Stainless Media Users, Depriming

[SixPointEight]

Stainless Media users, are you depriming before you tumble or not? I have been depriming before I tumble, but it sure does get old. The nice shiny primer pockets are great, and the cleanliness of not having primer residue everywhere is nice, but sometimes I wonder if I'm wasting my time. For now I justify it as an extra hands-on step to inspect brass quality

[evlblkrfl]

Always before,with my Lee universal decapper.

[Ferrum]

Deprime before...

[XDRoX]

I don't use stainless media as I think it's overkill. A dry tumbler works fine IMO.

But if I did use a wet tumbler I would deprime first. Why go through all the trouble involved in wet tumbling if you're not going to take advantage of the clean primer pockets?

[pure3d2]

I saw the Harvey Deprimer in the most recent Rifleman magazine and told my friend about it.

He bought one and has been de-priming while watching TV. Some of the primers (1 out of 5) don't pop out so have a pair of pliers nearby.

Price is $49.95 + shipping

http://harveydeprimer.com

[Corbin Dallas]

For 223, I tumble with the primer in just enough to clean. Then process the brass completely including trim. I then tumble again for 3 hours.

[csburtch]

Decap, tumble, resize, tumble, not clean enough? Tumble, overkill? Maybe. But I loves me some clean brass. I'm not really in a hurry. This 10-12 weeks to get powder gives me plenty of time.

[STI]

Has anyone actually done a test to see if clean primer holes make a difference? I haven't started reloading rifle brass yet, but I'm wondering if I really need to do this, or if I can run it through my XL650 like my pistol brass.

[stilly]

I don't use stainless media as I think it's overkill. A dry tumbler works fine IMO.

But if I did use a wet tumbler I would deprime first. Why go through all the trouble involved in wet tumbling if you're not going to take advantage of the clean primer pockets?

That is really funny because Although I like the way the brass GLOWS right out of the water it soon darkens up on me, well, it DID, but not lately, I was wanting to get a vibrator and go the dry media way JUST FOR KICKS after getting all kinds of NICE brass from folks online that used it, but I discovered that I can also just dump that crap in my tumbler and let it roll with the same stuff, cept there is no residue on my brass afterwards.

SO, yes, when using SS media always DECAP before tumbling.

Has anyone actually done a test to see if clean primer holes make a difference? I haven't started reloading rifle brass yet, but I'm wondering if I really need to do this, or if I can run it through my XL650 like my pistol brass.

Yes, they make a difference to all of us OCD reloaderZ that WANT them CLEAN.

[stilly]

I saw the Harvey Deprimer in the most recent Rifleman magazine and told my friend about it.

He bought one and has been de-priming while watching TV. Some of the primers (1 out of 5) don't pop out so have a pair of pliers nearby.

Price is $49.95 + shipping

http://harveydeprimer.com

Neva had that problem with the Lee Breech Lock Hand Press. Neva had that high price eitha...
But anyone that uses the Lee Hand Press to decap will smoke any Harvey users in a race pure and simple.

[GeoffLinder]

I don't use stainless media as I think it's overkill. A dry tumbler works fine IMO.

But if I did use a wet tumbler I would deprime first. Why go through all the trouble involved in wet tumbling if you're not going to take advantage of the clean primer pockets?

^^^^ This. IMHO, just another reason why SS tumbling is a whole lot of extra work for a purely cosmetic result compared to dry tumbling

[J-cat]

Did you know that you'll get lower SD with brass that is free of carbon fouling?

[GeoffLinder]

Did you know that you'll get lower SD with brass that is free of carbon fouling?

Yeah, like that's gonna be measurable on the target face at even 600 yards. The chrono does not always reveal things that are meaningful downrange

[Vlad 11]

^^^^ This. IMHO, just another reason why SS tumbling is a whole lot of extra work for a purely cosmetic result compared to dry tumbling

Well my SS media is cleaner than when i got it 1 1/2 yrs ago, betcha cant say that about dry media

[J-cat]

Yeah, like that's gonna be measurable on the target face at even 600 yards. The chrono does not always reveal things that are meaningful downrange

It could be important for people who care about quality, or are on the verge of minimum power factor.