roasting tripple duece on an open fire

[labradigger1]

Ok i admit it, i messed up bad. This evening after work i decided to go through some of my excess brass, once compiled i proceded to sort out and place into pan with lemi shine and dawn. I went through every case mind you prior to soaking. After soaking and rinsing three times i drained off and layed them all on a cookie sheet. I have my wood stove cranking this evening as it is about 20° outside. (Anyone know where i am going with this yet?) So i placed the wet brass onto the wood stove and went outside for about 5 minuites. When i came back in i seen brass casings all over the floor and my chihuahua scared to death hunkered up next to my lab. When i went to the cookie sheet i seen a large barren area in the middle of the sheet. After looking through the brass i saw a mangled 30-30 case, then another then a 45 grn .224 hp! After digging around a little more i found a primer and a destroyed 222 case. After consideration the only explaination i can come up with is it was an old reload that i had seated flush when setting up the seating die. I'll admit that i did'nt look for live primed cases and certainly never looked into each case. Needless to say i have some making up to do with the little dog. Happily for me mrs. Lab was not home at the time.
So why am i telling on myself ? To give a warning to others who may wash and dry their brass. I would almost bet some of you have baked your brass in a toaster oven and have had a live round in the mix, come in, fess up.

Lab

[Harter66]

After carefully hand sorting about 300# of range scrap into JPJs, soft, med and hard ......... a live round blew out the side of my 16'' cast iron pot dumping 80# of lead and jackets on the floor an a couple lbs more on the walls, roof and garage door......casting bench ,camping gear,window etc etc.

Not the same but still similar ......... lapse of caution(?).

[Tom Myers]

I dunno for sure but I would think that, if you got your brass hot enough to cook off a primer, the rest of the brass might just be annealed past the point of being safe to use.

[labradigger1]

I dunno for sure but I would think that, if you got your brass hot enough to cook off a primer, the rest of the brass might just be annealed past the point of being safe to use.
Good point. After reading your reply i went and took 2 samples from each caliber and crushed each case with pliers starting at the mouth and going to the head. All cases seem to have annealed at the mouth but definetly did not anneal the heads. 22 hornets were the softest at the mouth but it may be the thin walls that hornets have, either way hornets are so thin i dont think it is a bad thing as they are so hard to load. 222, 223, 225, 22 hp, 30-30, 218, 348 and 44 mag are just right i think.
lab

[silverado]

Thanks for the lesson.... I like to learn from other people's mistakes whenever possible, since I make enough on my own :rolleyes:

[josper]

I rinse off my brass,then tumble in corn cob to dry.

[shredder]

Needless to say, always deprime before you tumble. The primer pockets come clean that way. Otherwise water stays in the old primer and makes a mess when you do finally deprime.

[WILCO]

I stopped washing brass years ago when I received a homemade tumbler from a cherished friend. It's been crushed walnut media & Nu Finish ever since.

Thanks for sharing your story.

[TheDoctor]

I deprime, ultrasonic, air dry, or toaster oven dry at 150, then tumble. Keeps my media clean with less lead contamination, I assume. Havent cooked one off yet, but that is something I watch for. Maybe one day...

[labradigger1]

I stopped washing brass years ago when I received a homemade tumbler from a cherished friend. It's been crushed walnut media & Nu Finish ever since.

Thanks for sharing your story.
Thats a nice tumbler wilco
I usually wash just to speed up the tumbler, also cleans the inside of the case better than a vibratory
Lab
I use a dillon fl 2000 and a smaller cabelas vibratory, also have a small thumblers

[camotruck]

I deprime wash in a SS media tumbler then dry on a old server that I made up. I took all the guts out and added a bunch of extra computer fans 8 or 10 IIRC all turned to blow in and the brass on top sitting on a screen with a light bulb inside. the air gets sucked in and blown up through the screen. The bulb is there to warm the air, but I rarely bother to turn on the bulb.

I do have a big box of range lead that sits under my lab bench. I know there are things that have fallen off the bench never to be seen again. someone may have just saved me a lot of explaining to my wife. I probably would have dumped that whole box right in the pot with out looking through it. Not now.
Camo