Having early on in my lifetime reloaded several thousand rounds of rifle and pistol ammunition I can warn you of a bit of danger involved ... never had this to happen to me, but I have seen the result of such an accident on the range.
Beware of the flash hole getting clogged. Tumble the brass clean and polish
before you deprime. The flash hole can still often get clogged with smaller pieces of medium, but this type of clog will get caught at the depriming stage. This will most likely bend the depriming pin and let you know of the clog. (Here you can begin cussing as you tediously replace the pin.)
A clogged flash hole can ruin your day as the primer will not function properly. It also may not even allow a primer to be properly seated. IF you don't catch this error and try to chamber a round you can get premature detonation as the bolt may crush the primer.
Can you think, "small grenade!" It is messy, painful, blinding, and can be deadly to you and anyone nearby. Picture exist of of this man I saw years back after this happened with a .308 reload, but I doubt that anyone needs to see them.
I would place my reloaded rounds in my boxes with the primer end up. A simple swipe of the finger across the end will alert you of a mis-seated primer. The bad round can be removed and disposed of properly. A gallon can with oil was what I used, drop and soak for weeks, and thus keep anyone from finding them and trying to use them.
I always used the crushed walnut shell and had many less problems all the way through the reloading process. The corn cob was always way to much trouble for me and
did not last as long as the walnut shell. BTW, don't polish your brass with the same medium you use to clean the brass. Clean with no wax or polish, then use a different batch of medium to polish.
I charged my medium by using a hard bar of carnubea wax. Just add the hard bar of wax, tumble/vibrate for an hour or so, and off you go. No clumping problems at all. Experience will show you just how long to 'charge' the medium.
This does not transfer anything inside the cartridge which can ruin your day if the powder gets even a bit oily ... as can happen with other types of 'polish'. (Old primers are quite often made inert by pouring them into a container of oil for a short soaking.) Partially burned powder causes a round to enter and not exit the barrel, and blocked barrels are extremely dangerous if a second round is fired. (Pipe bomb comes to mind.)
The spoon is a good idea for small amounts of brass, but I used a larger metal colander (ask the wife if this is not known to you and don't use her's) into which I carefully poured the entire batch and slowly stirred with my hand while using a plastic tub to catch the cleaning/polishing media. At the time I was reloading several hundred rounds in a reloading session of either rifle/pistol brass, or both, so something with a bit of size was necessary for me.
Never ever consider tumbling any loaded ammunition ... especially rifle rounds. Bullets can be just as effective as is the firing pin if given enough space to fall and hit that primer in another round.
If you are ever bored, and for a bit of fun, sit around outside with your .357 loaded with just a primed cartridge and 'blast' mosquitoes as they buzz around you. They do not stand a chance! This is also a way to get rid of 'old' primers. Just don't shoot the dog or any one that is curious as to what the heck it is that you are doing!
Above all else, be careful, have fun, and always 'keep your powder keg high and dry.' We like to see (read) you here at the IAP. :biggrin:
