Lee thighmaster (breech lock hand press) with universal depriming die?

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/665540 ... hand-press

Baja_Traveler thank you for the photos!

For those of you using this method have you weighed the brass before and after? See the comments below from a friend.

I'm suspecious, I'm of the opinion the media will eat away the brass.
I once left 50-60 45-70 cases in the tumbler for a week, using ceramic media, had a timer set to run for 3 hours a day. After i discovered it, I weighed the cases. They had lost considerable weight.

Bob259 wrote:For those of you using this method have you weighed the brass before and after? See the comments below from a friend.

I'm suspecious, I'm of the opinion the media will eat away the brass.
I once left 50-60 45-70 cases in the tumbler for a week, using ceramic media, had a timer set to run for 3 hours a day. After i discovered it, I weighed the cases. They had lost considerable weight.

Ceramic media sounds suspect. That has a purpose in industry... it is removing material. At least that is what I have seen.

ceramic media is used for deburing metal. Not for light cleaning. it will destroy soft metal fast.

Trent is right, I do not spend any time cosmetic cleaning my brass. Just the basics like pocket cleaning and wiping the necks with a solvent damp rag before running them up a die. I loaded 50 of these tonight. The Winchester cases have been fired 16 times each. Dis colored but perfectly serviceable.

Got a reply back from Cory at Stainless Tumbling Media

When I frist started testing this. I would put in the same 7wsm brass each time I tumbled. It had over 75 tumbles on it with no measurable difference. With over 4000 customers now. I have never heard a complaint that the brasses weight a considerable difference.
Stainless Tumbling Media

The brass in the picture was run through a sizing die, then I annealed the case necks because it was their 10th reloading (my normal routine to extend case life). I annealed them dirty and on purpose - I had just received my kit from Stainless Tumbling Media, and wanted to give it the ultimate test. Had I used walnut media it would have taken days to achieve that polish on cooked on grimy brass. The stainless media did it in 4 hours. On a normal run when I don't anneal I tumble 2-3 hours to get the same results.

All my other brass I decap at the range with a hand decaper as Lone Ringer alluded to. Every other cartridge I shoot uses black powder and gets soaked in a soapy water solution. I found tumbling cases where black powder was used takes a slightly different routine to get shiny brass. If you dump it in and run as normal the brass will come out perfectly clean, but a rich brown color. Instead I tumble just with water and soap for an hour, then dump and rinse. Then I use water, soap and Lemishine for another 2 hour run to get the high polish.

Just thought I would link to this thread that is going on over on the 6mmBR forum regarding case cleaning. For the most part these are BR guys. Turns out that case cleaning isn't a high priority over there. Maybe us silhouette shooters don't need to get our cases so nice and shiny. I'm starting to think that cleaning our cases to the point that they look better than factory is just that... pretty.

http://forum.accurateshooter.com/index. ... 323.0.html

Wow ...what a string! First of all ceramic or steel are problematic media. They remove metal. I use a Neil Jones decapping tool my BPCR cases and then I put them in a jug of water and Dawn and Slip 2000 carbon killer. That's done so that nasty charcoal residue doesn't turn to concrete. When i get home the cases get rinsed and then tumbled or put in the ultra sonic cleaner or both if they are really nasty. The ultra sonic with the citric acid solution cleans smokeless cases like new in about 20 minutes and doesn't remove metal. Slip 2000 Carbon Killer can also be mixed into the ultra sonic solution....even the primer pockets clean up. As an aside I have seen a whole bunch of Master shooters use the filthiest cases in HP and it doesn't seem to screw up their scores....there are no extra points for hygiene ( too bad). In fact we have a Master who hadn't cleaned his rifle since 1986 and finally the barrel gave up the ghost (it was shooting just over 1 MOA) after 30000+ rounds (its a 7 BR). We cut the barrel open to see the throat and were surprised to find that it had grown to over 2 inches ( that is very faint rifling until somewhere north of 2 inches). After miking the barrel we surmised that it still shot acceptably because the last 2-3 inches at the muzzle end were still crisp and TIGHT....The filth in the barrel didn't seem to make any difference

Snake wrote:Wow ...what a string! First of all ceramic or steel are problematic media. They remove metal.

I agree for ceramic. Have you seen anyone produce data for the steel media? I haven't found any yet. Even anecdotes with no numbers attached have only warned that the brass might get very tiny scratches if the new media isn't tumbled one time without brass to get any little sharp edges that might be left on the media off.

Jason wrote:

Snake wrote:Wow ...what a string! First of all ceramic or steel are problematic media. They remove metal.

I agree for ceramic. Have you seen anyone produce data for the steel media? I haven't found any yet. Even anecdotes with no numbers attached have only warned that the brass might get very tiny scratches if the new media isn't tumbled one time without brass to get any little sharp edges that might be left on the media off.

I think Bob259's post pretty much clears up whether or not steel media removes any brass while in the rotary tumblers. 75 tumbles on one piece of brass with no measurable weight loss. I don't know about y'all, but I don't have any brass that has 75 firings on it.

Bob259 wrote:Got a reply back from Cory at Stainless Tumbling Media

When I frist started testing this. I would put in the same 7wsm brass each time I tumbled. It had over 75 tumbles on it with no measurable difference. With over 4000 customers now. I have never heard a complaint that the brasses weight a considerable difference.
Stainless Tumbling Media

I took a close up photo of that #16 fired Winchester case that broke last weekend. This one failed with out a visible stretch ring showing at last loading. More carbon build up than I would have guessed. Only Reloder 15 was used in these.


I cut open another that was showing signs of failure. Plenty of carbon deposit. Not too much from mid case to the neck, I think most is scoured out with the powder column as it is turns to a gas. Note the thinning of the wall at the head. This one showed up as a bright ring on the outside of the case.


My Dillon and corn cob media does not remove much of this deposit. I bet the steel pins would do a good job at removing it.



No carbon foot print wise cracks from you Sean.

I see what you're doing Bob, and this is so smart of you, as your brass thins out from so many firings you are replacing the change in internal case dimensions by layering carbon deposits on the inside of the case! Man, you are a genius. Is this what you've been talking about when you mention tolerance stacking? You are stacking carbon in order to keep your tolerances? Haha!

Bob you may want to start stocking up on carbon credits before Al Gore comes a knocking.
But on a more serious note do you debure the flash holes? They look to have a strange shape.