When do you clean brass with a progressive loader ?

You guys that use progressive presses; When do you clean your brass ?
I've always used a single stage press. I'm in the habit of resize / de-prime, then throw my brass in the vibratory tumbler overnight, for a good cleaning, then move on to the next stages.
I've started looking at progressive presses but now wondering about when I would do the cleaning cycle. Seems that re-size / de-prime then clean would interrupt the "progressive flow", Not ?

I have two press set ups, one to decap/size and one to load. I do wipe down the press between set ups to keep it running well. I typically clean in a wet tumbler, I feel the brass drys better with the primer removed.

I have only used a progressive press so I clean before.  I have pondered your question as well but in 25 plus years of loading this way, it sees to work fine.  

Good luck.
John

Shoot, drop the cases in an ammo can, and when the can is full dump it into the vibratory tumbler. Then re-load on the progressive and start all over again.

I deprime on a single stage then clean in a SS wet tumbler. Then I dry and spray case lube before running through the progressive.

On my 650 I have a tool head with a decap die. Decap all the brass then stainless tumble. When it’s all clean give it a spray of one shot lube..change tool head and load. Size, prime, charge, seat and crimp.

I deprime on a Lee APP with a Dillon case feeder. Then sonic clean, dry, and load.

zanemoseley wrote:I deprime on a single stage then clean in a SS wet tumbler.  Then I dry and spray case lube before running through the progressive.

Yep, exactly.

Bill

Fired 45acp brass goes into a nice fluffy towel on the bench. Its rolled around for a minute.  Cleans about 50 to 100 at a time.

The RCBS carbide die doesnt care how clean brass is.

The residue for lubed bullets makes sizing easier. I do 500 at a time using an old Dillon  RL-450.

About every 3th loading, i give them a citrus bath and clean pockets.

Being fortunate to have a good supply of brass, I dump mine in a 2 gallon plastic jug (empty 12# Clays jugs with a big chunk of the corner cut off). When it gets 1/2 to 3/4 full I dump it into the vibrating cleaners for 2-6 hrs (depending on how fresh the media is). Then sort it from 1-4am, when I can't sleep, into practice and match containers ready to be reloaded when the urge hits.

Primer pockets are never cleaned. I am no longer at the stage where it will make any difference, and even when I was, I didn't clean them.

For 9mm, I resize/decap on Lee Classic Turret Press using it as a single stage, dry tumble, load on the Hornady LnL AP.
For 45ACP and 357Mag I tumble first and then load on Lee Classic Turret Press (all stages).

Before it goes into the progressive machine.

Thanks for your replies .

I have an RCBS Rockchucker and a Dillon Square Deal.  I use a carbide die in my Rockchucker to re-size and de-cap.  Then I wet thumble in a Thumbler's Tumbler.  Either sun dry or oven dry the brass.  Then I load everything on the Dillon.  I never use any lube at any time on straight wall pistol cases.

I wet tumble with pins, dry, then load. I don’t decap before cleaning. The way I see it is the primer pocket where the primer is can’t really get dirty because the primer is there. When you decap, the pin goes through the flash hole to push the primer out, so the flash hole gets cleared at that time. I don’t see any advantage of adding another step to decap.

When I get home from the range/match. I store brass clean but not de-primed.

kjanracing wrote:I wet tumble with pins, dry, then load. I don’t decap before cleaning. The way I see it is the primer pocket where the primer is can’t really get dirty because the primer is there. When you decap, the pin goes through the flash hole to push the primer out, so the flash hole gets cleared at that time. I don’t see any advantage of adding another step to decap.

Sometimes the issue is carbon build up in the primer hole base which can result in high primers.
I like them clean.

james r chapman wrote:

kjanracing wrote:I wet tumble with pins, dry, then load. I don’t decap before cleaning. The way I see it is the primer pocket where the primer is can’t really get dirty because the primer is there. When you decap, the pin goes through the flash hole to push the primer out, so the flash hole gets cleared at that time. I don’t see any advantage of adding another step to decap.

Sometimes the issue is carbon build up in the primer hole base which can result in high primers.
I like them clean.

Yeah, I prefer to get the primer pockets cleaned too - maybe a bit OCD and not always necessary but it just gives me that little bit of extra confidence in the ammo I've loaded.
This is what kind of "threw me" when I started thinking about a progressive, -- if you're sizing / de priming on a separate press, you're not using the first stage of that expensive new progressive and you've still got that old single stage around.
Don't get me wrong, I'll probably still get a progressive, its just starting to "look" a bit different than when I initially thought about it.

Just deprime

I never clean brass with a progressive loader. :lol!:

cuslog wrote:

if you're sizing / de priming on a separate press, you're not using the first stage of that expensive new progressive

but on a 4 stage progressive, you can then add in a powder check die

I wet tumble prior to de capping.

I use a Dillon SD for 45 for the last 30 years had a lot of trouble with keeping it clean then I found out about universal de cap die now de prime and clean the brass first makes life less frustrating and can load about 50 times more between cleaning SD.

Vibratory tumble long enough to get the big nasty stuff off then spray a little One shot and into the hopper they go.
I do try to run the tumblers outside with the lid off and run a fan behind me when separating media from cases to lower lead exposure.

How essential is it to clean the primer pocket on 45 brass?  ....or do most people not do this at all?  

There are tools like the RCBS Trim Mate Primer Pocket Uniformer, which can make the primer pocket deeper if necessary.
RCBS makes metal brushes to clean the pockets

If anyone is going to do all this, they need to deprime the cases first, then do this, and only then put the cases into their progressive reloader.

In my case (no pun intended) I have a vibratory case cleaner.
For a reloading press, I have a RCBS Pro 2000 Progressive press (and my old single station RCBS press).
I bought primer pocket brushes and the holder years ago, but haven't used them yet.

The reason why I'm posting this, is I took one of my reloaded cases, put it on a flat surface, and found the primer was protruding slightly - I know that, because I can rock the loaded round back and forth. Maybe I didn't apply enough force to fully seat the primer, or maybe I can't seat the primer fully because residue from previous loadings is still there.

What should I do, or buy, to correct this?

Not sure if it's what you guys will recommend, but I did find this RCBS Trim Mate Primer Pocket Uniformer, but I'm guessing this goes onto a machine tool, rather than cleaning and uniforming by hand.