When to decap?

[sdnative13]

I am curious to find out if people decap their brass before of after they run it through the tumbler. Seems to me that if not done first the primer pocket won't get cleaned. I am trying to figure out the most effective way to clean in bulk.

[XDRoX]

Pistol brass? I tumble first. Then just run it through the machine.

[sdnative13]

Both rifle and pistol

[troysland]

1)Tumble first 2)lube, resize/decap 3)Tumble again to remove lube (30 min) 4)prime 5)powder drop 6)seat bullet.

[wtkaiser]

I think most of us tumble, then deprime. Reason being that you will always get some media stuck in the flash holes otherwise, and cleaning the flash holes is just another step some of us don't want to take. Having said that, I always try to clean mine anyway because a man named Keith suggested it and it makes some sort of sense.

[Sub95]

When I was using dry media I would tumble first. Now using wet, I deprime first

[ditchdigger]

I put my brass in the tumbler for about 20 minutes to knock some of the dirt and powder residue off. Keeps the grit out of the dies. Then I'll do all my brass prep. I'll then run the brass in the tumbler until the lube is off and they look clean.

[sdnative13]

But what is the most effective/fastest way to decap. I mean it seems to take me forever to complete this process. I generally do batches of 500 or more.

[johnny1290]

Are you wanting a universal decapping die maybe and a hand press so you can do it while watchintg tv or something?

I do what the other guys do for rifle. Then I clean the dang ol media out of the flash hole before priming.

Pistol I just tumble, then run it on the press, I never clean the primer pocket. Probably couldn't hurt.

[JH66]

I used to use a manual primer pocket cleaner (RCBS and LEE) but it was very tedious. Now I deprime with the universal primer, just changing shell holders as appropriate and clean in liquid solution with ultrasonic. Works great and cleans primer pockets and most interiors as new. I really like it. I then dry my cases with a heat gun. From there I resize, etc. with carbide dies (handgun).
John

[AdidasCJ]

For my pistol i just tumble, then just run thru the press for reload. I did go thru for my 223 and deprimed every case i had THEN tumbled. Then spent a good amount time going case by case by case to ensure I didnt have any media stuck. And yea, there was ALOT.

Guess its another one of those things that some people do and some people dont.

[stilly]

IF you are gonna use wet media and you leave the primers in you are gonna have a wet mess many hours after if you just set them down and let them dry. If you put a fan on them you will still have wet spots inside. The best thing to do is to decap and then clean them. If you run dry media then you are avoiding the wetness and aiming for a solid 85% clean by cleaning the outside and some of the inside but no pockets. You CAN decap before you toss them in the vibrator but 99% of the people that dry clean leave the primers in. For everything else there is mastercard...

[M27]

For pistol I will dry tumble for 20-30 min to get the dirt off then I will resize what is still pretty dirty brass through carbide dies with little to no lube depending on the caliber. I will then wet tumble.

With rifle I will dry tumble to the point where they are much cleaner before I run through the dies but still wet tumble after that.

But what is the most effective/fastest way to decap. I mean it seems to take me forever to complete this process. I generally do batches of 500 or more.

put the brass in the shell holder, pull the handle, take the brass out repeat

Really though as far as the speed factor you are concerned about. What press are you using, if you are using a single stage, a progressive with a case feeder would be faster.

But even with a single stage you should still be able to do 500 pretty quick, 30ish min, maybe you want even faster.