Cleaning Brass Primer Out...??

[DarkEdge]

Should I punch the old primer before I tumble my brass with crushed walnut shells??

[kmullins]

I deprime, then use the primer pocket cleaning tool here and then tumble.

I like to have my brass clean before it goes through my dies, I use a paper clip to get the media out that gets in the flash hole (only about 5% of cases get it, takes me about 3 minutes to do).

[2shotjoe]

I deprime, then use the primer pocket cleaning tool here and then tumble.

I like to have my brass clean before it goes through my dies, I use a paper clip to get the media out that gets in the flash hole (only about 5% of cases get it, takes me about 3 minutes to do).

is it normal for 100% of all .223 bases to get media stuck inside? it was a pain going through them all, but it was only about 50.

[chickenfried]

I tumble first, then size and deprime.

[Munk]

I deprime rifle brass, then tumble, then run them through my FL sizer/deprimer again, this keeps me from needing to pick the cob out each time one gets stuck in the flash hole.The only time it's problematic to do it this way is when enough cob wedges itself in the primer pocket to fill the whole primer pocket up.

Pistol brass just gets tumbled then sized/deprimed/etc...

[kmullins]

is it normal for 100% of all .223 bases to get media stuck inside? it was a pain going through them all, but it was only about 50.

Not for me, I usually sift the brass and the media and separate them the best I can. Then I pick up each piece and dump the residual amount of media and look at the flash hole, if there is a piece of media stuck I put it into a different pile and then use the paper clip to pick it out.

I just tumbled over 500 pieces of some newly formed .221 Fireball brass and about 25 pieces had media. Took me about two minutes to clean it out. I clean the primer pocket and then tumble, this allows the primer pocket to be cleaned even more and also cleans any dust that is floating around the case from cleaning the primer pocket.

[Divernhunter]

I just tumble then resize, then load. The pockets will be fine. If you are concerned(anal) about them you can clean them with a tool after resizing. It does a better job anyway.

[Fishslayer]

I've tried it both ways & now tumble before sizing/decapping.

1. You aren't running dirty brass through your dies.

2. If you tumble with drier sheets & polish you can get a gummy crud in the primer pockets.

3. Not a big deal, but media can get stick in the flash hole.

[biggestez]

I've tumble pistol brass after i have deprimed and it was a major hasle getting the corn cob media out of the primer pockets. Especially in small pistol primer pockets.I would say I had 99%of the pockets jammed.If you are starting with a single stage press save yourself the grief and tumble it before you deprime.

[Clownpuncher]

I tumble to knock the main stuff off then I deprime and size on my single stage. I then tumble and polish to a nice shine. I run a universal decap in station 1 of the progressive so it knocks out the media that may be stuck.
I know, I know, most will say I don't have to do it that way and I'm crazy to do it that way since I have a progressive but I have found that tumbling after deprime cleans the flash hole and I have FAR fewer primer issues. Plus, for 40 and 45 I like using the single stage to decap because I follow it up with the bulge buster before the second tumble.

[grant22]

Ur not crazy, that's exactly how I do it.

Ok, maybe we're both nuckin' futs.

[chickenfried]

What primer issues do/did you have?

I have FAR fewer primer issues.

[pyromensch]

i have done both, and would prefer to deprime, and the tumble.

i have had issues with the deprimer pin encountering walnut media in the flash-hole, so i am leaning towards corncob media, as it is softer. but i like my primer pockets clean.

[Munk]

i have done both, and would prefer to deprime, and the tumble.

i have had issues with the deprimer pin encountering walnut media in the flash-hole, so i am leaning towards corncob media, as it is softer. but i like my primer pockets clean.

I use cob, it's not significantly softer enough to be worth the change. I'm only using it til I burn through the 10+ pounds I have, then I'll likely switch to walnut.

maybe stainless If I can scrounge up some parts to build a wet tumbler.

[Clownpuncher]

What primer issues do/did you have?

Mainly primers not seating properly. My un-official, non scientific data showed that I had 3-4 issues per 100 when I didn't clean after depriming and when I tumble after depriming I have maybe 1 issue per 500.
As stated above, perhaps I'm nucking futs by doing it this way but it works for me. I like having clean brass when depriming because it also seems like it resizes better by not clogging up the dies with gunk. Plus, I really like using my bulge buster on 40 and 45 so decapping with the single stage and then bulge busting just makes sense for me because you can't use the bulge buster on the progressive.