38 Special - primer removal before SS tumbling?

[TrekUS]

I have an unused 650XL on my bench and 500 pieces of once fired 38 Special brass (wife and I switched to the Kimber K6s for EDC)... unlike my 308 where I de-prime before tumbling... for those that load pistol what is the preferred sequence?
1) load the case feeder with dirty brass... cycle through to de-prime/size? (Dirty... entire system including the resizing die)
2) run a separate tool head with only a de-priming die. (Case feed is still filthy)?
3) de-prime before tumbling piece by piece on my co-ax?
4) tumble with primers in place... cycle clean brass through the 650... don’t worry about “unclean” primer pockets?

At the start of my pistol loading journey - thanks for the help!

 

[TF160 Guy]

I wet tumble pistol brass with primers in for 2 1/2 hours. Load with Dillon Square Deal.

No issues other than my innate feelings of "dirty brass" that I developed from loading precision rifle.

Good luck

 

[tominboise]

I deprime all my brass on a single stage press with a universal decapper. I then wet tumble and go from there. It could be a bit onerous to do this for 500 at one shot (I do them sort of on a continuing basis, as I shoot them up. When I get enough worth tumbling, I tumble). Anyway, for your 500, I'd wet tumble with the primers in and then reload them, without worrying about cleaning the primer pockets. I've reloaded thousands of pistol rounds without cleaning the primer pocket and everything went bang.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

^this. Dont worry about that primer pocket

 

[JohnW...ski]

It doesn't matter but if you are going through the effort why not clean the pocket as well? On the other hand I have loaded and shot tens of thousands of rounds without tumbling or even cleaning the primer pockets. Your choice.
John

 

[jr600yd]

#4 ^^^^^

 

[ballisticdaddy]

I sonic clean my brass with primers intact and then load on my 550 with zero issues

 

[TrekUS]

Thanks for the support/guidance... helpful!

 

[powderbrake]

#4
I generally do in lots of 500 or 1000. I tumble in either a home built 5 gallon rotary tumbler or a Midway vibratory tumbler ( takes several batches to get them all done) with medium sized corn cob, using Dillon's Rapid polish.
Then I run them through a Dillon 500.
This goes for 38 spl, 357, 45, 40 , 44 spl, 44 Mag, 9mm

 

[skeeljc]

For pistol brass I prefer first cleaning in a vibratory cleaner with corn cob media and a little Brasso or Iosso brass polish. Leave the primers in. Then load on my Dillon. Cleaning the primer pockets is just a waste of time.

Wet cleaning takes too much time and actually gets the cases too clean which can cause the expander to stick in the case. Leaving a little carbon on the inside of the case is a good thing!

 

[jepp2]

For pistol brass I prefer first cleaning in a vibratory cleaner with corn cob media and a little Brasso or Iosso brass polish. Leave the primers in. Then load on my Dillon. Cleaning the primer pockets is just a waste of time.

Wet cleaning takes too much time and actually gets the cases too clean which can cause the expander to stick in the case. Leaving a little carbon on the inside of the case is a good thing!

My experience is similar to this.

One thing to keep in mind, if you wet tumble with the primer in place, the primer pocket contains water and doesn't dry easily. When you deprime, the "gunk" will be wet and there will be a small amount of residual moisture you are seating the new primer into.

 

[Oso]

I like to keep my equipment clean, especially a progressive style press. Before I do anything, all brass goes in the wet tumbler (pistol brass 25 minutes / rifle brass 45 minutes), spin it in separator, and then let it dry completely (a couple of days under a fan or some sun). Now the brass is clean enough to process and you can decide whether or not to clean primer pockets is critical to your shooting/reloading.

I resize the rifle brass and then give it a second quick wet tumble if it is going to be loaded for a special rifle, which cleans out the primer pockets and any residual burs from case trimming. Whereas, loading bulk AR and pistol ammo I don't care so much about shiny primer pockets.

Edit: I usually hold off to do batches of 2000 pieces or more at a time. I'll combine 300BO, 38SPL/357, and 9mm together in tumbler since they all have approx. same neck so no cases get stuck together. The pre-wash isn't such a big deal in this case.

 

[Twicepop]

Unless it's really filthy range brass, I run it through the sizer die to remove the primers and have a clean primer pocket when I reload them.

 

[archerforkids]

The Lee APP press makes really really short work out of depriming. I spent a little extra and bought their collator and tubes. It holds close to 100 rounds of 9mm if I remember correctly. You can keep dropping brass into the top while your depriming also so you don't have to stop depriming once you start.

 

[LVLAaron]

I deprime before wet tumbling... Makes it a lot easier to get all of the pins and water out - and the brass dries a lot faster.

 

[pirate ammo]

I'm like @archerforkids got me a Lee APP and put the 4 tube case feed for a Loadmaster on it. With a
universal depriming die it works great, put a bucket under it and let them fall.

 

[Bill K]

I deprime before tumbling, etc. I like to clean the open primer pockets at the same time. Might be just me, but that is how I have done it for over 65 years.

 

[JMayo]

I'd wipe em off and load up.
Next time clean em.

 

[Timberyote]

I don't waste my time removing the primers before cleaning.

IF you are a bullseye shooter, you may see a difference at 50 yds. I didn't when I shot PPC.

 

[stork]

First, it's not going to hurt anything. So, if you like em clean, go ahead & clean.
Second: I won't waste my time doing it. I've shot somewhere north of 100,000 rds of mainly 45acp (85,000+), but also 38, 9mm & 41 mag in the last 20 years. I've yet to clean a primer pocket. All 3 of my bullseye guns will hold well under 2" at 50 yards with 1 hovering around an inch for 10 shot groups, and dirty primer pockets.