Wet tumbled brass

What makes you believe it was wet tumbled? I have received brass that looked wet tumbled but was dry tumbled, it was that clean. I knew because of the media left in the bag.

How many case you can tumble is only limited by the size of the tumbler not the process itself. I'm not sure how many 9mm I can do at one time but it is a bunch. I wouldn't be afraid to dump in a gallon of brass and that would be about 1k 9mm cases.

frogfurr said:

Wet tumbling seems to be a lot of hassle.

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It's not unless you make it one, many folks do.
Lots of old and not so old threads on it here.

kilizyrag said:

What makes you believe it was wet tumbled? I have received brass that looked wet tumbled but was dry tumbled, it was that clean.

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I used to get my dry tumbled brass from THR member ljnowell but since he has not been active, I recently bought wet tumbled brass from RMR. While dry tumbled brass I got from ljnowell was relatively clean inside of cases (Left), wet tumbled brass from RMR was significantly cleaner inside (Right) - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...ading-room-today.830858/page-50#post-11059079



And going the other extreme, my quick 20 minute dry tumbled brass just "clean enough" to reload for me - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/quick-20-minute-brass-good-enough-to-reload.849033/

Allen One1 said:

frogfurr said:

if I could wet tumble brass in large enough quantities I may be tempted to invest in a wet tumbling set up. Like may 500 9mm or 500 45acp cases at one time?

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How many case you can tumble is only limited by the size of the tumbler not the process itself.

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My Cabela's vibratory tumbler (Same as Berry's 400) has capacity of 450 .223 / 1000 9mm cases.

Frankford Arsenal wet tumbler has capacity of 1000 .223 cases.

Frankford Arsenal "Lite" wet tumbler has capacity of 300 .223 cases.

I pickup a lot of range brass from my outdoor range and got tired of washing the mud and crud out of it, drying it and then dry tumbling it, so i purchased a Frankford arsenal wet tumbler like BDS posted above. I have used it twice yesterday and once last week and I am very happy. I too thought it would be a big hassle and after doing it I like it better than dry. Its cleaner and doesn't make such a mess. No media to shake out, sweep up, etc.

Wet tumbling is the way to go if you like extra shiny brass and clean primer pockets. My grungy range pickup brass looks like new brass inside and out after being wet tumbled. once you have developed the process that works for you ( and there are multiple threads where guys share what they do), it relatively quick and easy.

Have extremely clean brass isn't important to everyone and you will get many that will say its a was of time because it doesn't shoot any straighter.

However, I like clean like new brass so it is well worth it for me.

I feel another myth busting thread forming - Wet tumbled vs Dry tumbled and accuracy.

Stay tuned.

bds said:

I feel another myth busting thread forming - Wet tumbled vs Dry tumbled and accuracy.

Stay tuned.

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Nice!

Here is what I do.

1) Pins, brass, lemi shine, soap. Turn on tumbler and let go for 3hrs.
2) Lyman sifter that fits on a 5gal bucket.
3) Put the strainer lid on the FART canister and dump water and most the pins into the bucket.
4) Rinse the canister and brass about 4 times.
5) Dump brass and pins into sifter.
6) Rinse again and move brass around in sifter with hands to dump all the pins.
7) Empty bucket of dirty water and use a HF magnet to pickup pins from bucket.

bds said:

I feel another myth busting thread forming - Wet tumbled vs Dry tumbled and accuracy.

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Myth?

??? Someone actually thinks (and has stated here) that the more polished/prettier their cases are, the more accurate the ammo will be?

GBExpat said:

Myth?

??? Someone actually thinks (and has stated here) that the more polished/prettier their cases are, the more accurate the ammo will be?

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Actually, this is very slightly true for precision rifle shooters as residual carbon fouling inside the case when shot into the barrel could facilitate rifling/bore wear to eventually affect accuracy.

And this "myth" is what I aim to bust/confirm using 16"/17" pistol carbine barrels and dry/wet tumbled brass. I will continue comparison range testing without cleaning the barrel until I see accuracy difference or feel the myth busted (I know, not too scientific as I should start with 2 new barrels ... I do have 1 new PSA 9mm upper ... and NEED an excuse to try out Faxon barrel ... ).

I am still "thinking" about this myth busting as I have so many other myth busting range tests to perform, starting with primer difference on muzzle velocity/accuracy.

ohihunter2014 said:

I pickup a lot of range brass from my outdoor range and got tired of washing the mud and crud out of it, drying it and then dry tumbling it, so i purchased a Frankford arsenal wet tumbler like BDS posted above. I have used it twice yesterday and once last week and I am very happy. I too thought it would be a big hassle and after doing it I like it better than dry. Its cleaner and doesn't make such a mess. No media to shake out, sweep up, etc.

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So does this mean you fixed your problem of not all the brass was coming out clean ?

bds said:

very slightly true for precision rifle shooters

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A lot of things are "very slightly true" for that crowd that are not for us folks in the regular shooting world.

I have the cabelas dry tumbler, and also the harbor freight dual drum wet tumbler. The dry tumbler will do many more cases at once, but I do get tired of picking all the media out of the primer pockets. (I clean de-primed brass). And it takes much longer to clean. I did an experiment with the wet tumbler this weekend. I lb of brass in each drum with 1 lb steel pins. a 9mm case full of lemishine in each drum with one ounce car wash & wax. Did one batch for 2 hours, 1 batch for 1 1/2 hrs and another batch for 45 minutes. This stuff was really dirty range brass and even the 45 minute batch came out cleaner that I could have gotten with the dry tumbler in 4 hours. very clean primer pockets and the inside of the cases were almost like new.

2bfree said:

So does this mean you fixed your problem of not all the brass was coming out clean ?

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Still comes out so so. Idk what’s going on with it. Outside is great and inside is still black. It’s odd that all the 40-45 brass came out bright and rifle still sooty.

Wet tumbling seems to be a lot of hassle

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Yes and no, a bit more work but really not as bad as it seems.
I have a Lyman Cyclone and can do 1000 9mm at one time no problem.

My range has 60grit mud so
I rinse the case in a bucket of water
wet tumble wash and wax, citric acid pins for about 30-1hr
dry
deprime
then run them again for a hour same setup.

They come out nice and clean and the primer pockets are clean as well.

Most people who have tried wet tumbling have decided it is worth the little extra effort