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cleaning brass casings

ginger49023
I am just starting out reloading and reading as much as possible.
Which is best? Tumbling the brass before de priming or after?
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Comments

13 comments

Date Votes
  • bpost
    IMHO tumbling before sizing keeps dirt out of your dies and makes case inspection easier. After sizing with rifle cases you can tumble again to remove the lube.
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  • ginger49023
    thanks
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  • grady mitchell
    you can get a decapping die an just decap them before tumbling or sizing but tumbling to get the lube off i just hand towel them
    -1
  • jonk
    If you tumble after sizing either use a very fine or very coarse media; otherwise it gets stuck in the flashole. Personally I drop them in a pot of boiling hot soapy water after sizing to remove lube, and rinse and let dry.
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  • B17-P51
    Tumble then size. I do not reccomend any more tumbling.
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  • skyfish
    Tumble before. If piece of media is in flash hole, the decapping pin will remove with primer. Last I tumble as I agree with B17.
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  • yukon100jack
    Lee makes a case trimmer for different calibers which has a long body (I use a 30-06 size) with the equivalent of a decapping pin sticking out of the end. It is about 3" long overall and works great to clear any media out the flash hole with a simple poke. It is large enough so that it is easy to handle and hard to lose. I am sure any rifle caliber would work fine. They only cost about three or four bucks.
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  • reloader44mag
    I can only speak about handgun....I vibrate my brass with the spent primer in...my 2 cents
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  • JustC
    I vibrate first, then size, then hot water and white vinegar to get the lube off.
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  • remingtongeo
    I vib with walnut media with a little polish, primers in. That cleans the brass of any crud. Then size, trim, deburr, clean/set primer pockets and deburr flash holes. Then I polish with corn cob or put it into the sonic cleaner. I load for a living and the brass has to look "shiney". Loading for myself I don't worry about how the brass looks and in the second cleaning I only vib for about a half hour, just enough to remove the lube and make sure there are not brass fragments in the case.
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  • JustC
    white vinegar, boiling water, soak for 10-15 min agitating often, dump water, dry in oven on lowest setting or the sun outside.

    make sure to final rinse with distilled/filtered water to avoid water spots on the cases.
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  • ginger49023
    thanks again
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  • rawiron1
    Child's silica free play sand works really well.

    Jason
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