Wet tumbling decap first ??

[WartHog]

make sure the rollers are dry.
make sure the drum is dry where the rollers contact the drum.

This - my Frankford won't spin unless it's dry.

[checkenbach]

I decap first, then tumble with a small squirt of Dawn, Simple Green, and Jet Dry. Tumble for an hour or so, then wash in hot water until the soap stops foaming. Then dump on a towel, wrap it up, then shake the hell out of it. Open towel, and let air dry. Brass looks like new...

[Gromann]

I decap first (frankford arsenal doohickey), tumble, clean primer pockets, resize, rinse & wipe lube, then prime, powder, bullet, crimp (reload for M1A).

[Mwjakel15]

[xfer42]

I dont deprime first. I dig my stuff out of the mud, sometimes its been in there for 6 months (my own, on BLM, special spot). I dont want to run them through the press full of whatever. Plus, I mainly do 5k+ at a time and the clean cases may sit for weeks/months/years in open air to fully dry. Im more concerned about crap running through my press and dies.

[Lead Waster]

For pistol I don't decap first. When it sunny I'll do a few thousand then set them out on a tray in the sun for a few hours

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

Me too... I pour the brass onto a rubber welcome mat on my patio table. The wind and sun dries it pretty well.

[PSLguy]

I decap first, using a Harvey tool while sitting and watching TV or listening to music, no press required.


The cartridge guides from the RCBS flash hole cutter fit the Harvey perfectly allowing quick indexing of the case, I reduce the O.D. slightly so the case slides on easily.

Not good for swaged brass though, have to knock them out with the Rock Chucker.

I do exact same thing. For years I fought the crud and mess around my 550B from de-priming and re-priming.

Now, I sit and relax and de-prime all my brass with the Harvey. Wet tumbler with lemon shine and Dawn, no pins.

Reloading press stays nice and clean and runs smoother.

[Whiskey3]

I didnt decap at the start. But the mess it makes and misses into the bin on the Dillon started to bug me. Now I deprime, no mess, less primer checks during the loading process, and a bit smoother motion on the arm pull.

[geekeye]

oh yeah, getting grit in your dies is no good, so that's why i use a hand decapper. secondary benefit is i don't have to be at my bench in the garage to do it - i can sit and decap while while watching a movie or whatever

[Nessal]

I always decap first because I want to feel the resistance in the primer pocket. If the primer pocket is loose, I toss the brass. It's much harder to get this feel if you decap in the sizer die.

[Boswell]

I quit decapping and using the SS pins on handgun casings several years ago after a fellow calgunner recommended it to save time by eliminating a couple steps in the process. I put in a pinch of Lemi Shine, a squirt of Dawn dishwashing soap, cold water a couple inches above the shell casings and tumble for approximately an hour. Everything comes out nice and clean and shiny. After I rinse with cold water, I place the shell casings n a cheap Harbor Freight dehydrator for 2 hours. I have never had a problem with corrosion or any build-up inside the casing or primer hole. I use a Dillon X650 progressive press and stage one punches the old primers out very effectively.

[divingin]

I use Hot water, one dishwashing detergent pod and a little bit of lemme-shine.

Out of curiosity, have you tried using just the pod and not adding LemiShine? Dishwasher detergent usually has a fair amount of acid added to it to help breal up baked on crud; I suspect the LemiShine may be superfluous.

[Cpl_T-Pot]

[ar15barrels]

I just bought a wet tumbler after having used a vibrator tumbler for the last 20 years. Do you have to decap first before tumbling? I did some searches last night and some people do and some don't, but if you don't you can get water trapped in the primer pockets. I can see getting corrosion from not decapping. I have washed some cases previously and they corroded on the inside. Let me know you experiences.

PS if you say to put them in the oven I can't do that.

If you are not going to decap immediately after wet tumbling, you should decap them before wet tumbling so that the primer pockets can dry out instead of holding the moisture and corroding.

As you can see, this is one more advantage of dry tumbling.
You can leave tumbled brass in the tumbler for years and continue where you left off and nothing will be wrong with the brass.

With wet tumbling or with chemicals, you have to finish what you start and dry the cases all on a proper timeline to not damage the brass.

[divingin]

How many pins are you guys using? I just loaded the drum with all the pins it came with an I think it is too heavy. The drum doesn't always rotate with that much weight it gets stalled about ever 15 seconds or so.

Check your drive system and drum/roller contact points: If the drive mechanism is actually stopping, then you're too heavy. If it's slipping, clean and dry as needed.

As to how much other people are using, it depends on the machine. I've seen people use a cement mixer to wet tumble brass.