Anyone Else NOT Tumble Rifle Brass?

1
Hi Folks,

Recently I found a few split necks on some of my older .30 caliber brass. I realized it had been a while since I annealed it, so I've just begun annealing each time I handload. This is not so much for precision as it is to extend brass life. I neck/partial resize, and I've not had one case head separation. I've had a few where I thought I was beginning to feel a groove and tossed them just-in-case, but they'd been loaded well over 10 times and in all honesty were probably OK. I cut a couple open and saw nothing that would indicate incipient case head separation.

Anyway, I hold the case with my bare fingers so I know if the bottom starts getting warm. I rotate the case 180 degrees and back, and by that time the flame just starts to change color and I toss the case into water. (Some say a flame that changes color is too much, but I tend to think that's when folks run the flame a few seconds after the color change. Others like to heat the brass to cherry red, but I'm not comfortable with getting the base that hot.)

After the water I wipe down the outside and toss them into the oven at 150 degrees or so for about an hour. I pull them, neck size them, trim them, brush the insides, etc.

I can't find a reason or even a time to tumble these!

The handgun brass still gets tumbled, of course... but I'm wondering if anyone else does anything similar to what I'm doing?

Thanks,

Josh
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Re: Anyone Else NOT Tumble Rifle Brass?

3
I've only recently started re-loading bottle necked rifle brass on a regular basis so I have not done any annealing. I've never tumbled anything and have not ever felt the need too because my pistol loads have been great whether clean or filthy. I've read where you can place brass cases in a pan of water up to the area you want to anneal and heat the neck and then tip them over into the water but others say it is more complicated then that. My rifles are all bolt action plus I have a TC Contender in 222 rem that I am reloading for regularly and will consider learning how to anneal correctly in the future because I would like to prolong the life of the brass as much as I can. But as far as cleaning them I will stick to boiling them in water with citric acid when they are tarnished.
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Re: Anyone Else NOT Tumble Rifle Brass?

8
This is what I do.

I tumble then I lube/size and trim the brass on my Dillon 1200 trimmer, then I chaffer the inside of the case mouths with a motorized tool, then I tumble the lube off and load. I throw the brass away when it splits. Takes a long time for that to happen with Lake city I usually lose the brass first in 3 gun matches.
Pat

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