Clean or Size First?

[Silver Jack Hammer]

I have switched to tumble case cleaning with wet ceramic media. Should I tumble clean first or size first?

If I throw spent cases in the tumbler before sizing, then dirt water runs into my RCBS Rockchucker when the case is de-primed. If I size first, my die get dirty. I am neck only resizing.

Which do you first?

I’m shooting .45 Colt with my boolits cast from wheel weights with Alox and Unique. The shell casings are very dirty after being fired in loose Colt’s SAA chambers.

[nhyrum]

I always at least wash them before sizing. Ideally, I would decap with a universal die, tumble for an hour or so, then size, so I don't get any grit or grime in my more expensive dies, and it gets the primer pockets clean in one wash. Otherwise I give then a quick tumble, size, then tumble again

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[Conditor22]

I won't run dirty brass through my sizing dies

I use the Lee universal decapping die on a cheap press, then I wet clean my brass with dawn, citric acid and stainless pins

[Winger Ed.]

I wash in soap & water first to get the dirt off.
I'll lay them out a day or two to dry, or put them in a 225 degree oven for awhile to dry.
Then size/deprime, polish, and load for handgun ammo.

Rifle brass gets washed again after sizing to clean off the lube so it doesn't foul the media so fast, then polished & loaded.

[kevin c]

Every case I reload has hit the deck on the outdoor ranges I shoot at, so there's dirt, sand and gravel to deal with besides the expected firing residue. I wet tumble everything before it ever sees a press (citric acid and car wash 'n wax; no pins and not decapped first). I do make a point of letting the cases dry thoroughly before the rest of processing. A towel sling initial drying followed by few hours in the sun on a hardware cloth screen does the job.

[slim1836]

I appreciate all of the comments thus far, I've done many of them, usually by missing a step.

Slim

[MrWolf]

Harvey deprimer first, then clean, then proceed. I don't want gunk in my Dillon.

[Shawlerbrook]

Deprime with universal decapping die, clean and then size. Wash, rinse, repeat !

[dragon813gt]

Always clean first. I don’t want my dies damaged. The press will always becomes dirty when depriming. There is no way around this.

[Finster101]

I'm with the universal decapping crowd. I have a Lee pro 1000 set up with the decapping die on an extra tool head makes quick work of it with the shell feeder.

[Shepherd2]

I always deprime first. Then I tumble the cases using either the wet or dry method. I don't want to run dirty, gritty cases through my dies.

[JimB..]

I’ve been depriming with a universal die and then wet tumbling.

When I wet tumble without depriming I find that the primer holds water unless I heat them for a long time, and I’d rather not do that.

For rifle I used to wet tumble twice, but this weekend I tried putting walnut media in my FART and running rifle brass, that I hadn’t deprimed, for a couple hours and it came out ready to load. Now I may just load it, but if it’ll go on the progressive I’ll probably deprime and size on a single stage then tumble again to remove the lube.

[PJEagle]

Over time and experimentation I have developed a system that keeps my press and dies clean. Step 1 is to wet tumble with stainless steel pins and some worthless car wash/wax for 45 minutes. (I'm just trying to finish off the jug.) Step 2 is to dry the brass in a dryer. Step 3 is to decap and resize the brass. Step 4 is to tumble with stainless steel pins, Dawn & lemishine followed by changing the Dawn for good car wash/wax for a few minutes. Then I dry the brass in a dryer again.

This system gives me everything I want. You may or may not like it.

[Baltimoreed]

When I get home from a match, I drop my cases in an orange ball vibrator for 3-4 hours, I do this on my deck in the gazebo so I don’t hear it. Next day I sort them out and store them until I get around to reloading them. Don’t see the need to deprime and then clean as the media will get into the flash hole. Plus its another step. Work smarter not harder.

[pastera]

Decapp on a Lee APP, wet tumble no pins, then dry over a fan.
Can process about 4lbs/hr once things get going even with my small setup - not very efficient for small batches.

I find the shiny clean brass gets sticky in carbide dies without a little lanolin lube every once in a while.

[Silver Jack Hammer]

Thanks for the input guys! I’ve been cleaning first, then sizing and decaping, then oiling and cleaning my press. I’ll go back to that. Last night I ran dirty brass through the decaping and sizing step before cleaning, it didn’t feel right.

[robg]

i wipe cases ,size and expand if needed, then tumble them .if you clean them first you have to lube them again to size them then re-clean .

[Froogal]

I have switched to tumble case cleaning with wet ceramic media. Should I tumble clean first or size first?

If I throw spent cases in the tumbler before sizing, then dirt water runs into my RCBS Rockchucker when the case is de-primed. If I size first, my die get dirty. I am neck only resizing.

Which do you first?

I’m shooting .45 Colt with my boolits cast from wheel weights with Alox and Unique. The shell casings are very dirty after being fired in loose Colt’s SAA chambers.

I dry tumble, but I first apply resizing lube, allow it to dry, and then resize and deprime, and THEN they go into the dry tumbler. I find that the primer pockets are good to go by doing it that way, and also all traces of the sizing lube are gone. .38 special, .357, and .45 Colt.

ALL of my reloading dies get disassembled and cleaned on a regular basis.

[Hossfly]

Wash, dry process....

[hc18flyer]

I like to universal deprive, then run thru the Ultrasonic cleaner to clean the primer pockets. Recently I have been using Imperial wax for full length resizing, then into the tumbler to get the imperial off? I put used dryer sheets in with the media, but I still get a lot of dust. I am thinking of reversing my order to keep the dust out of my dies? Someday I might have to get the wet tumbling setup? Tom