Smokey Joe
Member
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2003
- Messages
- 2,617
To tumble or not to tumble
I'm a cheapskate myself, and I thought for years I was saving money by hand-cleaning the brass. Then I broke down and got a tumbler. Geez, guys, they aren't that expensive! And BOY does it beat screwing around washing, wiping, and drying cases, scrubbing at stains, etc. My time is worth the extra $$ for the tumbler thank you very much. My reloads come out looking factory new!
BTW, if you persist in drying cases in the oven, be very careful you don't anneal the brass. It doesn't take much heat nor time. 200¡ will do it I believe. Once I accidentally produced a real pretty colorful lot. Called the Sierra help line 1-800-223-8799 and they suggested that I'd altered the hardness of the brass which would affect such things as headspace, neck expansion, and how it'd behave the next trip through the resizing die. They thought it would be usable, but I opted for prudence and declared that lot of brass scrap.
I'm a cheapskate myself, and I thought for years I was saving money by hand-cleaning the brass. Then I broke down and got a tumbler. Geez, guys, they aren't that expensive! And BOY does it beat screwing around washing, wiping, and drying cases, scrubbing at stains, etc. My time is worth the extra $$ for the tumbler thank you very much. My reloads come out looking factory new!
BTW, if you persist in drying cases in the oven, be very careful you don't anneal the brass. It doesn't take much heat nor time. 200¡ will do it I believe. Once I accidentally produced a real pretty colorful lot. Called the Sierra help line 1-800-223-8799 and they suggested that I'd altered the hardness of the brass which would affect such things as headspace, neck expansion, and how it'd behave the next trip through the resizing die. They thought it would be usable, but I opted for prudence and declared that lot of brass scrap.