three bins. Doing this keeps brass out of the way and gives me a place to store it here and there, but all together. AND, There is no need to decap every piece of brass that I pick up.

You might want to consider your reloading and what you plan to reload first. Decap only what you need at first and clean it, then as you find pockets of time, decap more if you want. I have about 4 of those folgers containers filled with cleaned and decapped .44 mag shells because I shoot the most of that, but onlyh about 2 for all other calibers, only 1 for 10mm, 50 AE and .380. .308, 7.62x39 and .223 get stored in 5 gal buckets after they are cleaned.

Material management is all that it is.


When I first started, I had a Lee Hand Press and a universal decapper die (I still do have them) and I would burn through ALL of the brass I had. I did not even have a press setup or other components, but I wanted to be ready when I did get them.

I would burn through about 3k .223 shells in a night and I did not have any problems that you are talking about here. Then again, that Lee Hand Press was a Godsend.

Just take a pill, slow down and take it easy...