Newbie tumbling mistake....

[doobie]

I decided to tumble my brass before sorting. I had a variety of brass, 9mm, 357sig, 40, 45... well now I have a lot of 40/9/40 sandwiches... *sigh* Lots stuck together, annoying. I guess that is why you sort before tumbling, eh?

 

[Fixxah]

Yup. Even after sorting you may find a stray inside another. This will likely be found during decapping.

 

[center442]

Yup. Even after sorting you may find a stray inside another. This will likely be found during decapping.

Very true! If you don't have spare decapping pins for your dies, order some now. Trust me, they won't go to waste.

BTW, Lyman used to sell some brightly colored plastic mesh bags for tumbling. You could put each caliber in its own bag(s) and then throw them all in the tumbler together. I use them once in a while when I have brass that I want to tumble but that I want to keep separate, like .223 brass that I've sorted by headstamp.

I think of them as fishnet stockings for the reloading room.

 

[Patriot]

I decided to tumble my brass before sorting. I had a variety of brass, 9mm, 357sig, 40, 45... well now I have a lot of 40/9/40 sandwiches... *sigh* Lots stuck together, annoying. I guess that is why you sort before tumbling, eh?

Put your brass in a plastic bag and shake it violently. It will separate most of the brass
and a simple inspection will reveal the remainder of the stuck brass. Go for a second pass
with just the brass that is still a sandwich and you will be fine. I inspect and sort my brass
and still occasionally find a 22/9mm/40 case stuck inside another. Not a big deal.

 

[Finalygotabeltfed]

Good thing about it is, you'll only do it once in your life.

 

[vellnueve]

Always, always, always sort first...

Look on the bright side. You can't possibly load those, so there's no chance that your mistake will result in a kB.

 

[The Goose]

Lol! Welcome to the club. I did it before.....once.

 

[JimB]

there are plastic sorting trays available for the most common calibers.

JimB

 

[TonyDedo]

there are plastic sorting trays available for the most common calibers.

JimB

+1

I have ten 100 round boxes for each caliber I reload. I reload in batches of 500 and 1,000 rounds. I fill the boxes with empty brass, headstamp up, before I dump them into the tumbler - it allows me to examine the brass and check for damage, sort headstamps if necessary, and keep count. It also makes it easy to catch potentially costly mistakes like brass inside of brass or 9mm mixed in with your .40S&W.

After that the brass goes into the tumbler, then into tupperware to be lubed and stored until I’m ready to reload. Then it goes straight into the casefeeder.

If you don’t want to buy the boxes, you can also use the plastic trays that come with factory ammo. There are always a ton of them in the trash at the local ranges.

 

[Executive]

http://northeastshooters.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=18874

Been there, done that.


Chris