Tumbling media

[Jicko]

+1 scrat on comment.

NU car polish <- I forgot who told me about that before, but it works like magic!! You will get shiny, golden, bling bling cases that is even shinier than new brass!! I had a bottle of this NU stuff that I wasn't going to use on my cars, now, I put it to great use!

The dryer sheets works well too.

Now I would need to add rice and paper towels.....

[savage1]

I use the RCBS corncob media and added some 3M swirl remover to the tumbler. Throw in a dryer sheet and the cases come out like a mirror.

[supersonic]

Lyman TREATED (green) corn cob with about 1-2 tbsp of Fast Orange (the gritty paste you clean your hands/arms off after wrenching on your car - "thanks Dave!!!") and the insides of the cases (yes, even .223) come out shiny like the outer surface. I'm going to have to try the fabric softener sheets - that sounds like it definitely works!! Do you tear them up into pieces, or leave them whole?

[grywlfbg]

I have been told not to as the tumbleing will break up the powder into smaller powder thus causing it to burn faster when fired and produce dangerously high pressure.

If that were true then the military would have tons of blown-up guns. Think of the amount of "tumbling" (vibration) ammo is subjected to on its way to Iraq? The answer is A LOT. You're talking trains, planes, boats, and trucks for thousands and thousands of miles. Again, I wouldn't tumble it for a whole wkend but the 15 mins I do doesn't make any difference in velocity or impact.

[Roccobro]

Do you tear them up into pieces, or leave them whole?

I cut them. If I tear them, they end up tangling up on the center lid stud and slow everything down.

The Fabric sheet eliminates the static and some dust, the napkin/paper towel soaks up the dust. Dryer sheets don't have much "mass" to them to hold all the dust from a large batch in my uses.

Justin

[hung380]

Asian markets sell rice for $25.00 and you get 50lbs. worth. This is the best time to go buy them because you can purchase the old crops for a little cheaper.

[Roccobro]

For tumbling or food storage?

You don' have to worry about getting bugs in the Walnut!

Justin

[supersonic]

Question: if it's O.K. to tumble live ammo, why do ALL the reloading manuals warn strongly against it? Reason given:collision between point of bullet & primer will absolutely cause detonation. Why would there be a need to take such a risk, anyway? I'm just purely curious, because you couldn't force me to do it!!

[Roccobro]

I guess the ammo mfgrs don't read ALL the reloading manuals.

I don't think I've ever seen my tumbler move quick enough to produce a quality primer strike, even if all the stars all aligned to get to that point.

I've yet to hear or read of a round going off in a tumbler, but the night is still young.

Justin

[ar15barrels]

I don't remember where I saw it, but many years ago, someone loaded up a batch of ammo, tumbled half of them and did not tumble the other half.
Velocities were similar enough to conclude that tumbling did not matter.

Having said that, an hour is probably fine, but I would not recommend tumbling for multiple days straight just to prove us wrong.

[masterkwan]

Just to let everyone know, the rice and polish works great!! I know this wholesale place that sells 100# bag of rice for $20-30. Might buy a bag and share with some of my Asian friends and use the rest for tumbling

[jandmtv]

im hesitant to try the rice method for some reason. how good is it compared to corn cob? is it easy to get out of the cases? does it get stuck in the flash hole?

[masterkwan]

I just started out, therefore my only experience is with rice. As far as the rice getting stuck, have not had any issues. I looked at 5-9 random brass and nothing was stuck. Could see right through.

[jandmtv]

k, thanx


but you might want to inspect all of the brass that comes out of your tumbler. just as a safety measure.

[psriley]

I just use 1/2 corn and 1/2 walnut media specifically ground for case polishing. I tried the 2-cents-per-metric-ton pet store corn and ended up with a lot of clogged cases. You're saving enough by reloading in the first place...spend the extra 5-cents-per-metric-ton on purpose-ground media.

I have tumbled 1000s of live rounds for 1+ hours sometimes, and never had a problem. IMHO, there is no way tumbling can cause a primer to detonate. Not in a million years. And even if did, it wouldn't result in a particularly dangerous situation. If a round detonated, the case and the projectile would separate explosively...if anything the case would probably move more than the projectile. It would probably damage the tumbler bowl, but that's about it.

Just my opinion, I could be wrong.