Reloading Process with Stainless Tumbler

[1slow01Z71]

What process do you go through to clean your brass?

For blasting ammo Ive tumbled, resize/decap, then loaded. Wipe down to clean the lube off.

For match ammo decap, tumble, resize, tumble(get the primer pocket clean) then load.

Wiping down rounds individually sucks, as does decaping before initial tumble. Trying to figure out a quicker way to get rounds loaded. Im going to be loading on my Dillon here soon as well. My buddy tumbles, then runs the rounds through the Dillon then sprays them down with brake cleaner to get the lube off.

What process works best for you and is quickest? Does getting the primer pockets clean really do anything? My blasting ammo is mixed headstamp and match is LC so its not a fair comparison even with the same loads. Biggest thing I hate with tumbling before decaping is how much water the brass holds so it makes a mess when I blow them out with compressed air. Without the primer in its much less mess since the brass doesn't hold much water.

[NWPilgrim]

If you are looking for speed and not pretty then I would just do a quick vibratory tumble with walnut media, decap, size, trim (if needed) and load.

I use both stainless wet tumble and corn cob dry vibratory and really the stainless is not going to give you any FUNCTIONAL value over the corn cob or walnut. When I wet tumble with stainless I decap first so the cases dry pretty fast in a 150F oven (1 hour).

[T2C]

I use a vibrating tumbler with walnut media to clean brass. I throw in a capful of Nu Finish car polish to speed up the process.

I have never cleaned a pistol brass primer pocket. If a rifle brass primer pocket appears really dirty, I will hit it with a nylon brush. A brush for cleaning the flash hole is available from RCBS.

[markm]

Every single round I load gets decapped first. I decap on a single stage, then SS tumble. No exeptions. I refuse to work with filthy brass at all anymore.