Why bother with S/S tumbling?

[8mmFMJ]

I use dillon case lube, it's nasty nasty boogery wax that MUST be washed off entirely. I stick my cases 2/3 full in a simple rock tumbler with warm water and a little Dawn dish soap. The real magic happens after the primers come out on the 2nd wash. After about an hour (with no heavy cleaners or solvents) they look like this:


happy loading


edit: here is a pic of some 7.62x51 in the sun that I just washed in the tumbler and hosed off in a plant basket I picked up (at osh?). takes about 5 min with primers in or 60 seconds with primers out to wash out all the soap. then from here they go in the sun or oven at 200 degrees.

[J-cat]

OP

The stainless pins and soup method works extremely well if your time isn't worth a dime and you like cleaning up messes.
If some soap or a piece of walnut going down your barrel upsets you you probably will toss your cookies when you see a stainless steel pin sitting sideways in a case mouth

I've stainless tumbled thousands of cases and not one time did I have a pin sideways in a case mouth. The worst it's gotten is three pins plugging a flash hole and that only happened twice. Twice in prolly 10,000 cases.

What mess? There is none.

I shake out the water and let it air dry while I go to work. I tumble overnight. Do you work while you sleep? It takes a few minutes to dump the water, rinse, shake out, and dump on the carpet.

[Dubious_Beans]

I've always used the walnut shells and a dryer sheet.

So for you SS pin users, what are the dimensions of the pins that you use?

[LynnJr]

I've stainless tumbled thousands of cases and not one time did I have a pin sideways in a case mouth. The worst it's gotten is three pins plugging a flash hole and that only happened twice. Twice in prolly 10,000 cases.

What mess? There is none.

I shake out the water and let it air dry while I go to work. I tumble overnight. Do you work while you sleep? It takes a few minutes to dump the water, rinse, shake out, and dump on the carpet.

You havent loaded enough rounds of the right caliber to see the pins stuck in the case neck,

What mess you have no mess right give me a break. The drum is small with a rubber liner so you only get to do a few cases at a time.Youn unspin the nuts and pull the top off of the black soup. The black soup with your brass in it needs to get dumped somewhere.
You then need to dig through the slop to recover your brass. You then need to recover what you can of your mud covered pins.
Now you need to rinse everything off so you can do 50 more pieces of brass if the cases are small.
You dumping the sludge were? Down the drain? Now you add more soup and brass and put the wet lid back on the wet rubber liner in the now wet drum and hope it is sealed or you need to wash the garage.
While the second batch is running you now need to dry your brass or you cant prime it.
And as you have already alluded to you better check for pins first.
If you blew it out with compressed air you better be wearing a slicker with eye protection.
If you use an oven it takes up as much room as 20 vibrators and needs 220 volts to run.
Yep you betcha a huge time saver and no mess at all. And your still not going to outshoot anyone with brass done any other way.
Its for guys who liker bling and serves no other purpose.
I dont vacuum or do dishes so I am not getting dishpan hands just so my brass looks shinier than the next guys.I shoot to win matches.

[J-cat]

Stainless tumbling supplies the Thumlers tumbler as a kit.

You unscrew the lid. You rinse off the suds off the lid. You place the lid in your dish rack. You then scoop out the remaining suds from the drum. Then you pour out the dirty water from the drum. Then you dump the pins and brass into the media separator. You spin the separator. It separates the pins from the brass. You dump the brass into a container and fill it with water. This rinses the brass. Pour out the water and shake out the water from the brass. Roll the brass on a beach towel to dry the outside. Allow the brass to air dry for a few hours.

No mess.

Now, if you don't have the right tools, then you might have a mess.

[8mmFMJ]

You havent loaded enough rounds of the right caliber to see the pins stuck in the case neck,

What mess you have no mess right give me a break. The drum is small with a rubber liner so you only get to do a few cases at a time.Youn unspin the nuts and pull the top off of the black soup. The black soup with your brass in it needs to get dumped somewhere.
You then need to dig through the slop to recover your brass. You then need to recover what you can of your mud covered pins.
Now you need to rinse everything off so you can do 50 more pieces of brass if the cases are small.
You dumping the sludge were? Down the drain? Now you add more soup and brass and put the wet lid back on the wet rubber liner in the now wet drum and hope it is sealed or you need to wash the garage.
While the second batch is running you now need to dry your brass or you cant prime it.
And as you have already alluded to you better check for pins first.
If you blew it out with compressed air you better be wearing a slicker with eye protection.
If you use an oven it takes up as much room as 20 vibrators and needs 220 volts to run.
Yep you betcha a huge time saver and no mess at all. And your still not going to outshoot anyone with brass done any other way.
Its for guys who liker bling and serves no other purpose.
I dont vacuum or do dishes so I am not getting dishpan hands just so my brass looks shinier than the next guys.I shoot to win matches.

it takes less time to wash 250 cases then it did to type that

*I don't use the nuts, or SS media. There is no "sludge," just soapy water. I have tumbled with walnut. This is faster.

[Eljay]

If you don't know anything about a subject maybe you should be asking more questions and posting fewer extreme statements.

"You then need to dig through the slop to recover your brass. You then need to recover what you can of your mud covered pins."

http://www.stainlesstumblingmedia.com/products/accessories/media-separator-deluxe.html

$30 for a separator. It's exactly the same as the one I use with corncob. Takes a few seconds, you get brass in the basket and nice clean pins in the bottom. Dump those back into the drum. Run some more water off the brass to make sure you've gotten the soap off.

"Now you need to rinse everything off so you can do 50 more pieces of brass if the cases are small."

I do 400 9mm at a time, in one drum, equivalent weight of other calibers (4 pounds).

[JMP]

OP
I load for some of the most accurate rifles on this planet.
I have used soup I have rotary tumblers and vibratory tumblers. I have wet tumblers and used ultrasonic.
I never had any problems with my brass from using any chemical cleaners on it including Brasso.
I never have any dust using walnut because I put the lid on and change the walnut.
The stainless pins and soup method works extremely well if your time isn't worth a dime and you like cleaning up messes.
If some soap or a piece of walnut going down your barrel upsets you you probably will toss your cookies when you see a stainless steel pin sitting sideways in a case mouth.
My brass looks as good as any I see on the range and most competitors don't let you look inside there brass or primer pockets were I shoot.
I will put my reloads up against anyone's reloads and so for shiny brass has never been the determining factor in any match I have attended.

NAILED IT!!!!

Lynn, I am glad you weighed in.

It really seems to me that the folks that value and attain accuracy put their focus on things that attain METRIC consistency and not COSMETIC consistency.

I highly recommend for folks thinking about investing in a wet SS setup to first consider the dies you are using before going to SS. If you are using a $30 die set, save the money and put it toward a better die set. The precision of your dies provides the desired METRICS for your cases.

[8mmFMJ]

I haven't delved into "metrics" from die to die but I use lyman and Hornady. I have also achieved near 1/2 moa (1.12"@200 yards 168 A-max .308) with my own build, and loads. I'm quite satisfied. My brass isn't the shiniest, but it is clean and smooth for the chamber, and dry/free of contaminants for the powder/primer. I think we all know that is all that matters.

*In my case, it was a "race" with a good friend of mine to see who could make the best loads first. I learned before I even loaded my first round what a dirty case can do to a die got a call "oh ****! bro I think I just ****ed up my die with a dirty case"

[freonr22]

Before ss pins

[uhlan1]

You guys still clean brass? Huh.

[J-cat]

NAILED IT!!!!

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-01-20/news/chi-man-shoots-318912inch-nail-into-brainand-lives-20120120_1_nail-gun-care-center-brain

[jonzer77]

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2...e-center-brain

At least he didn't bleed to death after cutting himself with razor shop zero bullets


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Pauliedad]

Ah ha. The razor sharp bullets return........

[postal]

I haven't delved into "metrics" from die to die but I use lyman and Hornady. I have also achieved near 1/2 moa (1.12"@200 yards 168 A-max .308) with my own build, and loads. I'm quite satisfied. My brass isn't the shiniest, but it is clean and smooth for the chamber, and dry/free of contaminants for the powder/primer. I think we all know that is all that matters.

*In my case, it was a "race" with a good friend of mine to see who could make the best loads first. I learned before I even loaded my first round what a dirty case can do to a die got a call "oh ****! bro I think I just ****ed up my die with a dirty case"

I use hornady for my 6.5 creed since they're the company behind that round.... but whidden and forester are 2 common brands of competition dies.

Ask Lynn jr what kind of groups he could get at 200 yds.

When it comes to reloading for accuracy, he knows what he's talking about.

There is a huge difference in reloading for blasting ammo for handgun and competition rifle ammo.

Personally, I use crushed walnut with dryer sheets and aluminum oxide as my abrasive agent. About 2-3 hours in the garage- Set your tumbler on a carpet or shop mat, it really quiets it down.

I only media tumble with spent primers. Then a rinse out and dry in the sun- so they are clean and dry- no media powder- and size the cases. Then a good rinse again to remove the case lube and another trip in the sun to dry before loading.

It isnt hard, and time is not a concern when using a single stage press- I have more brass ready by the time I finish loading 1 full tumbler worth.

I NEVER tumble with primers removed because I got tired of picking walnut out of flash holes....