Brass processing.

I am looking for thoughts on improving my methods of brass processing.

Currently starting with fired brass, I measure out by volume ~500 cases. Then I deprime with a Lee hand press and a lyman universal deprimer. After that they get wet tumbled for several hours and then rinsed and set out to dry. 

Once dry they go into plastic cases from the Dollar store that hold around 500 pieces of 45. When I am ready to load I get one of these containerss, fill up the Square Deal press with primers and start working the handle and churning out ammo.

What do others do? Does anyone deprime pistol on a press with a case feeder? How many load on a press with a case feeder?

Collect my brass at the range (I no longer scrounge through the discarded brass) and buy new brass if I come up short.
Sort .38 from .45, making sure there are no pieces of .22 brass.
Store the brass in those round plastic containers from the dollar store.
In the fall when the local monthly matches have ended, tumble the brass in batches of ~500 cases each, using two tumblers.
Sort the brass by headstamp (Starline, Federal, Mixed)
Start reloading .45 in early December until I have enough match and practice ammo for the coming season; followed by .38 in January.
Store the bulk ammo by headstamp in those same, now clean, dollar store containers (round ones, with blue screw on lids; hold about two gallons).
By mid-February the weather is warm enough to start practice with the first local match in mid-Feb.
All depriming, priming and reloading is done on two Star presses with case feeders.
So simple even a caveman can do it.

Even though I am not a BE shooter ... yet ... this is my loading process:

Sort brass by caliber.
De-prime dirty press on a Lee single stage press with universal de-caping die.
Wet tumble with SS pins, Lemishine and Dawn dish detergent for 3 hours.
Rinse well.
(cold weather) Put brass in a rectangular cake pan and set on top of my wood stove for a couple hours.
(warm weather) Spread brass on a towel to dry over night.
Store brass in clear plastic shoe boxes purchased at Menard's.
Put 4 or 5 handfuls of brass in gallon Ziplock.
Spritz with One-Shot and shake for 20 seconds to coat brass.
Load hand cast / powder coated bullets in a Dillon 550B.
Cartridge gauge check all rounds in a Hundo.
Direct transfer from Hundo to 100 count plastic boxes.
Rounds that don't pass the Hundo goes through a Lee Bulge Buster and then they are gauged again.
Most will pass the gauge after bulge buster but the few that don't go in a small box marked practice.
Load, shoot and repeat.
I average ~15K rounds / year.

I toss my fired brass into a couple of 'empty' kitty litter buckets. When one gets fairly full I start the cleaning process in a couple of vibrating brass tumblers with crushed walnut shells. I no longer leave them in to get them as shiny as new, just a couple hours to get any dirt or debris off the case.

Then when it gets boring I sit in front of the brain sucker (TV) and sort by headstamp.  The TZZ, IMI, and Rem I separate out.  The rest go into the misc bucket for practice ammo.


Over winter I try to cast and lube a few 50 cal ammo cans filled with H&G 130's and 68's.  Then when the mood hits, I'll go on a marathon loading spree on the Dillon.
 

That's usually good for a year to year & a half of shooting.
Al

Try and use same headstamps for matches throw dirty in my big Dillon tumbler and set timer to run 3 hours may leave it two or three cycles, remove and keep in container till I load count out what I need usually 100 at a time 90 match and 10 alibi, then put in case feeder in my 1050 or my lock n load. If I were going to deprime separate it would be with a regular decap resize die why not eliminate another step then it would take the effort to resize off the press or I could even eliminate that stage and have a extra for a lock out die. I have a hornady single stage I may set up to do that at some point.

When using vibrating tumblers with walnut media, do use treated or untreated walnut media (or a combination of both... if so, what ratio)?  How much walnut media do you use... a few cups, enough to completely cover the brass, or other?  How long do you tumble them?  Do you find that dust/gunk accumulates on the inside of the shell casings?

I'm just getting started with this reloading thing, but for my first batch, I tried using the Lyman rust-colored treated walnut media, and found that while the outsides of the cases look nice and clean, all my cases have a layer of reddish gunk lining the inside, which is a real pain to get out (and it makes the powder stick to the inside if you want re-do the powder dispensing step, and I'm concerned about what it might do when actually using the ammo, etc.).  So, I figure I'm doing something wrong.

I've used straight up corn cob media for years now.. I just add a capful of Nu-Finish car wax in my large Dillon vibrator. then add some dryer sheets to keep dust down and also gather any dirt. I find using the Nu-Finish polishes the brass a bit and also leave a slightly slick surface that certainly is easy through my carbide dies.

the Dillon is so big I can just add brass from a shooting session or match to the bowl normally and continue to run it while I'm working in the shop.. the SS stuff does a great job, but is more labor than simply running the tumbler and I'm not anal enough to worry about how shinny my brass is or how clean my primer pocket is..

bdas wrote:When using vibrating tumblers with walnut media, do use treated or untreated walnut media (or a combination of both... if so, what ratio)?  How much walnut media do you use... a few cups, enough to completely cover the brass, or other?  How long do you tumble them?  Do you find that dust/gunk accumulates on the inside of the shell casings?

I use lizard bedding from pet smart.  It's untreated ground walnut shells and does as well as anything for my purposes.  I used corncob at one time and it puts a beautiful finish on the brass, but that benefit is not important to me.  I just want them clean.

I put enough in to completely cover the brass and can just see the top of the brass when the machine is turned on.  After several hours, (2-4) depending on whether its new or used media, I take it out & dump it into a sifting basket & shake out all the media.  Then dump the clean brass into another kitty litter bucket(empty of course) to wait for a time when I can sort.

I don't concern myself with and dust/gunk that may stay on the inside.  I shake the sorting screen pretty long & hard to dislodge anything that might be in there.

Allen

bdas if you use that green lyman treated corn cob and just add a small amount of the lyman red you will get very clean shiny cases, that's what I use now don't get corncob from a pet store its too big and will get stuck in cases and be a big pain.

When I get back from the range/match I separate the brass by caliber and place everything of the same size into the sonic cleaner. That means that I could have 9mm, 38 special or 38 super all in the cleaner at the same time. I just want to be sure I don't have any that will fall inside another case. I cycle them thru twice (60 minutes total) then give them a shake to get most of the water/solvent out then dump the wet cases into the walnut filled vibrator. The cases going into the medium still wet keeps the dust down and the little bit of additive in the cleaner helps polish. Once the first batch is vibrating I put the 45 cases in the sonic cleaner and clean them about an hour. I then dump them (slowly) right on top of the other brass already in the tumbler. I shut the door on the gun room and let them tumble/vibrate all night. I shut it down in the AM and shake it all down to get everything out of the inside then separate again by caliber and headstamp. I read above where people actually store their brass until they get a giant batch then load it all at once. I must be a little OCD because I can hear the empty cases screaming at me to be re-loaded. It is not unusual for me to have every round I fired to be re-loaded within a couple of days after I shot them.

Allaces, stupid question which dollar store? There are a few here in Virginia and those 2 gallon containers would be a reason to go to one.

Gun Jeep,
Dollar General

OK, I tried a couple of new things since the last post. 

1. I bought the Frankford Hand deprimer. This works pretty well once you get the right plastic collet in place. It sped things up a bit and I only needed to empty the primer jar 4 times instead of 10 or 12. 

2. I had good results from running the brass in the wet tumbler for 30 minutes with Dawn detergent and hot water, no pins, no lemishine. This cleaned the outside of the brass up quite well and got all of the loose stuff out of the inside. I rinsed it three times in hot water. 

After the rinse, I added the pins, some car wash, and lemishine. I ran these for 2.5 hours and the results were the best that I have had. Very clean inside and out, with a good shine. This will be my method going forward unless something changes. 

I load 45 on a Dillon Square Deal B. I had thought that a solution might be to set up my 550 with an additional tool head and case feeder just to avoid some of the case handling. I still might try that in the future, but for now, I will stick with the method described above. 

I have about 12k WCC match cases. They all range from 30-45 years old and most are once fired. They have been in buckets and storage for years and are dirty. What I might try is to process them 1k at a time in the dawn and hot water without pins to get alot of the dirt off, then deprime, and finally process them with the pins, carwash and lemishine. 

The carwash does seem to help with the Dillon case expander not sticking on the powder drop and means that I don't need to spray lube and wait for that to dry. 


Thanks for all of the information. 

Mike

These are the storage containers that I use for 500 round counts of brass. 


http://www.walmart.com/ip/44785855?wmlspartner=wlpa&adid=22222222227032945833&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=66579556352&wl4=&wl5=pla&wl6=130447929872&veh=sem

I have gone to only using Starline brass.  Tumble with corncob media.

New and once fired brass for the long line only.  Then its used exclusively for short line.

I sort my brass at the range as I shoot.  When I am done shooting 50yds I empty out the brass catcher and then the same after 25 yds.  Long line (all starline) goes into one container and short line (100% mix) in another and 9mm in another.  Then when I have enough of one I tumble.  This way I do not spend anytime at home sorting brass.

Thanks, Walmart and Dollar General within a mile.

I am a rank amateur at bullseye, but have been reloading for 40 years.  I have tried every thing under the sun to process brass.  And then I found the Stainless Steel Media system from STM.  It is a wet wash system using water, dish soap, and their stainless steel media.  Simply amazing results!!!  Dirty, tarnished, brown, ugly range brass comes out shiny and looks brand new!!  I just put the wet brass in a towel and put it in the sun to dry.  It even cleans the inside to looking brand new.  
When dry, I still run it thru the vibratory to put a little wax finish on the brass.  When the brass comes out of the wash, it is so clean that it will begin to tarnish.  

I cant recommend this system enough.  It is my usual routine for processing fired brass.  And no, I have no connection with the company except being a very satisfied customer.
Their customer service and shipping are outstanding too!

All the best 
Doug