What it is brass prep and why is it important? Brass preparation is an important step in ensuring that you are reloading ammunition safely. Some of the tasks seem trivial and small, but they are each a step in a series of tasks that must be completed to reload properly.

Steps in sorting brass:

Step 1 : Sort!

Tools needed: 5 Gallon bucket, sorting grates. You can view a variety of sorting grates at Shell Sorter.com.

The first step in brass prep is sorting your brass, this is pretty straightforward, if you are doing anything more than the occasional reloading session of 100-200 rounds, you’re going to want to get a set of brass sorters. The most effective ones are a set of 3 plastic grates that sit like a lid on top of a 5 gallon bucket, the first grate catches .45 to .308, the second catches .40 and .38/.357, and the third catches 9mm and .223/5.56mm, anything smaller will fall through, like rocks/sand and .22LR cases. You simply put your unsorted brass into the first grate, and shake the crap out of it.

However, if you have a large amount of any calibre, you’ll want to watch how much you put in, as it can get to be too much for one grate to retain and let the smaller cases pass through – basically just don’t overload it. This is also the step where you want to look closely at the brass. You’re looking for things like split cases, case-head separation, blown primer pockets and signs of too much pressure. These are concerns for range brass or brass whose origin is not known. It is also a reason to buy brass from a known source, like Capital Cartridge.

Step 2: Sizing the brass

Tools needed: Case Lube, sizing dies, etc.

This next step depends on what type of reloader you’re going to use, as well as the caliber, if you’re loading 9mm on a progressive reloading press, you can skip this step for now. However, if you’re loading on a single stage press, you will need to lube the brass and size it. This can be done in a variety of ways, but the important part is getting lube on the inside of the cases mouth for rifle, as the sizing die re-sizes the neck of the case. One method for standing up rifle cartridge cases to be lubed is to take a block of wood, like a 2×12, and drill a series of case-sized holes into it, you then put the cases in, and lift up the block, leaving the cases standing up, and ready to be sprayed.

Then spray your brass with case lube and run them through the sizing die. Some lubes require you to let the brass stand a certain period of time once sprayed, so read the directions! And of course, the sizing die should be set to the manufacturer’s specifications. What you accomplish in this step is to size down the neck of rifle brass and the decapping pin pops the spent primer out. And remember to check the die in the press, if you’re running a single stage press.

You want to watch for things like the die loosening up in the press. It’s a painful mistake to have the die loosen and then need to re-size brass. Other things to watch for are marks on the case necks on rifle brass or rims that are damaged – you’ll develop and eye for odd-looking brass and start culling any that isn’t good. Again, this is something to watch for in range brass. If you’ve bought once-fired brass from a known source, odds of running into problem brass are much lower.

Step 3: Trimming

Tools needed: Case trimmer, chamfering & deburring tool

When you size brass, what you accomplished is reforming the brass to the correct shape, but doing so elongated the case slightly, this usually isn’t a problem with straight necked brass, but for cases like .223, you will need to trim it back to spec. There are two ways to do this, by hand, or with an electric case trimmer.

Which one you want to use is determined by your budget, the amount of time you have, and quantity of cases you need to trim. Triming involves cutting the cases to length and chamfering and deburring the case mouth. A hand trimmer is an option. You’ll then need a deburring tool. If you have a lot of brass to trim, investing in an electronic case trimmer like Giraud is worth it’s weight in gold! If you are interested in purchasing these products or learning more we recommend to go to RCBS.com.

Step 4: Tumbling or Washing

Tools needed: tumbler, medium, and a few 5 gallon bucket

• Wet Tumble
• Dry Tumbler

The next step is to clean your brass, and there are two general types of tumblers; wet and dry. There are pros and cons to each. Wet tumbling uses steel pins as the media, gives you the best looking brass possible, but takes more processing work. Dry tumbling uses a dry media like ground corn cob, gives you a fairly clean case, and doesn’t have as much processing work.

Regardless of the which you choose, you will need to add your brass, media, and cleaning additive into the tumbler, let it run for an hour or more, depending on the instructions, then when it’s done, separate the brass and media. It’s important with steel pins to ensure that no pins remain in the cases when you’re done, this is usually done with two buckets, hand sorting the cases and visually checking each one.

If you are a beginner reloader and need to get started. RCBS.com is the best place to get all your reloading equipment.

Step 5: Decrimping Primer Pockets
Tools needed: Primer pocket swaging tool

If any of your brass is military brass, it is likely it has a crimped primer pocket, this is done to ensure the primers to not fall out and ensure long term storage. But what does that mean for the reloader? You will need a swaging tool to remove the crimp around the primer pocket.. Some progressive reloaders have this as a stop in the press, but if you’re loading on a single stage, it will need to be done separately. This is one of the steps that requires attention to detail.

You must not make your primer pockets too large or fail to remove the crimp…so studying the brass you’re working with is important, as is selecting the proper tools. A swaging tool or hand reamer both have some margin of error, however a swaging tool once set up, can be much faster than a reemer.

Next time we will start from here and talk about what else needs to be done to get your brass completely ready for reloading.

If you already know what type of brass you enjoy reloading. Visit Capital Cartridge today. We sort through aprx 200,000lbs months of reloadable brass of core calibers and rare calibers. We offer retail sizes of 25 to full truckloads of reloadable brass. Where are you buying your brass?