I'm quite the brass whore and in going through my brass after this shooting season, I have enough Blazer brass which has the small primer pocket. I just used small pistol primers, is there a better option and can I expect a noticeable difference in performance?

I never saw a difference.

Well thanks, that's comforting since I loaded up about 500 pieces of brass with the small pistol primers.

Interesting article and posted comparisons with same bullet and powder only difference was primer size. Basically no difference.

http://www.shootingtimes.com/a...stol-primers-45-acp/

I simply pitch small primer acp. Saving the small primers for 357/38 etc. Just not worth dealing with 2 difference cases for the ACP

I keep a coffee can for it. When I get enough to make a batch I'll run it. You shouldn't have any problems with it or the small pistol primers.

quote:

Originally posted by ramrod340:
Interesting article and posted comparisons with same bullet and powder only difference was primer size. Basically no difference.

http://www.shootingtimes.com/a...stol-primers-45-acp/

I simply pitch small primer acp. Saving the small primers for 357/38 etc. Just not worth dealing with 2 difference cases for the ACP

Interesting article, thanks. Even though I have a progressive press, I hand load primers with the RCBS APS priming tool. I find that it is so sensitive to the touch of inserting a primer, the small primer holes show up way before any catastrophe can occur. Since I'm retired now and have plenty of time I also tumble brass in water with Dawn Dish Soap with steel pins after depriming; my brass looks better than new when I start loading. Trying the brass is simple, I put the shells in a colander and place it over the heat register on the floor. Over night and they are perfectly dry and shine like the sun inside, outside and primer pockets.

PeeShooter-

That is stunningly pretty brass. I have a request below.

Normally, I keep my number of reloading marked on the casehead by felttip marking one letter from the cartridge name on the casehead for each former firing. In that way, I keep records about how many times a case has been fired, and I would lose that record if making the brass beautiful. However, when I load up for Africa, the brass is pretty much a one-way trip and shiney new-looking brass would raise fewer questions than old multi-reloaded brass (actually, this has only been questioned once). And shiney brass is easier to reload if needing to reweigh a case because of spilled powder.

So--
What is your prodcedure and recipe?

How and with what do you tumble?

what concentration liquids?

trim and chamfer before or after tumbling?

thanks

quote:

Originally posted by 416Tanzan:
PeeShooter-

That is stunningly pretty brass. I have a request below.

Normally, I keep my number of reloading marked on the casehead by felttip marking one letter from the cartridge name on the casehead for each former firing. In that way, I keep records about how many times a case has been fired, and I would lose that record if making the brass beautiful. However, when I load up for Africa, the brass is pretty much a one-way trip and shiney new-looking brass would raise fewer questions than old multi-reloaded brass (actually, this has only been questioned once). And shiney brass is easier to reload if needing to reweigh a case because of spilled powder.

So--
What is your prodcedure and recipe?

How and with what do you tumble?

what concentration liquids?

trim and chamfer before or after tumbling?

thanks

Well this is the tumbler http://www.midwayusa.com/produ...ase-tumbler-110-volt the lid bolts down encasing the contents in rubber. I just use hot water that covers the brass well and a 3 second squeeze of Dawn Dish Washing Liquid to do the washing with the scrubbing aid of steel pins http://www.midwayusa.com/produ...-steel-pins-5-lb-bag After tumbling which I do for 1 1/2 hours timed by a switch you'd use to turn lights off and on in your home when you're away. When tumbling is complete, I dump the contents into a media separator http://www.midwayusa.com/produ...-media-separator-kit fill the bucket with clean water over the dirty and tumble 20 or 30 revolutions to get as many pins out of the brass as possible. then I take the cage off, set it on top of the tumblers container to catch drips and any media that might still be there,carefully dump the water out leaving the media and repeat the rinse with clean water t make sure all the pins are out; another 20 or 30 revolutions. Empty the brass into a colander to put next to a heated air source, like over a heating register and dump the water out again carefully not to let media follow the water. To finish the media/water separation if you're not going to tumble another batch you dump the remaining water with the media in a colander with a piece of cloth to catch the media then dump the media back into the tumblers drum till next time, I usually leave the top off for the media to completely dry if I'm not going to tumble again for a long time. The brass will dry looking just like in the picture then I do all my case preparations. This process does remove permanent marker and will make the nastiest piece of dirty brass picked up look just as good.

Great looking brass. To bad my tumbler is the wrong style.

Do you resize as you deprime, or just deprime?

quote:

Originally posted by 416Tanzan:
Do you resize as you deprime, or just deprime?

Just deprime.

Thanks. that leads to a followup question.

With the brass squeaky clean, does it need less or more case lube for resizing?

Have you tried resizing before cleaning, so that the cleaning process can help remove remaining lube?

quote:

Originally posted by 416Tanzan:
Thanks. that leads to a followup question.

With the brass squeaky clean, does it need less or more case lube for resizing?

Have you tried resizing before cleaning, so that the cleaning process can help remove remaining lube?

That's a thought but I use a light coat of Hornady One Shot which ends up a dry lubricant and protects the brass in storage. I just might try your idea though for my 9's and 223's but what I'm doing works great anyway.

I've always worked toward getting rid of lub on my rounds. One standard warning in the past has been not to shoot lubed ammunition.

For me the issue is acute because I regularly shoot loads that are 6000 ftlbs, like a handloaded 416Rigby to modern pressures (60k). Even tame loads like 338WM at 3900-4000 ftlbs probably provide decent bolt thrust. The idea of extra lube on those rounds is not appealing.

quote:

Originally posted by 416Tanzan:
I've always worked toward getting rid of lub on my rounds. One standard warning in the past has been not to shoot lubed ammunition.

For me the issue is acute because I regularly shoot loads that are 6000 ftlbs, like a handloaded 416Rigby to modern pressures (60k). Even tame loads like 338WM at 3900-4000 ftlbs probably provide decent bolt thrust. The idea of extra lube on those rounds is not appealing.

OK I want to learn; what about lube on a round being fired is not appealing? Does it cause harm or what?

quote:

Originally posted by 416Tanzan:
I've always worked toward getting rid of lub on my rounds. One standard warning in the past has been not to shoot lubed ammunition.

For me the issue is acute because I regularly shoot loads that are 6000 ftlbs, like a handloaded 416Rigby to modern pressures (60k). Even tame loads like 338WM at 3900-4000 ftlbs probably provide decent bolt thrust. The idea of extra lube on those rounds is not appealing.

OK I want to learn, what about a round being fired that has lube on the shell is unappealing? does it do damage somehow or what?

Lube on a cartridge causes less hold and friction on the chamber wall and increases bolt thrust. Apparently, the military and others have had occasional mishaps, and therefore warn against lubing ammo that will be fired.

So when shooting loads with over 100grains of powder and generating 6000 ftlbs of energy I was using "unappealing" as a metaphor, tongue-in-cheek for "(significantly) increasing risk of firearm damage."

Here is a report:
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.c...your-chamber-is-bad/

quote:

Originally posted by 416Tanzan:
Lube on a cartridge causes less hold and friction on the chamber wall and increases bolt thrust. Apparently, the military and others have had occasional mishaps, and therefore warn against lubing ammo that will be fired.

So when shooting loads with over 100grains of powder and generating 6000 ftlbs of energy I was using "unappealing" as a metaphor, tongue-in-cheek for "(significantly) increasing risk of firearm damage."

Here is a report:
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.c...your-chamber-is-bad/

Well I'll be damned...see even after reloading for more than 40 years you can still learn something...though loading shells with a shoulder is something I just started doing mid 2015 so I'll be changing my ways. Thanks for the information.

If you try a batch of resized brass soon, let me know how they turn out (post on this thread, to which I'm subscribed). I will assume that the necks and mouths will remain usable "as is" and can go directly to trim and chamfer, without resizing anything.

quote:

Originally posted by 416Tanzan:
If you try a batch of resized brass soon, let me know how they turn out (post on this thread, to which I'm subscribed). I will assume that the necks and mouths will remain usable "as is" and can go directly to trim and chamfer, without resizing anything.

I'll post my results but dont hold your breath since I have all my brass for the year prepared and winter is loading season. Next time I have brass available though I'll definitely change and see what happens and post the results. Again I want to thank you for the information it makes sense.