Decapping

[drewh]

Primal Rights did a videos on Order of Operations and also impact on bullet seating force (see below). His standard process is Anneal before tumbling. The tumbling removed any impurities that migrate into case neck that result from annealing process. As memory served his standard seating force was 35-40 lbs.

However, when he tumbled first and then annealed the amount of bullet seating force tripled (120 lbs).

I prefer annealing before tumbling due to that. The annealing makes the surface of the brass less smooth and tumbling cleans that back up. I Decap separately and first. I have a dedicated old lee press and recommend the Might Armory Shorty Bull decappers, due to them having a dedicated 17-20 cal rod that is really strong enough to take care of them all.

 

[Oso]

Agree - Anneal first and then clean.

I have both the Mighty Armor and the FW Arms decapping dies. I prefer the FW Arms because it has ability to self-centers the case before decapping. Aside from this minor distinction, both dies work identically and are extremely reliable knocking out tough spent primers.

It looks like Dillon has bought FW Arms’ decapping die design. This is a huge improvement/upgrade to Dillons die offerings for their progressive presses.

 

[Shooter13]

Yea, I am fairing good with no dings with mine but I'm waiting on chamfering & deburring til after I clean them and of course looking at the flash holes. Sometimes finding a pin in there but not often.

Even if we tumble you will get some of the media in the flash hole!!

 

[K22]

My only purpose for de-capping fired cases is so I can get a fired case head space size before F/L sizing.