I have been given to believe you needn't tumble for more than 3 to 4 hours.... but I find that the inside of the casings are still dirty with carbon and media dust... what do you all do at that point if anything to get it back to a brass only interior? have been using Lyman green corncob media
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post tumble inside case expectations
- Thread starter hunter1959
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I use an ultrasonic. I have a vibratory tumbler, but I only use it to polish up the brass occasionally.
Lyman green cob, same time for all cases…so if it’s three hours, fine but they all get three hours. Personally, I do two. Call it good. There’s nothing gained, for practical shooting, by getting back to totally spotless brass. Maybe for 1000 yard benchrest/fclass but single digit SDs are totally available with just a few hours of dry tumbling.…or even no tumbling at all. Nothing justifies, in my opinion, the multiple cycles, drying, separating stainless steel pins, cleaning solutions, and TIME wasted with wet tumbling. Are you a shooter who makes loaded cartridges or are you a brass cleaner who occasionally shoots?
Short version... you don't want the inside of the case necks to be squeaky clean / bare metal. That thin layer of carbon seals up some of the interior roughness (the case neck ID is no where near as smooth as the OD), and with a light brushing is actually conducive to more consistent seating force and bullet release. If you get the case all squeaky clean inside and out, then you need to put something back in there, some sort of neck lube. Whether it's moly or graphite, dry or wet, it's going to be a PITA, and it's going to be messy.
Contrary to what @OREGUN mentioned... some of the better F-class shooters I know don't clean at all, beyond wiping the cases off and one or two passes inside the neck with a brush. Many dry tumble if they don't want to be running dirty brass through their sizing die. But relatively few wet tumble any more, for the reasons outlined above.
Contrary to what @OREGUN mentioned... some of the better F-class shooters I know don't clean at all, beyond wiping the cases off and one or two passes inside the neck with a brush. Many dry tumble if they don't want to be running dirty brass through their sizing die. But relatively few wet tumble any more, for the reasons outlined above.
You have a expendable piece of metal that you plan on shortly lighting a fire of several thousand degrees in and you wonder if it is shiny and clean?
Go shoot more. Not trying to be a dick, but seriously.
Go shoot more. Not trying to be a dick, but seriously.
Soft media does not clean the inside of the case because there is no pressure on the media. On the outside the media is under pressure from the collective weight of itself and the other brass cases.
glad you mentioned this, had not thought of it from that point of view... thank you, answers my question
you don't have to do anything except get the case to hold another bullet prime , and powder if that's all you want the more you do consistently the lower and better that round are going to work for you to a point , but cleaning is totally up to you . my friends brass looks like range brass it's never been washed , toumbled it's lucky he even cleans the flash hole and resizes to hold another bullet . Me I went of the deep end by polishing every case to a mirror shine with braso and 0000 steel wool with the help of a drill I have even tried cleaning the inside of the necks but got no noticeable changes e to my number or impacts points . But it sure was pretty brass sparkled like gold for 7 seconds . So I stopped that .best of luck with what ever you do or don't do
We have been wasting all this time, energy and electrons discussing what’s the best way to clean brass. Well after a two day event at Prince Memorial (don’t ask, I shot terrible so leave it at that) i had accidentally stuck some fired brass in the pocket of the jeans I was wearing Friday.
Well to some consternation, my lovely Bride, Brenda, found them just a few minutes ago when those same jeans were in the dryer. (Making just a slight bit of noise/rattling).
Heck they came out nicely clean AND dry. So, throw out all those ultrasound, walnut/corncob vibrating, and steel pin tumbling wet cleaners. Just throw the brass in the wash machine, after the spin cycle, Chunk them in the clothes dryer for a bit, and there you have it, clean, dry brass.
(Just don’t let the misses catch you
).
Well to some consternation, my lovely Bride, Brenda, found them just a few minutes ago when those same jeans were in the dryer. (Making just a slight bit of noise/rattling).
Heck they came out nicely clean AND dry. So, throw out all those ultrasound, walnut/corncob vibrating, and steel pin tumbling wet cleaners. Just throw the brass in the wash machine, after the spin cycle, Chunk them in the clothes dryer for a bit, and there you have it, clean, dry brass.
(Just don’t let the misses catch you
).
Is it safe to say that carbon in the neck is like copper equilibrium in the barrel?
Wet tumbling rifle cartridges with ss media is retarded....
Look no pins just a pinch of lemishine and oxyclean.....but if you wanna keep dealing with ss media and all that have at it.....
Before
After
Look no pins just a pinch of lemishine and oxyclean.....but if you wanna keep dealing with ss media and all that have at it.....
Before
After
It's more fun if you use too much Lemishine and set the oven to 300° to dry them.
BTW, that color polishes right off in the tumbler.
BTW, that color polishes right off in the tumbler.
I am leaning toward not tumbling at all, and just letting them be as they are, clean out the pocket a bit... reason? when I look at the shell casings after tumbling and after wiping, they are dirtier than before they went through the process... why introduce the extra crap into the chamber or the dies? if anything, I might consider mild soapy soaking and they air drying outdoors in the sun...
I clean and tumble as needed. If the brass has been on the ground I'll rinse it off. If I size a large lot I'll tumble off the lube with corn cob. Otherwise I just focus on what is important, which is everything besides how it looks.
Here's an example:
6GT
Turned
Annealed
Neck sIzed (.241 ID)
Trimmed and Chamfered
Less than .001" runout
Less than .001" headspace variation
Less than .001" overall length variation
Less than .0005 ID neck variation
Consistent seating pressure
SD under 10 over 100 rounds.
Here's an example:
6GT
Turned
Annealed
Neck sIzed (.241 ID)
Trimmed and Chamfered
Less than .001" runout
Less than .001" headspace variation
Less than .001" overall length variation
Less than .0005 ID neck variation
Consistent seating pressure
SD under 10 over 100 rounds.
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