Electric Case Trimmer

[twm134]

Since I'm the one that said "you should be tumbling with stainless" I'll explain.

First, I wasn't trying to sound superior, simply promoting the superior way to clean brass.

Full disclosure: I still dry tumble often to remove lube or quick clean pistol brass. I'm more anal about rifle loads. I haven't noticed or been able to quantify any increase in precision of my rifle loads.

The lead laden dust issue has been mentioned.

I put off wet tumbling with stainless for many years because it seemed tedious and unnecessary. While it is true that dry tumbling with corn cobb media will work fine and I did it for decades, after my father (who is a perfectionist) started wet tumbling I'll never go back. The extra time or effort I originally perceived for the process hasn't been an issue.

Letting brass dry isn't an issue for me because it happens when I'm at work or tending to other obligations and I tumble for less time overall.

The brass is cleaner inside and out and the work just doesn't seem any more time consuming than dry tumbling.

To stay on topic, I haven't tried a Giraud YET but it is in my future. I have hand trimmed and trimmed with an RCBS electronic three way trimmer head. I wore the head out quickly on 223 brass and learned that stainless tumbling will round off the burrs instead of using the three way cutter. Not perfect but ok.

I have often thought of using the little crow gun works trimmer but for now the rcbs electric trimmer will work till I get a Giraud trimmer.

I have severely scratched or etched dies in the past and that doesn't happen now.

For small batches of test ammo I will still dry tumble at times, but for large batches where I'm prepping a lot of brass to load up for the long run (like during winter when I shoot less and load up more ammo) I will only wet tumble because why not. Shiny brass doesn't shoot better but damn it looks more professional and has no downsides.

I understand the reluctance to start, however once you do you won't regret it.

[Coal Dragger]

One thing we're overlooking here on the SS wet tumbling is that the brass being cleaner makes your dies and your reloading press generally stay a lot cleaner. Dies in particular.

That is worth it alone. Keeping all that media dust, and left over carbon out of my dies and away from my machine is a big bonus. Run 500 pieces of brass tumbled in walnut or corncob and observe how much crap gets tracked into your dies and all over your press. Then run 500 pieces of SS wet tumbled brass.

[Locutus]

This. If you tumble with stainless media, which you should be, the chamfering and deburring isn't necessary. Everything is rounded off afterwards. I trim cases once and the primer pockets loosen before I see a need to trim again.

That's particularly good to hear. I've been reloading .303 and all manner of handgun and shotgun ammo since 1976, but I just started loading .223 and trimming cases in this kind of volume is a real PITA.

Also, I DO tumble in SS pins in a Rebel 17. When I switched to .44-40 black powder loads in Cowboy Action, wet tumbling pretty much became a necessity and I'll never go back to vibratory "tumbling" and breathing all of that lead-laden dust.

[twm134]

I average about 5 rounds per case with various brands of brass. Mostly once fired range pickups that others don't want. A lot of FC and LC. I trim once to minimum if they need it and by the time I get to six or seven shots, at the most, the pockets won't reliably hold a primer. By then most aren't over the max length and if they are a little over I don't even bother with them because it's not worth it. Many times I've measured factory loads that were way over max and they still worked fine.

[markm]

One negative is hand fatigue on really large batches from holding the brass in the trimmer repeatedly. I switch hands and take breaks on large batches.

This is the beauty of running the Thumlers tumbler. You have a 125-150 piece batch for all the tedious steps in the loading process. Sizing, trimming, etc. I too hate having large batches of brass on any one step of the process.

[HMM]

I probably go overboard with stainless cleaning, mine goes through twice...

I deprime dirty with a universal die, stainless clean and leave out in the garage to air dry. Swage if needed (my brass is marked once loaded so I don't reswage - black sharpie across the bottom).
Size and trim with the dillon trimmer on a dedicated tool head (lubed brass).

Stainless clean again before loading. My tool head for loading has a M die to slightly expand the neck instead of a sizing die in stage 1.

I use to tumble in corn cob media my completed rounds to get the lube off but throwing it in for 30-45 min and letting them dry again hasn't been bad. I have several bins of brass at each stage of the process so I'm never really waiting on brass to be ready. And I enjoy the case prep way more than reloading strangely enough.

[Locutus]

I probably go overboard with stainless cleaning, mine goes through twice...

I deprime dirty with a universal die, stainless clean and leave out in the garage to air dry. Swage if needed (my brass is marked once loaded so I don't reswage - black sharpie across the bottom).
Size and trim with the dillon trimmer on a dedicated tool head (lubed brass).

Stainless clean again before loading. My tool head for loading has a M die to slightly expand the neck instead of a sizing die in stage 1.

I use to tumble in corn cob media my completed rounds to get the lube off but throwing it in for 30-45 min and letting them dry again hasn't been bad. I have several bins of brass at each stage of the process so I'm never really waiting on brass to be ready. And I enjoy the case prep way more than reloading strangely enough.

That's very similar to how I do it. I deprime with a Lee Universal Depriming Die, then I wet tumble it for about 20 - 30 minutes just to make sure that no dirt or grime gets into my other dies and I lay it out on a towel to dry for the night. I buy .223 cases from the Brass Man so I don't have to deal with primer pockets - my loads aren't so hot that 5.56 cases are needed.

The next day, I spray it down with some Hornady One Shot lube and then full-length size. If it's .303, then I also run it through the neck-sizing die to get that perfect bullet tension, but .223 seems to work just fine with nothing more that a trip through the full-length sizer.

Now I wash it again to get it squeeky clean. 20 minutes should be enough, but I run it a couple of hours simply because I'm anal about shiny brass.

After another night of drying, I prime using my RCBS hand primer in front of the TV, then back downstairs to load. I do this in batches of 100 so that no task gets to be too onerous.

[Gatorgrizz27]

I've been reloading for my .223 bolt gun for awhile, but have been getting ready to start for my AR's. Most of the guys I shoot with don't reload and give me their once fired brass, so I see a big advantage to the wet tumbling/polishing aspect that I can visually tell brass that has had primer pocket crimps reamed from those that haven't.

Pick up brass, deprime, ream primer pockets, wet tumble. From then on out, I can quickly tell which brass needs to be reamed and which doesn't.