Brass Prep

[angusb1]

The Lee reloading manual is well worth a read. Richard Lee had a great attitude to engineering and it's worth reading just to get his insights on why he engineered his tools the way he did, plus it's an easy read and he explains the way it all works in a way that is easy to understand because he understood the subject so well. If you hunt about on the internet you can get it for free but it's a nice physical book to sit and read.

 

[Polar_Bear]

Buy a book on reloading (not necessarily data) and READ it. ~Muir
(Reading the above advice, I can almost guarantee you will over think this all and stumble your way into the process. )
PS: This is a difficult as it needs to be.

I’ve got about 3 books so far and I am reading them. Most don’t cover wet tumbling etc which is something I want to do

 

[Polar_Bear]

The Lee reloading manual is well worth a read. Richard Lee had a great attitude to engineering and it's worth reading just to get his insights on why he engineered his tools the way he did, plus it's an easy read and he explains the way it all works in a way that is easy to understand because he understood the subject so well. If you hunt about on the internet you can get it for free but it's a nice physical book to sit and read.

One of the first books I bought when I knew I was going to reload.

 

[Utectok]

Buy a book on reloading (not necessarily data) and READ it. ~Muir
(Reading the above advice, I can almost guarantee you will over think this all and stumble your way into the process. )
PS: This is a difficult as it needs to be.

That’s how I started

 

[Bavarianbrit]

I’ve got about 3 books so far and I am reading them. Most don’t cover wet tumbling etc which is something I want to do

If you have the tumbler just add two drops of dishwasher liquid plus a teaspoon of citrus powder/descaler say add 25% of the brass weight of stainless pins (they should be magnetic as it helps picking up the ones that get away). Then less than half fill with water and run the machine for 1.5 hours, these .308s I did these yesterday. I do not have a .308 my pal plundered the shooting range when I was setting up my 6.5JDJ and I am now slowly sorting through the booty.
BTW do not do all this in the kitchen as you will sometimes loose pins down the plughole and a woman's wrath is a fearsome thing.

 

[Polar_Bear]

If you have the tumbler just add two drops of dishwasher liquid plus a teaspoon of citrus powder/descaler say add 25% of the brass weight of stainless pins (they should be magnetic as it helps picking up the ones that get away). Then less than half fill with water and run the machine for 1.5 hours, these .308s I did these yesterday. I do not have a .308 my pal plundered the shooting range when I was setting up my 6.5JDJ and I am now slowly sorting through the booty.
BTW do not do all this in the kitchen as you will sometimes loose pins down the plughole and a woman's wrath is a fearsome thing.

Thank you. A friend was selling the small Frankfort arsenal wet tumbler so I bought it from him

 

[Bavarianbrit]

Thank you. A friend was selling the small Frankfort arsenal wet tumbler so I bought it from him

I bought the Lyman pins when on my hols in the USA and find that I only need half the pack quarter used & then rotated, the rest still new stay up on the shelf so share the box with a friend if you can as you will never need them.

 

[Bowland blades]

Yeah, I’ll fully admit I’m a bit pedantic about some things but I’m happy to spend the extra time doing the extra steps. All part of my hobby to me.

As skills develop and money is saved up I’ll be looking into annealing, neck turning etc but that’s for the future.

Honestly, neck turning is only of real use if your chamber is custom minimum tolerance. Get your cases straight and spin the loaded bullet on a jig with a DTI and if it reads 2 tho' or less run out your all good
But you only really do this occasionally after the get go because the test is done
How good is the guy whom you book with ? be careful you dont over spend because you can make top grade match ammo with very , very little equipment / cost and having a chat with a guy who knows to get started and can answer your mistakes

 

[Polar_Bear]

Honestly, neck turning is only of real use if your chamber is custom minimum tolerance. Get your cases straight and spin the loaded bullet on a jig with a DTI and if it reads 2 tho' or less run out your all good
But you only really do this occasionally after the get go because the test is done
How good is the guy whom you book with ? be careful you dont over spend because you can make top grade match ammo with very , very little equipment / cost and having a chat with a guy who knows to get started and can answer your mistakes

Luckily I’ve got a couple of friends who reload so I can get some instruction off all of them as well as my club is planning on doing a course.

 

[Bowland blades]

Too many folks cannot discriminate from regular accurate hunting rounds and dropping a few thou on benchrest ammo . Really need to understand what matters to your use

 

[MarinePMI]

If you have the tumbler just add two drops of dishwasher liquid plus a teaspoon of citrus powder/descaler say add 25% of the brass weight of stainless pins (they should be magnetic as it helps picking up the ones that get away). Then less than half fill with water and run the machine for 1.5 hours, these .308s I did these yesterday. I do not have a .308 my pal plundered the shooting range when I was setting up my 6.5JDJ and I am now slowly sorting through the booty.
BTW do not do all this in the kitchen as you will sometimes loose pins down the plughole and a woman's wrath is a fearsome thing.

Just a quick note/trick; Use a fine wire colander with a piece of sheer privacy drapery from the local B&Q. It keeps the pins from slipping through the colander, while allowing the water to drain out. For small lots of brass, this works well.

 

[Bavarianbrit]

Just a quick note/trick; Use a fine wire colander with a piece of sheer privacy drapery from the local B&Q. It keeps the pins from slipping through the colander, while allowing the water to drain out. For small lots of brass, this works well.

I do that too, after loosing some pins down the plughole.
Someone on here soon will begin grinding the ends of the pins after 20 cleaning rotations to up the accuracy-shiny of the finished cases.

 

[trickie]

I do that too, after loosing some pins down the plughole.
Someone on here soon will begin grinding the ends of the pins after 20 cleaning rotations to up the accuracy-shiny of the finished cases.

I do loose a couple every now and then in the kitchen. SHMBO gets a bit out of sorts with me (she finds them walking around in bare feet that may be my issue here)

 

[paul o']

Nothing wrong with being a bit OCD with your brass I only cut new brass pockets once after that i use a brush that fits the pocket and give them a quick spin
I
Anneal
corn tumble
lube
size
mandrel the neck to size
trim only after 3 firings
re clean this time ultrasonic
food dehydrator to dry
fill and seat
Repeat.
every one has there way but not every has OCD

 

[ChesterP]

I would strongly recommend that you DO NOT uniform primer pockets! Just use the wire brush primer pocket tool or standard primer pocket cleaner and don't go to town on them. Many uniformers will square off the small fillet found at the base of the primer pocket and this can result in primers seating too deeply. This can affect obturation of primers and cause gas blow back past the primers. Best place for a primer uniformer is the bin.

 

[LuckyEddie]

Ok so I just did my first batch of .222 ammo with the help of a good friend.

Dry tumble and clean off anything missed by the tumbler
Decap
Size
Lube & Lyman M Die the neck
Clean primer pocket & prime
Lube the neck, load powder and seat bullet
Sort rounds according to weight (and manufacturer if required)

For info, 50 rounds of ammo weighed between 168.8grns and 171.8grns
Three different brand of cases, RP, PMC & PPU with no meaningful variation between manufacturer

 

[Lancaster]

I would strongly recommend that you DO NOT uniform primer pockets! Just use the wire brush primer pocket tool or standard primer pocket cleaner and don't go to town on them. Many uniformers will square off the small fillet found at the base of the primer pocket and this can result in primers seating too deeply. This can affect obturation of primers and cause gas blow back past the primers. Best place for a primer uniformer is the bin.

I disagree, you have had an issue with one rifle, it may have been the uniforming tool at fault.
I, and many others, have loaded thousands of rounds with uniformed pockets with none of the issues you describe.
I prefer every primer to be seated at the same depth on a flat base that is square to the case head, rather than worrying about, what seems to have been, a rare occurrence.

 

[Foxyboy43]

Ok so I just did my first batch of .222 ammo with the help of a good friend.

Dry tumble and clean off anything missed by the tumbler
Decap
Size
Lube & Lyman M Die the neck
Clean primer pocket & prime
Lube the neck, load powder and seat bullet
Sort rounds according to weight (and manufacturer if required)

For info, 50 rounds of ammo weighed between 168.8grns and 171.8grns
Three different brand of cases, RP, PMC & PPU with no meaningful variation between manufacturer

Measure to confirm COL and COAL?
I would also chamber a few of your new little darlings (usual safety precautions apply) - better to find any issues now rather than far from home…. You also might wish to routinely include checking for case head separation as an integral part of your process which will give you a very good opportunity to examine each case for any splits/cracks etc…
Good luck and welcome to the dark side!

 

[ChesterP]

I disagree, you have had an issue with one rifle, it may have been the uniforming tool at fault.
I, and many others, have loaded thousands of rounds with uniformed pockets with none of the issues you describe.
I prefer every primer to be seated at the same depth on a flat base that is square to the case head, rather than worrying about, what seems to have been, a rare occurrence.

There's nothing wrong with the tool. It was a very experienced gunsmith who pointed out the dangers of using primer uniforming tools without a means to accurately seat the primers to just a few thou max below the head and with the greatest of respect to your own experience, we are trying to provide a little wisdom to someone new to reloading who may not understand the ramifications of seating primers too deeply which is absolutely a possibility when using uniformers. I still maintain that there is absolutely NO benefit in using a uniformer for those without the experience to understand potential dangers, and that pockets only require crud cleaning out.

 

[Polar_Bear]

There's nothing wrong with the tool. It was a very experienced gunsmith who pointed out the dangers of using primer uniforming tools without a means to accurately seat the primers to just a few thou max below the head and with the greatest of respect to your own experience, we are trying to provide a little wisdom to someone new to reloading who may not understand the ramifications of seating primers too deeply which is absolutely a possibility when using uniformers. I still maintain that there is absolutely NO benefit in using a uniformer for those without the experience to understand potential dangers, and that pockets only require crud cleaning out.

As I’m still buying my tools and wherever possibly/reasonable to do so, am of the opinion ‘Buy once cry once’, what would be a good priming tool to accurately seat the primer?