Ep. 234 | Brass Prep for Reloading
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- čas přidán 10. 07. 2024
- Brass prep is big part of the reloading process. Scott Parks and Tucker Schmidt talk through their methodology and the tools they use to get their brass clean and ready for reloading. Tune in to get tuned up on brass prep!
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Johnny's Reloading Bench is what made me get into reloading!!
Absolutely. Me too!! Highly recommend
"Actually Tucker, I haven't heard about reloading cereal." 🤣
I always tumble my cases first before anything else so grime doesn't erode my dies. Great pod cast!
This. /\ Grit will damage steel dies.
Most do. He’s an idiot. Example of why you don’t listen to random people on the webs.
I know my comment is a little late, but if you get a universal decapping die then it doesn't resize or anything. You decap everything, then clean it without primers so that it cleans in the pockets, then resize it later after it's all cleaned. That's what I do.
Eric Cortina demonstrates a way to adjust a sizing die by measuring from the end of the die to the lock ring to help gauge adjustments when setting up a sizing die. Works very well and utilizes a standard function of calipers
As far as case cleaning goes, I tumble all my brass in walnut media (lizard litter bought at a pet store) treated with NU-Finish polish and a quarter cup of odorless mineral spirits. Once the walnut is run in the tumbler for about a half hour the walnut is ready to clean brass. It takes 2 hours to clean a load of brass. The walnut media lasts 6-8 months of almost daily use. One thing of note is, the more brass that goes into the tumbler the better it cleans. The brass pushes itself along and forces itself against the media. Dumping 50 cases in the tumbler will take a lot longer to clean than 300 cases will. A half of a used drier sheet will also collect a lot of the dust and grime keeping the media cleaner for a longer time. I run 3 tumblers to clean a lot of range brass. I identify 5.56 brass as once fired only if it has crimped primer pockets. With rifle brass I clean, lube, size & decap, run 20 minutes in the tumbler to remove the lube, decrimp the primer pockets, trim, chamfer, sort by headstamp, and load. I usually hang on to the primed brass until I have at least 500 of a headstamp to load in a single lot. I find different brands of 5.56 brass grow at different rates so I keep all of them sorted that way. I will anneal them before the get trimmed again. I will trim cases again usually after the 3rd firing but some quality cases can go 5 or 6 firings without it. A certain well known name brand of brass is usually discarded after 5 reloads due to poor primer retention. Any range brass that looks to have been fired more than twice gets cut down to 300 blackout or goes into the scrap bucket. For other rifle loads I do small quantities with more attention to the little details.
Stainless steel pins in a tumbler with Lemi-shine. The brass comes out looking like factory brass.
I love that recipe!
-1/2 tbsp dish soap
-1/8 tsp lemishine
-hot water 1-2 inches above the brass
Tumble for 1.5 hours.
I tried it with just the dish soap yesterday, and it came out looking almost as good. I don't actually plan on using Lemishine moving forward.
It does, but honestly I started off with wet tumbling with the same recipe, but as of 8 months ago I switched to vibratory tumbling with rice and I’ll never go back to wet tumbling with my precision ammo. A lot more consistent seating pressures with tumbling with rice and the case mouths don’t get dinged up. 3hours to tumble clean and then after sizing I tumble for 15 minutes to remove the sizing wax.
blow the cases out with compressed air after trimming or tumbling to get the debris out.
Since all the comments are talking about it, here's that Lemishine recipe!
-1/2 tbsp dish soap
-1/8 tsp lemishine
-hot water 1-2 inches above the brass
Tumble for 1.5 hours.
I tried it with just the dish soap yesterday, and it came out looking almost as good. I don't actually plan on using Lemishine moving forward. I also toss the SS media in a dish-cloth and put it at the top of my dryer (an old food dehydrator) and it dries it all out quite nicely.
I use armorall wash n wax instead of dish soap. Seems to help keep the brass from getting water marks or patina.
When you have hard Water you need Lemishine with soft water it isnt nesecary
I really don't clean brass like most do. For bottleneck rifle calibers I've always just decapped, sonic cleaned, then after it's dry ill use unique wax lube and size it, then measure it and trim if necessary, chamfer if I trim it, wipe off the lube, prime and load.
This was a great pod cast. Love hearing their stories. Lol.
My Process is Decapping, wet Tumble, Lube and Sizeing, Trimm if nessacary, Champer and Debur then Dry Tumble to get the Lube and Brass Shavings out of the Cases and then Load
Second tumble ain’t a bad plan, might add that to my routine
@@509Gman the first Cleaning is to not have the dirt in your dies the second is to get the lube from the cases at first wet tumble with stainless the second with very fine walnut that doesnt even has a chance to Stick in your flashholes / the Hole Carbon and lead are gone after the wet tumbling it is only for lube and brass shavings it works Great for me so i Stick with my process
This was a funny episode.
Reloading is like buying a scope it can be done at many different price ranges. The higher level of accuracy you want the more you spend. Don't forget to include your family in the process. Passing on the information and love of Reloading and shooting is priceless.
you dont need to spend large sums to get really accurate rifle ammo, especially in brass prep. A standard FL sizing die will size brass as consistently as a "match grade" sizing die. Cleaning primer pockets isnt necessary. Trimming can be accomplished fairly cheaply, usually less than $200 for an entire trim/debur/chamfer setup. A good tumbling setup is around $200, you just have to pick wet or dry tumbling. Spending anymore than that on brass prep is completely unnecessary.
Great episode! 6.5 guys have a video on the lanolin and 99% isopropyl alcohol mix. That's what I use. Never have had a stuck case.
same.....easy peezy
Great podcast!! I geek out on reloading podcast and CZcams’s. I found you guys very entertaining!
Excellent @JRB shoutout. Thoroughly entertaining and educational channel
Great podcast. Basically fits my setup with a few personal tweaks. I decap then resize (neck) then trim if needed. Then I wet tumble in little stainless chips not pins (smaller). After that, they go into some corn cob media that has carnuba wax in it. 30 min or so and they are dry and slick. Then a double check and reload.
Sounds like you've got a good system going! 👍
Always a good show. Keep it up
8mm mauser train still chuggin
Great episode. Much better than the rust episode.
Sitting at the bench reloading 224 Valkyrie tonight love the pod cast guys keep them coming....
Thanks for tuning in, David!
Banger! 💜
Thanks for tuning in, Adam!
THIS is the way - ...pickup..sort...decap...wash (stainless steel media dawn +lemi shine 1h) ..size ...trim..chamfer debur...(then swage clean primer pocket neck brush whatever else is needed)...inspect...charge...seat...bang .......hornady one shot as lube have never needed a 2nd wash
The biggest screw up i made when reloading was when i purchased 5 kg of once fired .308 brass from a wholesaler for $200.00. I checked the bottoms of the casings for the calibre and they were all .308 calibre but different brands,measured the overall length and they checked out ok,measured the width against my action and checked out ok,but i didn't measure the case thickness of the brass-it turned out to be military brass so the .05 mm difference meant they wouldn't chamber in my howa 1500 .308 ! Luckily i only reloaded 50 rounds when i thought i should chamber a round to see how they load,thats when i realised the brass was too thick as it would not chamber. I ended up getting my money back and told the guy its all military brass,it wont fit in civilian firearms that are .308. Probably came out of a .308 belt fed machine gun ? Lesson learnt-only buy brass from gun shops.
I've had a lot of luck using a dry silicone spray for resizing. I use industrial grade spray that I was given when I worked at Dupont. 😎
Great podcast guys. Scott's a brave man trying that powder in the big gun after that 243 AI incident.
Thanks for tuning in! 👊
I just got mentioned on the podcast
The art and science of reloading...seems in the end. The reloader needs to find what works best for him. Thanks for the perspective on what works for you fellas.
STUCK CASE - Soak it in KROIL. Will come out quite easy.
I use a Harley decapping tool. Nothing dirty gets near my press or dies.
So when in the cleaning process do you deprime?
Easy fix is plug your tumbler into on of those cheap outlet timers
Very Curious what the powder was that Scott was talking about. I had the same thing happen in a 243. Non AI in my case though. Very low charge and I couldn’t get the bolt open after I fired it. Had to take the gun to a smith to get the case out.
You guys have made a few videos about reloading, but it has mostly been rifle reloading. Have you ever thought about doing a podcast on reloading shotgun shells?
Send in the 6.5 BC to AMP and they will do some analysis/testing to give you the correct pilot needed. They will probably have to machine a custom one that is made.
If you want precision loaded ammo a Mandrel is the way to go hands down. The extra step is not a big deal IF you enjoy reloading if not just buy factory ammo if you don’t do all the steps for precision ammo factory ammo will be just as accurate.
Decap, wet tumble, anneal, size then expander mandrel, trim, chamfer, debur then prime
so I have read the comments (so far ) and I'm the only one who puts on the Walter White underwear and apron and only reloads in the dark by the light of a full moon ?
I only put on nitrile gloves when dealing with bare lead, but I wash my hands like Monk after every session.
oh man, still waiting on the podcast about bullet casting vs swaging
Noted! We'll see what we can do to make that happen!
If my brass didn’t fall into the dirt:
1. anneal
2. Lube and Full-Length Resize/ decap
3. Wet tumble with Dawn and LemiShine w SS pins
4. Dehydrate / dry brass.
5. Trim/ chamfer/ debur
6. Prime
7. Powder charge
8. Seat bullet
the AMP pilots have different heights for the specific cartridge, not just internal diameter
Scott try Southern Shine media instead of SS pins.
If you're picking up brass, you KNOW for a fact, that it's never been fired more than 2 times. It would of been picked up if someone reloaded, if they don't reload they buy once or twice fired rounds only.
I really want a friend that reloads (so I don't have to).
I started wet tumble without media. Seems to work.
Ryan I don’t know how to pronounce his last name should be involved in every podcast !! Love the podcast though
Ryan Muckenhirn is an encyclopedia of knowledge.
I agree
I just scored a new box of 6.5cm Alpha Brass. Guy didn't realize he ordered SRP brass. And he has no SRP's. SCORE!!!!
This could have been 10 minutes 😂
The interruptions are killing me man c’mon
Clean it last? Rather twice
Totally disagree with the order