Off the wall question - how long do you tumble brass?

Clean is clean, shiny is something else. Do what appeals to you. You only need to please yourself.
I personally like to recondition my brass, so I like shiny, but they don't shoot any better then just clean does.

I usually just do an hour or 2 in the cob. Longer when it gets older. Not chasing shiny though.

Average about 2 hours is enough for most of mine. I use walnut shells with a small squirt of polish.

Walnut shells with some Nu-Shine in it. 4hrs or so.

tightgroup tiger said:

Clean is clean, shiny is something else.

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That. I like shiny... so I usually go for an 8-hour shift, sometimes longer. I've been known to leave brass running for 3 weeks...

I use walnut and Dillon polish... the only Dillon product on the bench... in my Lyman/Midway/Frankford Arsenal Frankenstein tumbler.

Also... I will tumble brass for a few hours to get the junk off, then store them. Before I crank up the press to load them, again, I'll chuck them in the tumbler once more... for the long-term shiny tumble... just prior to loading.

I probably go 6 or 8 hours anyway and most times I leave it in 10 to 12 (overnight or all day). I like it shiny and it helps me to see the headstamps better. Rifle brass probably gets tumbled longer than needed since I tumble twice. Once initially and then to remove lube. Just what I do, no right or wrong answer.

I know I should move to wet but it is hard to dry brass in the winter when that is when I process the most.

ericuda said:

I know I should move to wet

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So they say...

We dry tumblers need to stick together! Solidarity, brothers and sisters!!!

I use an old mechanical light timer. Set it for midnight and put the stop notch in at the number of hours later I want it to stop. I typically due 12 hours but my media probable needs replaced.

Walnut and new finish about 4 hours depending on how dirty the brass is.

Walkalong said:

Anywhere from 30 minutes, to all day while at work, or all night while I sleep

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Yep, and even longer if I forget about it. Which I've done.

I turn it on when I leave and turn it off when I get home. However long that translates to. Usually more than a Walmart run but less than a family vacation.

2 hours-ish

With my 9mm that I purchase retail, I’ll tumble it usually just a couple of hours after shooting in a dry media tumbler, deprime, and then usually tumble it again for an hour or so, and it’s pretty clean. I don’t necessarily need super polished brass when I’m just target shooting. If it’s range brass, I’ll go a bit longer on tumbling it, and also use the sonic cleaner, then pop it in a Cabela’s dehydrator to dry.

One hour.. Wet tumble with pins, dawn and a pinch of lemishine.

2 or 3 hours most of the time. The rest of the time is 2 or 3 days. That's just when I forget that I left the tumbler running, though...lol

Between an hour and an hour half right after I clean them with rotator tumbler with steel pins and resizing to get lube off brass.

Analogkid said:

One hour.. Wet tumble with pins, dawn and a pinch of lemishine.

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If it's my brass 15 minutes gets er done. Range finds go an hour minimum. Once clean it shines up fast.

I have one can of "cleaning corn cob". I tumble for an hour to get the dirt off. I dump out the cleaning media and dump in the "polishing cob media". Tumble with polish for several hours to taste. My cleaning media is pretty gray. The polishing media gets a little extra polish each use and has lasted a long time. I might add a third batch of media to clean lube off cases, but for now I clean individual cases with a rag (good practice for inspecting each case, but starting to wear on my patience).

When I tumble them, it's about 2 hours. Dry tumble in walnut, dash of mineral spirits and NuFinish every once in a while.

Rifle brass I tumble every 3rd or 4th firing, just cleaning it up before annealing.

Handgun brass I tumble after every firing.

I use walnut hulls with rouge and tumble 2+ hours.

Rifle brass gets 2 hrs in corncob. Then lube and resize/deprime. I then wipe down every case with a blue hospital rag then one hour in corncob with nufinish. real ugly tarnished gets chucked in a Lee lock stud in a drill and polished with a dollar general fake scotch brute before tumbling.

It mostly depends on what else I'm doing that day. Anywhere from two to six hours. Once I got seriously sidetracked and let brass tumble overnight. Maybe upwards of 18 hours.

Shiny!

Charlie98 said:

So they say...

We dry tumblers need to stick together! Solidarity, brothers and sisters!!!

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You trying to start a civil war...everyone knows wet is best...dry is not up to date...like a popcorn fart gone bad...grow up and spit shine your stuff