Tumbling with no media?

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Tumbling with no media?

Postby Scratch on Fri Jan 01, 2021 12:01 pm

I don't shoot in the winter. I don't do much of anything in the winter. I hate it. I hate the snow, I hate the cold, I hate the grey skies, I hate everything about it, and I stay inside as much as I can, and I certainly don't shoot. But... that makes it the perfect time to reload, so I save all my brass over the warmer months, and spend the winter reloading. The first step is tumbling. I use a rotary wet tumbler with stainless steel pins, dish soap and Lemi-Shine.

Bulk reloading 9mm on my 650XL is pretty straight forward, but with necked down cases like 5.56, we all know there are a few extra steps for brass prep. With 5.56, I have a separate tool head setup to run them through a brass prep process first, but because I don't want to get my press full of dirt and crud, I run my 5.56 through a quick 1 hour wash cycle in my wet tumbler with just soap, no SS pins. This gets all the dirt off, and separates the leaves, bugs and twigs, so I can run them through the press in my prep process, (which also removes the primers) Then I run them through the wet tumbler again, this time with pins and Lemi-shine, then change out my press for loading, and finish them off.

This year, I did my first batch of 5.56 through my quick 1 hour wash cycle, and noticed how nice, clean and shiny they were with just soap and water. So I decided to try that with all the rest of the brass this year, and was pleasantly surprised with just how clean all my brass got. I did add my usual amount of soap and Lemi-Shine with the cases, and they came pretty clean inside and out.

Of course the primer pockets don't get cleaned out, but this is for bulk range ammo, not precision ammo, so this might just be one more step I can cross off my list for bulk 5.56 and 9mm. It's worth noting that this brass is collected from my private range where I have large tarps set on the ground to keep the weeds down and make it easier to collect brass, so the brass doesn't get as dirty as they would at most ranges. Plus I usually pick up my brass within a day or two of shooting so it doesn't get a chance to oxidize or anything much.

I've attached some pics of how clean they got. Can anyone find a reason for me to go back to tumbling with any sort of media for my bulk range ammo,
if I'm getting results like this?

b1.jpg

b3.jpg
01 FFL in Hudson Wisconsin
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Re: Tumbling with no media?

Postby Bearcatrp on Fri Jan 01, 2021 2:05 pm

I quit using the pins myself. Brass gets clean enough.
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Re: Tumbling with no media?

Postby Holland&Holland on Fri Jan 01, 2021 5:54 pm

Love the Tidy cat buckets. They are so handy.
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Re: Tumbling with no media?

Postby crbutler on Fri Jan 01, 2021 6:53 pm

If you are getting that level of results without pins, I don’t see any reason to do more.

I don’t bother with tumbling deprimed brass in the first place. For accuracy or hunting loads, I will uniform the pockets which cleans the carbon out anyhow.

I stick with corncob as it avoids having to dry the brass- if the stuff is clean enough that I’m not worried about the dies, that’s all I worry about. If it’s bench shot, I’ve not cleaned it at all at times. Your one time through will work well.
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