[ny32182]

I saw something last night that got me a little worried.

I did my initial run of sizing .357sig brass a couple days ago (100 cases). I tumbled them for an hour to remove the lube like I always do with my rifle brass.

I was wiping them off, dislodging media from flasholes when neccessary, and putting them in a shell tray. I noticed that there were chunks of media remaining in some of the cases. :what: My normal process is to use a media separator like usual, and additionally I always turn each one upside down to look and make sure the flash hole is clear, so anything loose in there should fall out, or so I thought. To get this media out, I had to tap the mouth of the case relatively hard on a table top, and/or dig it out with an allen wrench.

As far as causes, I am hoping it is one of two things:

1) My media is at the end of its lifespan; that is, dirty... could this be a contributing factor? It seems to pour well enough, though I guess it is adhereing to the bottom of the tumbler a little more than normal as well. It is not "wet", though I believe it is time to change it out.

2) Normally I am only lubing rifle brass. Due to the expander ball in a rifle sizing die, I spray the lube at an angle so that some gets into the case mouth. I did that out of habit on these cases as well, even though there is no expander ball present. Therefore I'm sure some must have gotten down into the cases, and probably further than it does in rifle cases, since these are a lot more "open". Maybe there was some lube left over inside the cases and this is what the media was sticking? I would have hoped the tumbler would have dried this off, but maybe not all the way in cases where there is significant pourous carbon buildup remaining on the inside of the case?

3) What happens if I would not have seen this? Could the media remain in the case upon ejection? Shot out the muzzle? Could it scratch my bore? (That is my primary concern).

Since the inside of rifle brass is not nearly as visually accessible, I guess this could have happened before and I never knew about it...

[Walkalong]

Sounds like the media is crudded up enough to "clot" and also stick in cases. Probably time to change it.

What size media? A few small (1/16" or smaller) pieces could hardly hurt a thing when fired. A big chunk in there could change pressures.

[MAGGUNS44]

Very possible it was the lube you sprayed in the case necks. It will not hurt the bore but enough of it as stated earlier could cause pressures to jump drasticaly, the smaller the case the worse it would be.

[ny32182]

I don't think it would be enough to cause serious pressure problems in a non-max load in the amounts I saw; just a few small pieces... I couldn't really estimate the size right offhand... just a few of the very small pieces of Frankford Arsenal branded corn cob is what we are talking here.

I guess what I am envisioning is that a piece winds up sitting somewhere in the bore, and then the next bullet drives it hard into the rifling... maybe it just isn't hard enough to cause any damage?

[Walkalong]

I am careful to check for media left in cases, but I can almost guarentee I have missed some over the years. I don't worry too terribly much about it.

[ReloaderFred]

It's no big thing, but I do tumble cases in untreated corn cob to remove lube, and also after regular tumbling to remove polish residue, which causes minute scratches on the case walls.

You can use an old bore brush in a cordless drill to quickly remove any residue inside the cases. It just takes a second to hit them and dislodge anything stuck in there.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[jcwit]

One more reason to use the 20/40 grit corn cob media. Won't even clog up the flash holes, let alone the case.

However this doesn't hold true if one goes nuts with the liquid polish and starts tumbling before dry.