Casecleaner Grains in my Flashholes

[garyjackso]

Lord, thank you that THIS is my worst problem..........but:
I use Lyman medium in my Lyman vibrating case cleaner and about 50% of my cases come out with a grain stuck in the flashhole. I have to individually inspect and de-grain each case. Ideas??

[snooze]

Is the media not removed during the decapping/sizing step?

[DMZX]

Clean your cases before resizing and decapping.

[Bongo Boy]

They'll get punched out with little difficulty when you decap. If you're already decapped, I've not known too many folks to decap before tumbling, but if that's what you're doing, then run them through the decap station again (or decapper if you're doing it by hand). I don't know any other way.

I just went to ultrasonic and it does solve the problem--and the problem of having polishing rouge all over the brass--and the problem of not having clean primer pockets or clean case interiors.

This is your typical filthy brass with black primer pockets and black interiors, after 8 minutes in a $75 Harbor Freight ultrasonic tank. Rinsed in hot water and blown off with a hot air gun. No dust, particles, rouge and no need for further polish. I did 1,000 case one evening while reloading.

[Misssissippi Dave]

I use a fine 20/40 corncob from Granger. It is fine blast media. Works well. I also clean my brass with the primer still in the case. De-priming clears any media that might still be in there. I normally never find median in the case but a grain or two might still be inside the flash hole trapped between it and the primmer. It gets pushed out with the primer in any case. I'm only loading pistol ammo.

[Tim R]

only thin to do is pick the little buggers out.

[Lilswede1]

I use walnut media after depriming because it cleans out the primer pocket.
Wife was making fish n chips using a batter shaker with a top and bottom and a center piece with 1/2" holes.
Works great and u can put a collander in the bottom that has smaller holes to catch the rds. that fall thru the big holes.
The few chunks of media left in the flash hole I blow out with air but running them back thru the deprimer works well too.
If you shake them up hard enough in the contraption described above, there wont be very many that get media stuck in them.

[PA-Joe]

Have you recently added polishing to the media. If yes you have to let it run for a few hours without any cases. As noted you can also change to smaller size media.

[AllenJ]

I had the same problem when I got my first tumbler back in 198?. It came with corn cob media and over half the cases had a grain stuck in the flash hole. I used a punch slightly smaller than the flash hole to push them out. It did not take long before I got walnut media and have not had a problem since.

[hounddawg]

I used to use the lizard litter back when I dry tumbled, if never gave me any issues.

This is your typical filthy brass with black primer pockets and black interiors, after 8 minutes in a $75 Harbor Freight ultrasonic tank. Rinsed in hot water and blown off with a hot air gun. No dust, particles, rouge and no need for further polish. I did 1,000 case one evening while reloading.

look in wally world or equivalent for a mesh laundry bag Put the wet cases in that and hang it off the clothes dryer door, no clothes in it of course or it will tangle up with them. Someone posted that suggestion here a while back and I did a mega load of 1500 9mm's in about 2 hours start to finish a week or so back. I don't use a ultrasonic. Just soap , water and lemon juice in a 5 gallon bucket

[m&p45acp10+1]

I use fine walnut sand blasting media from Harbor Freight. It cleans the brass, and makes most of it shine fairly well. I do not do corn cob media. I do not care to have the super shine brass. Clean brass fills the needs I have.

If I want super shine I use my sonic cleaner. Though I have to wait for brass to dry with that method.

[jcwit]

I do as Mississippi Dave suggests. For that matter the primer flash will blow the media out with no ignition problems.

[m&p45acp10+1]

JC the primer flash will not always blow the grit out. I have had to clean the unburned powder out of my wife's rifle at the range. I did not check the flash holes on some cases that were given to me decapped, and tumbled in corn cob media. (did not know about the corn cob at the time. It came from a good friend that had some fired brass, that he sized, cleaned, and then gifted. There was enough pressure to unseat the bullet, bu not enough to light the powder. It was only that one. All the rest went bang. I found the corn cob media grain in the unburned powder.

[jcwit]

I suppose thats possible, but it is the first I've heard of the primer not blowing the media out. Anything is possible, it might have been a defective primer also, who knows.

Use this for media and the possibility of a problem will be non existent.

http://www.drillspot.com/products/49...bs_blast_media

[reynolds357]

For riflr, you tumble after you re-size. Cleaning corn cobb out of flash holes is just one of the joys of reloading. Tumbling before you re-size leaves case lube on your brass. I am too impatient to wipe it all down.
For pistol, just set the decapper a bit deeper.

[Edward429451]

Get used to it. It's just a necessary step if you like clean brass.

[Daggitt]

I check them and set aside those with a grain in the flashhole. I just poke them with a ball point pen. Probably not necessary. I don't like debris on my dies any more than necessary.

[rclark]

Clean your cases before resizing and decapping.

+1 ...

[tmd47762]

I just punch it out with a round toothpick. It's a good time to inspect your cases for other defects/damage as well.

[garyjackso]

Lots of good ideas.........thanks for the Food for Thought !!

[Unclenick]

I hope I'm not repeating someone, but didn't spot this on a quick read through:

If you decap before cleaning to help clean primer pockets (not normally required with pistol ammo, but I do it for rifle ammo), do this with a separate decapping die, like the Lee universal decapping die. The reason? You want the brass clean before you run it through your sizing die in order to protect the die. Even carbide rings can sometimes pick up some kinds of grit or metal flake, like nickel, that scratches the cases.

Having already decapped before cleaning, when you run the cleaned cases through the sizing die, the decapper in the sizing die will then push the media out of flash holes. It's unusual for that to fail. I've once broken a decapping pin on media because the pin got loose in its chuck and the media deflected the pin into the brass.

The alternative is to go through your brass with the unbent end of a paper clip while sitting in front of the TV watching reruns of McGiver.