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Old November 27, 2007, 10:27 PM   #1
billindenver
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newby reloader has a question

So tonight I put my new rock chucker supreme kit to some use. I pulled the .30-06 shells out of the tumbler, washed them in hot water and wiped the rest of the red dust off of the exterior of the cases. After wiping each case down I set it upside down in an ammo storage box to dry. So, that was fun...why not decap them now as well. So, I rolled thema cross the lube pad and decapped each of them. That was so much fun, the next thing I knew I had the priming tool in my hand and presto they all have primers...big fun. BUT...they didn't sit over night to dry from the washing. Makes me wonder if there was any water sitting in the primer pocket, and if so...will it ruin the primer?

Do I need to remove the primers from those 50 cases?

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Old November 27, 2007, 10:39 PM   #2
Silentarmy
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The moisture may kill your primers. I have been loading for 14 yrs and my brass NEVER gets wet! Use Corn cob instead of the walnut to clean your cases. The red Polish (jewelers rouge) in the Walnut media from Lyman will destroy your dies as it is abrasive as hell! Corn cob will polish better and does not leave the abrasive mess. Untreated fine is the best with a little NU finish polish added to it or Berry's Brass Bright. My brass customers have left some interesting feedback on gunbroker regarding how bright my brass is and several have purchased the Berry's product from me after receiving some of my once fired brass. There is no need to wash cases if you don't use harsh abrasives in your media. I would not charge and seat those rounds as they may end up Duds. I know you may have read about guys using Simple Green or barkeepers friend etc. to wash their brass but if you have a tumbler, there is just no good reason to get it wet. If you insist on washing your brass, dry it in the oven on a cookie sheet for an hr @200 degrees to ensure it is dry.
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Old November 27, 2007, 10:42 PM   #3
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Quote:
The red Polish (jewelers rouge) in the Walnut media from Lyman will destroy your dies as it is abrasive as hell!
If you go to Petsmart or a similar store, you can buy walnut shells for 1/4 the price of "reloading media" and it's untreated.
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Old November 27, 2007, 11:21 PM   #4
billindenver
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Ok, I'll deprime them and put new primers in. I'll toss the red stuff and get some corn cob or look at petsmart for ludwig's magic shells.

So, after the corn cob tumbler...just wipe off the cases, brush the inside of the neck and proceed? Sorry, kinda basic questions I'm sure but I'm kind of a basic guy. Speer's manual never really gives a step by step procedure.

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Old November 28, 2007, 08:17 AM   #5
Martyn4802
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If you got your cases wet inside, the primers will be suspect as the water can kill them.
For drying cases that had water inside them, you can dry the insides by placing the cases, deprimed, on a cookie sheet in the over with the temperate set at 200degress for a couple of hours.

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Old November 28, 2007, 12:09 PM   #6
snuffy
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The red Polish (jewelers rouge) in the Walnut media from Lyman will destroy your dies as it is abrasive as hell!
I disagree---strongly! The abrasive jewelers rouge that's on the walnut he was using is a very mild abrasive. It's only capable of cutting/polishing BRASS!. It won't do a thing to steel, it's too soft. Same goes for the abrasive that's in the Berry's brass bright. Or FA tumbler additive from midway.

People see the word ABRASIVE, they think it's all made of diamond dust. There's many different grades of abrasive, they're not all the same hardness or particle size,(grade). Do you think that a manufacturer of brass tumbling media would put an abrasive on their product that's capable of harming dies, or for that matter gun barrels? Some of that rouge stayed on the inside of the cases. Where it COULD follow a bullet down the barrel. The next bullet could/would run it down the bore dulling the rifling.

Oh, while water will de-activate primers while it remains wet, once those primers dry out they will be good to use. Being as how the water trapped in the primer pocket and flash hole will take a very long time to dry out, it's a much better idea to get them out of the pockets so the cases can dry out completley.
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Old November 28, 2007, 03:20 PM   #7
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snuffy nailed it. Red rouge will no touch steel.
I've worked with all of the rouges since 1980 making knives.

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Old November 28, 2007, 03:45 PM   #8
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Back in the days before vibratory tumblers, I used to use a rock polisher to clean my brass. Water, soap and tumbling compound would brighten up the brass pretty well. Then it had to be rinsed and dried neck down in loading blocks for at least 24 hours before loading.

Now I have a vibratory case cleaner. When I take the cases out of the tumbler I just rub them between two rags to remove the tumbling compound. No washing needed.

As far as water killing the primers, yes it can cause a few problems, but you are putting very dry powder into the case also, and it may draw the water out of the primers after a bit of time. Biggest problem if you load them would be that the water is still trapped inside a sealed case and ahs nowhere to go, so it sits in there and affects everything in the case. I would decap them and reprime them. After all, it's only a few bucks worth of primers, but if you load the cases, it becomese several dollars of primers, powder and bullets.
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