1st malfunction and squib.

Yea after a week I thought they would be dry. Guess not. Plan B.
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Well that would have been my thought too. Seriously, a week? I would have said you were GTG.

Glad you shared. Makes me think me and my corn cob media will be together for a long, long time. (Although I admit to a little bit of envy when I see folk with their shiny reloads...)
 
When this 1st happened I still recall how upset I was, how scared I was that someone could have been hurt. What id I do wrong!

The whole trip home my wife was ribbing me that I was trying to kill her and that really hurt. So I kept going over in my mind what could have gone wrong. I know that I look into each case before placing a bullet so how could I have missed one? As it turned out I didn't but that still didn't make me feel any better about what happened.
 
I too load on both a Loadmaster and a Lee turret, but I deprime all brass off the press to make sure that I can check for crimped primer pockets and make sure that the whole primer is removed. I have had two instances on the Loadmaster where two primers detonated due to part of the old primer, sort of a ring, was still in the case but didn't know because of it being done on a progressive. Now I deprime and hand prime all revolver brass off the press and only load them on the turret. I still prime and load 9mm on the Loadmaster after culling any brass with a crimped primer pocket, because the Loadmaster either crushes or jacks the primers sideways when encountering a crimped primer pocket. Depriming with the Lee universal depriming tool on a single stage goes very quick, can easily do 500 in less than an hour and I just do hand priming while watching the idiot box.
 
I bought several large baking pans and cases go in a oven for 20 to 30 minutes at 170 degrees after being on a towel to get excess off. I do however decap before wet tumbling. I have never not decapped before wet tumbling so can't say if the above would work as well as it does or not.
 
I had done 4 or 5 small batches like this previously and didn't have a problem with any of them but then they also sat empty for at least a month before I loaded them.

When I state small batches these are 100 or less.

Well I've heard from many that decap 1st but none from anyone that does not.
 
Well I've heard from many that decap 1st but none from anyone that does not
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Yes you did , me . It's what I started out doing for my handgun cases but it took to long for the primers to dry enough to then load .

I had always decapped rifle cases because it actually saved time . I had been manually cleaning the primer pockets and inside necks when I dry tumbled . How ever that is now done for me when I wet tumble a decapped case saving me quite a bit of time . When I started loading handgun cartridges I did not think decapping was as important or time saving . When it took over a week for me to load those cases it clearly started taking up to much time . I mean in that time ( week ) I had other cases to clean and prep for other calibers . So now it's a space issue as well , Having hundreds of multiple calibers drying at the same time and finding a place to spread all that out while also keeping them all separated became a problem as well . In the end It just seemed best for me to just de-prime all cases before wet tumbling .

I'll agree that it is an extra step that will consume some time . How ever with a Lee universal decapper it goes pretty fast because it's not like this step has any quality importance . You just blast right through them . I use both hands when doing this , left hand is removing the last case from the press as the right hand loads the next . With some music playing I can get in a pretty fast rhythm .
 
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Sorry that I missed that. Guess I wasn't paying very good attention or my comprehension is lacking.

Yes I work in small batches, normally what I shoot each trip plus whatever else I pick up but again normally not more than a couple hundred..

In 9mm I have about 3500 pcs of brass set aside with about 400 working pieces that I keep cycling. Suppose I could go thru those pretty quick using the case feeder on my Pro1000 and just the decapper..
 
Maybe have to increase time and temp. I have actually been watching ebay for a universal die but just haven't pulled the trigger.
 
I use a progressive but still deprime before wet tumbling. I use a deprime die, not a sizing die.

After separating pins and laying cases on a towel to dry overnight they have always been dry. I do move them around on the towel so they all lie flat and are not net to another case.

Love clean pockets that will allow a primer to seat properly. Perhaps the air flow dries better.

Would not clean another way. Don’t want lead-filled dust in the reloading area.
 
My 2 cents in this ...is you were lucky noone was hurt ( which you know ) ...and its time to quit wet tumbling/cleaning !

Wet tumbling/cleaning is the practice that is causing your problem ...and I don't see any reason to use that method. If you're picking up brass outside where its muddy and wet...just quit it and leave the brass there / picking up wet and dirty brass outside is not worth the risk.

If you're picking up brass indoors and wet tumbling - its a bad plan / I have reloaded off and on for over 50 yrs - and I have never wet tumbled any cases.

Depriming before you dry tumble is not a good idea either...you can catch cleaning media in the flash hole.
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My recommendation :
Inspect cases when you bring them home ... put the ones you intend to keep in a "dirty bin by caliber -- like 9mm Dirty "...drop the rejected, dirty, muddy or crummy looking stuff in a bin to go to brass recycler.

Personally, I dry tumble the sorted ones ...then inspect again ...put the cleaned and sorted cases like "9mm Clean & Sorted" into a separate storage tub / put the rejected ones in the recycler tub ...

Cleaned and Sorted cases ...are then ready for case lube and dropping into the case feeder on the press. ( everything is done on Dillon 650 progressive )...and I reload and shoot about 25,000 handgun rounds a year. Depriming in a separate operation is a waste of time and not productive - especially in handgun ammo like 9mm where I shoot about 10 boxes a week.
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I'm glad noone was hurt !!
 
kmw1951 said:
Sorry but to my way of thinking that is completely defeating the whole purpose of a turret or progressive press.
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It really depends how you work. To me, the main value of wet tumbling is more precise priming of precision rifle loads. There I have to stop and trim the case after sizing anyway, so it's never going to flow through a progressive loading system smoothly. But even for a handgun, if you inspect your cases anyway, having a Lee Challenger or other single-operation press set up to do the decapping stroke while you are inspecting the next case doesn't add a huge amount of extra time. Even if that were not the case, you still save two extra handle strokes per load by loading progressively instead of saving three, so it's still worth it.

However, I understand your dilemma. Back when I began reloading I used to clean with the old NRA salt and vinegar solution with the primers still in place. You'd be surprised (well, OK, you wouldn't be now) how long water can stay trapped in primer pockets under spent primers. An oven is the only solution. You can dry with heat quite safely above the boiling point of water. Brass doesn't start to anneal until over 450°F. So put your oven at 300°F and let it heat up and settle, and then put the brass in it on a cookie sheet until the brass itself is thirty or forty degrees above the boiling point. That's the only way to be sure the water was driven out; boiling it off, which happens under pressure if it it trapped by residue in some way. An hour in the oven is plenty long enough. You will, however, see the brass darken a little. If you want to avoid that, decapping before cleaning is the only way to go.

All that said, if saving the handle stroke is important to you, time-wise, then you probably want to be using a vibratory tumbler anyway. You are already putting extra time into mixing solution and pin separation. You'll be ahead on time with dry tumbling.
 
Thanks guys for the comments and suggestions.

I've got plenty of time to contemplate this as I'm pretty much caught up for the time being especially on 9mm. Also with the 9mm I have enough brass that I could clean/wash what I'd shot and still have enough to replace that amount. So leaving it sit longer is not an issue. I could leave it for a month and not miss it. The 380 brass is a different story buy I also do not shoot as much of that as the 9mm.

Right now my wash is just soap, water and Lemishine, no SS pins used. All is also hand tumbled in just a plastic jar that holds about 100/150 pcs of 9mm. So far I have been satisfied with the results this way. This removes the soot and carbon. I shake this stuff as I'm watching TV or sitting here on the forums.

So as it stands I'm still undecided as to what I'm going to do, to continue or move on to another way. I need to have confidence in my practice no matter which way it is.
 
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