Tumbling Primed Brass ... Bad idea?

[Rick Cox]

Personally I'd knock the primers out, clean the cases and load. The people questioning how long the primers have been hanging around if the brass is tarnished are spot on. Primers cost nothing compared to powder and bullets and it won't take long to deprime them.

Is that safe??

 

[Royal27]

Is that safe??

Yes. Nice and slow.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Final decision. Going to load a few tomorrow of the not so dirty ones. The more dirty ones were deprimed and currently among 50 cases currently tumbling.

 

[bruce moulds]

that is what toilets are for - flushing primers.
bruce.

 

[ChrisG]

I would also pop the primers out or find some other way of cleaning then. You will likely never set off a primer in a tumbler. You can actually take a live primer and crush it in a bench vice without setting it off. (I read it somewhere so of course I had to try it myself). You need more than a little energy to initiate a primer so pushing them out will not set them off 99.999999% of the time. Its never 100% because with chemicals (especially styphenates) anything is possible, but it is usually safe to remove them.

 

[Hogpatrol]

Final decision. Going to load a few tomorrow of the not so dirty ones. The more dirty ones were deprimed and currently among 50 cases currently tumbling.

You may want to hit the tumbled ones with compressed air afterwards. Blast both ends of the case to remove left over dust. If you'v deprimed before tumbling, after the air, check the flash holes for lodged debris.