Tumbling brass before after decapping

[Ken Woodford]

Go sonic....I have both and sonic is way easier. I even use a home brew I found on line to clean the brass. Flash hole is nice and shiney....but I don't clean my brass every time either.

[NiteQwill]

Deprime using a universal deprimer.

Tumble or stainless.

[mark501w]

Before to protect dies .I wipe down the cases when finished.

[korny351]

Being a bit OCD and having entirely too much time on my hands, I de-prime with a Lee Universal die, let soak in hot water, Lemishine and Dawn and let dry. Into the tumbler with fine walnut media from Harbor Freight and then into 20/40 corn cob with polish. Both of these media are fine enough, I've never had to worry about any stuck in the flash-hole.

Cases sparkle. Even the inside of the case and primer pockets come out mostly clean. Polished cases are easy on the die and the cleaned primer pockets make primer seating a breeze, even with Tula primers which used to be a bear sometimes.

[GeoffLinder]

Always before.

^^^ This.

Unless, you are working with bottle-neck rifle cartridges and resizing as a separate step prior to trimming, then doing a second tumbling pass to clean the sizing lube off before loading on a progressive. Then I keep a size die in station 1 with it backed out enough so no sizing is done, BUT the expander ball pops through to remove any case mouth dents from the second tumbling AND the de-capping pin pops through the flash hole to pop any media lodged there out. Amazing how quickly the spent primer catch fills up with little pieces of crushed walnut media

If loading rifle cases single stage after 2nd tumbling, I use a dental pick on each case for this.

[jdmacl]

I do two tumbles.

I do a quick tumble before de-priming, to clean the major crud off, so the cases run cleaner through the decapping die.

After depriming, trimming to length, etc. I then do a thorough tumble to get the brass clean and shinny!

[Fishslayer]

Pistol brass = before decapping. Flash hole cleanliness isn't that big a deal.

When I start reloading rifle ammo I'll probably get a universal decapper & tumble after, maybe even invest in SS equipment. All the rifle guys say that clean & deburred flash holes are important for best accuracy.

[dragon7]

I tumble before for most all my brass. The exception is when loading for extreme accuracy with rifle brass.

[ChrisGarrett]

I always clean the brass first. I then size/deprime and depending on what case lube I'm using (Dillon spray for large batches, Imperial Sizing Wax and RCBS CaseLube II for smaller batches) I'll either wipe it off, or tumble it off in walnut.

I'll remove the media quickly and then tumble the brass for 60 seconds and that usually bounces most of the media out, that's stuck in the FHs. I'll then poke the remain bits out, as I inspect my cases.

Chris

[Chief-7700]

Before.

[Munk]

Walnut media will get stuck in the flash hole, but also be careful about tumbling capped smaller bottle-neck cases since media may also collect inside the case. When you run it into the decapping die you will "hit a snag" so to speak.
If you SS tumble, decapping first will help clean the primer pockets and drain the water, but I like to decap even with walnut since it allows me to see that the case and flash hole are clear of media.

Absolutely agreed. I always tumble before decapping, but I use a Lee universal decapper on some so that any decapping pin deflection from the cob in the flash-hole causes no damage.

If I'm using carbide sizing die though, I sometimes just skip the lee, and go direct from tumbler to sizing because there wont be a lube step... and i'm lazy.

[knucklehead0202]

so i'm not crazy then, good. i tumble before to keep the dies clean, resize/decap and then tumble again to clean off the case lube too. i just use a good old-fashioned toothpick to clean media from the flash holes. usually just sit down and do it while listening to the tv and preparing to hand prime. good stuff.

[ocabj]

Deprime with a universal die.

Tumble.

Resize.

If rifle, tumble again.

Note: The reason why I decap before tumbling is because of the lead content in primers. I'm just trying to reduce the amount of lead particle contamination in the tumbler/tumbling media.

[AlexKintner]

I too am a little OCD abot my brass. I deprime, ultrasonic, tumble for an hour, then resize. Brass looks great, media stays relatively clean, and resizing removes media from the flash hole.

[Socalman]

Curious as to what positives you see to tumbling after decapping? I tried the tumble after was a pain in the butt to clean the flash holes and did not see any positives at all. I thought it may clean the pockets did nothing.

Some have mentioned that it cleans the primer pocket, others tell me it does not.