Depriming

[Nomes]

I have a sonic cleaner to wash the shells.
I can deprime the shells before i wash them or wash them deprime and prime on my loader.
What would be the proper procedure or does it matter?

[XDROB]

I switched to wet cleaning a few years ago. Bur I will admit that I clean my brass in my vibratory w/walnut shells. And the deprime on the press.then put them in the Franklin Armory wet because I like my brass shiny with clean primer holes.

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[Winger Ed.]

It doesn't really matter. Either way will work.

[rancher1913]

the best way is to do it twice. wash the dirty brass with the primers to get them clean enough as to not put so much wear and tear on your dies, then again after depriming and sizing so the primer pockets are clean. but if you do only one, wash first to save your dies, the dirt in the pocket will not affect your reloads much.

[Minerat]

I use a Frankfort hand de-primer then clean. Saves on broken deprimer pins and dirty dies.

[AnthonyB]

It depends on what you are trying to do. Rifle brass gets cleaned before sizing. I then clean again to get rid of the lube and also clean primer pockets, but I don’t think the primer pocket cleaning amounts to much. The sized and cleaned again brass is then ready to load (trimming, swaging, and all other operations not included).
Tony

[beemer]

I have been processing sone 5.56 military brass. Deprime with a Lee universal then swage the primer pocket. Run through the vibrator, size, trim, wash, and put in stash.

A little primer residue is not a big deal but if I am going to clean the brass anyway just as well to deprime first.

[AnthonyB]

beemer, why deprime first if you are going to clean again after sizing? The primer pockets will be empty after sizing for your second cleaning.
Tony

[dale2242]

I use the Lee Universal deprimer on any dirty brass. no harm, no foul.
Clean them in the wet SS tumbler.
You get them clean inside and out including primer pockets.
I do tumble them in my vibratory cleaner with walnut shells to remove sizing lube.

[Nomes]

Thinking about it, I guess if they are cleaned after depriming the pockets would get cleaned at the same time and the small orifice that leads to the powder would have less chance of any fouling residue left in it.

[pworley1]

It is fine either way. If you don't deprime first be sure to deprime very soon after cleaning. If they are washed and left primed for a long time the primers can glue themselves in and be very difficult to remove.

[Castaway]

For my 45-70 black powder cases, I deprime at the range and drop the cases in water with a drop or two of Dawn. When I get home I rinse thoroughly. Then I transfer to an ultra-sonic cleaner. Cases dry much faster if deprimed and the primer pockets get cleaner. Variant on the above procedure is to decap at range, rinse thoroughly at home, dry and load. Primer pockets come clean this way too. Occasionally, when my discolored brass gets to dark, I decap, ultra sonic clean, dry and tumble. If I tumble, all cases are out in a loading block and inspected/cleaned of any media in the flash hole. For smokeless, I tumble, decap/size and load

[Murphy]

If I'm going to clean brass to 'like new' again, I deprime first (how you deprime is up to you), then use a primer pocket brush. I tried this after getting my Rebel 17 tumbler with stainless steel pins, awesome. I noted how nasty the water was after the first few uses. I decided to experiment. I chucked a primer pocket brush up in my drill press and brushed them all out after depriming. It made a major difference for me, much more than one would think until they try it

Murphy

[greenjoytj]

I first use a LEE Universal de-priming die to press out the primers because I want to clean out the crud in the bottom of the primer pockets.
I manually scrape out the hard primer fouling because I don’t want my brass immersed for long in primer fouling and it shortens the time spent in the case cleaner.

I have a fast system to clean out the primer pockets. It is the same tools and set up that I use to uniform the primer pockets.
A Forest brand deburring tool base (DTB) the I have screwed to a “L” shaped wood bracket I made.
The base of the “L” is held in my bench vice and the handle of a 5 gallon Home Depot bucket is hung over the vertical post of the wood “L” bracket.
The Forester DTB uses a Sinclair International brand adapter to reduce the hole in the DTB from the size that fits a Forester inside/outside deburring tool down to the size required to fit the Sinclair primer pocket uniformed cutters.
These carbide cutters come in the 3 primer sizes we all use.

A few quick turns on the DTB crank handle scrapes the hard fouling from the primer pockets.
The dust crud falls into the bucket.

Removing the primer fouling while it is dry and hard is best.

The cases get cleaned in my Lyman Turbo Sonic Case Cleaner.
It is an old model and doesn’t have much ultra sonic powder power so it takes several cycles.
Sometimes I’ll tumble with SS pins.

[ioon44]

I always deprime before I wet tumble, helps with the drying and keeps the primmer station cleaner.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

If I am going to wet clean, I deprime first, Lee Universal decapper or Frankford hand decapper. I use both an RCBS Sonic and a Frankford for wet SS pins. I mostly keep my brass out of the dirt, concrete apron and heavy rubber mats around my shooting bench, so I seldom clean it. Some of my dies are over fifty years old, haven't noticed any wear from the 'unwashed'. Cleaning brass is a 'new' thing (20-25years or so), sells a lot of stuff.

[MrWolf]

I use a Frankfort hand de-primer then clean. Saves on broken deprimer pins and dirty dies.

Yup. I use a Harvey deprimer though.

[guzma393]

Decapping before sonic cleaning helps dry the brass faster. Otherwise, it shouldn't matter if you fan dry/heater dry your brass.

[Baltimoreed]

You guys are working too hard for clean brass imo. I vibrate tumble my brass with polish after a cas or ZSA match, inspect and sort it out as sometimes i use multiple calibers and put them in the correct plastic containers until needed. Done. Dirty primer pockets don’t matter. I prime pistol brass on my machines so, I have plenty of primer seating power. Maybe if I were building long range match rifle ammo and was messing with flash holes to make them uniform and weighing my match grade bullets and match brass cleaning the pockets MIGHT make a difference.

[wv109323]

If you wet tumble with primers, make sure the brass is well,well dried before putting new primers in. The primer pocket is the last to dry. I loaded some and the primer pocket were not dry which resulted in several duds. Also if you tumble, then deprime ,there is a tendency that just the end of the primer will be removed, leaving the sides of the primer in place.
I recently started to load some .38 spec. That had been cleaned with primers in place. I had 16 that the primer end came out with the circumference remaining in the primer pocket. For some reason it was Winchester brass with old Winchester primers.
I now just wash my brass (which much is range pick-up) , deprime with a dedicated depriming die( no resizing) then wet tumble. This also cleans the primer pocket. Again I make sure the primer pockets are completely dry before new primers are installed.

[lightman]

I deprive with a Lee die and then wet tumble.

[Nomes]

I think deprime first has a few more advantages.

[LabGuy]

Well, it really doesn’t matter much. Find what works best for you. I started by just wiping off the cases. Then I played with chemical washing. Next up was a Lyman vibration unit. Then after a 20 yr sabbatical, I used an old ultrasonic my work was going to toss. And now I wet tumble. In an attempt to reduce lead sulphonate from the primers, and having grandchildren around my current system is: wet tumble with out SS pins, deprime within a couple hours on a Lee APP, wet tumble again with the SS pins. Yes, I have two tumblers. The first tumble is to get the sand and other debris out to protect the dies and press and is only for an hour or so. The Lee APP puts the spent primers in a plastic bottle. The second tumble is a couple of hours. The water goes into the sewer system. Keeps everything very clean.

[oley55]

If I intend to wet pin clean, I deprime using the Lee Universal Depriming die on my Forster Co-Ax press. The Co-Ax's primer catcher just seems capture all of the dirt n trash so well.