I don't understand how tumbled/not-tumbled would make a difference there, but maybe your equipment is different than mine.

Static rifle shooting is like riding a bicycle, once you know how to do it it's pretty easy to stay reasonably sharp. Pistol doesn't work that way. Long-range precision rifle, shooting while moving, and presentation from the holster all require regular practice to stay sharp.



Ummm....no. When you're at the point where consistency of ammunition makes a big difference, you're well past the point where you need to practice to maintain the skill.

I am at the point with pistol shooting where a change in ammunition can be seen in change in point of impact, and it can make a difference when shooting at longer distances or a medium distance and smaller targets. Believe me I can tell when I haven't been practicing.

the skill level required to be "good" in USPSA today is outrageous...for whatever reason, I shot one of the worst matches of my life last Sunday... and I've been doing this for over 30 years...as far as number of rounds in practice... the first year I had my first Dillon 450 (pre 550)I was casting my own .45acp bullets... I cast, sized, lubed, loaded, and shot 34,000 rounds (I saved the end flaps of the 1000 primer cartons)

Pistol shooting particularly is a highly perishable skill.

I agree with that. I don't get near enough practice and I can see that a year ago when I was able to practice more I did better.

After tumbling some flash holes are blocked by a grain of the media. Some are jammed in fairly hard and increase the resistance for the pin which pushes the spent primer out. It may be overly cautious to avoid that. I handle the cases for inspection anyway so it´s no additional effort. I also hoped that tumbling might clean the primer pockets. It does not.

That makes sense. What I use in my tumbler comes from a pet store. It is crushed walnut shells that is intended to be cage litter for lizards. It is crushed finer than the walnut shell media you buy specifically for reloading. And cheaper too. The crushed shells are not large enough to jam in a primer hole. But even before I found this lizard litter to use as media, I never ran into a problem using regular sized crushed walnut from a reloading store. You are right, normal tumbler media (walnut shells, corn cob) will not do anything for cleaning out primer pockets if you de-prime first. Neither will the finer crushed lizard litter. Media tends to jam in the primer pockets and cause more trouble than it's are worth. However, with that finely crushed lizard litter I don't experience much of it getting stuck in the primer pockets. I would have to clean a small flake of it out of a primer pocket only one out of 30 or so cases.

I did lots of testing - primed, de-primed, walnut media, corncob media, ultrasonic (both primed and unprimed). My conclusion was that de-priming first serves no useful purpose (for me) and adds an extra step to my reloading sequence (because my Lee Precision dies both de-prime and resize at the same time). When it comes to ultrasonic vs. tumbler, the results are equal. Ultrasonic is more messy and more labor intensive than tumbling. And you have to lay the wet brass out in the sun to dry afterwards. If you include that required drying time, ultrasonic takes longer than tumbling too. If you don't count the drying time (I don't know why you wouldn't), yeah, ultrasonic is faster. But you can't do anything with wet brass, so that's really a false speed increase.

The ultrasonic cleaner will make a small improvement in primer pocket cleanliness if you de-prime first. However, I consider it only a marginal improvement that is nothing to brag about. Maybe industrial strength ultrasonic cleaners would do better at primer pockets, buy my heated 2 liter home model does not.

Rinse deprimed dirty brass in cider vinegar, then rinse in water, then tumble.

Nice and shiny primer pockets.

Or use one of these. Even better. From Sinclair. Helps prevent high primers too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHgEqDD_iOU

If your brass is not too dirty, the big advantage of cleaning (however you do it) after sizing and decapping is that it removes the lube used to size. This needs to be removed before the ammo is used. Depends on the lube you use if this is an extra step. Lots of lubes can just be wiped off in the final check of the ammo, that is what I do most of the time. Brass needs to be inspected after tumbling, among other things to insure all the media is removed. This should catch any media in the primer pocket. If you use a progressive, obviously you must clean and lube before then remove the lube (if it was required - not needed for carbide dies) after you have finished.

Clearwater,

Reaming primer pockets is required on military brass with crimped primers, but probably not be used all the time. I do it on new brass then rarely after that since it often removes some brass and can, over time, loosen the primer pockets.

Respectfully,

Jerry

Reaming is different than uniforming. Uniforming insures the primer pocket is set to a repeatable depth on each piece of brass, and is used in match ammo prep. I find it also does a great job in cleaning out primer pockets in subsequent reloads. It takes no effort, just a gently twist and gets everything out. A good quality uniformer does not take off any brass after the first use and does not enlarge the primer pockets.

This also helps make sure the primer can be seated to full depth and helps avoid high primers which can be very dangerous in some kinds of actions. (Say a break action where closing the gun could set off a high primer, or a revolver where a high primer could hang up the cylinder).

I use a uniformer AFTER I ream out the crimp of military brass.