Does Everyone Tumble Cases?

[Blue68f100]

I did nothing but wipe them down for 30 yrs when I was only loading on a SS press. When I moved up to AP I started using the tumbler to clean my pistol brass. After a while I bought into the FART wet leaning system and now clean all my rifle brass in it. When my handgun brass gets real grungy I run it through the FART which is once very 4-5 firings.

 

[film495]

I tumble cases, but if I was shooting a lot I might not, just as it is time consuming. There is a certain satisfaction of putting brass in the tumbler and having it come out all shiny though. It does make it easier IMHO to pick up cases that maybe should not be loaded again. It is real easy to just notice imperfections when the brass is all bright and shiny.

 

[reddog81]

I bought a tumbler a couple of years ago but have never used. Cleaning with hot water and dish soap has been adequate for me and I've loaded at least 20,000 rounds using that method exclusively.

I prefer a little carbon on the case anyways. I've bought once fired cases that have been cleaned to the Nth degree and they required much more lubricant to run smoothly through the press.

 

[William Jump]

I tumble to clean my brass to keep my press and dies clean. I do like the shiny too.

 

[doubleh]

I no longer tumble cases. I'll give them tow or three shakes while letting a little chemical and water work for a few hours. All I want is clean, shiny is going to become un-shiny as soon as you shoot it again.

 

[mikey98e]

I started hand loading in the mid 70s. I've only wiped the cases with an old diaper. Now I'm finally looking at tumblers. I haven't decided to pull the trigger on a tumbler yet; still in the investigating stage.
-mike

 

[Demi-human]

What’s not to like?

Pins are the future.

 

[Rembrandt]

Have found tumbling to be the quickest and most efficient way to clean many things other than cases. Works very well to clean suppressor baffles and caked on carbon deposits. Wet, dry, steel pins, ceramic, corn cob, walnut.....each serves a different purpose.

 

[Ks5shooter]

Yup always tumbled wet and dry. Mostly dry.

 

[.308 Norma]

Is there room in this thread for us occasionally tumble folks? That's how I've been doing since I bought a tumbler somewhere around 35 years ago - 10 or more years after I started handloading.
I tumble cases when I want them to look cleaner. Sometimes (most of the time) I tumble them after I've sized and de-primed them, sometimes I tumble them before I size and de-prime them. But I guess that's a different discussion.

 

[George P]

I still have my Thumbler's Tumbler from the 80s.........always cleaned my brass (unprimed) all these years...........just made things easier, especially with carbide dies in pistol cartridges....

 

[Englishmn]

I usually wet tumble started with dry still do it sometimes.
When plinking in the yard will pick up brass and reload as is.
If loading for storage I wet tumble.

 

[Insignificant bill]

I built a wet tumbler out of two buckets some casters a hub and a electric drill, then tumble them for 15 minutes. Nice shiny brass

 

[AJC1]

If I were getting in now I would try the chips over the pins. The pins work good but are sometimes a real ptia. No negative reports on chips in primer holes or bridging but still looking.

 

[Herman B]

I won't handle dirty brass but to clean it. Handling/inhaling residue...no. SS pins and a good flush. Residue on walnut lingers. What's to be gained by chips?

 

[treedoc1]

Frankford tumbler here. Started with the Harbor Freight double drum. Shoot almost 80% black powder cartridges. Couldn't reload without it.

 

[geo57]

It seems like when I started reloading 40 years ago, case tumbling was an advanced or maybe luxury technique, and l never did it.

My shooting and reloading dropped of quite a bit while l raised a family, and now that I'm getting back into it seriously, it looks like most people consider it an essential step.

Am I the only one not tumbling cases?

No, you aren't. I have been reloading since 1973 and have yet to tumble a case. They get a good wipe before sizing, a light swirl with a small tool on the inside and before I put loaded rounds away I wipe them again.

 

[Wis-Harpo]

I have the Thumblers Tumbler I got in the 1970's, I think. It has 2 small drums that I use corncob media in. If I let it run over 2 hours, the motor gets real hot. On both sides of the motor housing there are cups to put oil in, so that tells you how old it is. It still works on my 45 acp brass. It still runs, so I have not replaced it. I shoot center fire rifle seldom, but it works for 45-70 and 32 Remington brass.

 

[cfullgraf]

I started reloading around 1980. I learned quickly that I wanted clean cases before sizing cases in steel dies. Any debris on the case gets embedded in the die and then scratches the cases.

I had an ultrasonic cleaner on hand at the time so I first began washing the cases in the ultrasonic cleaner. Later, when more reasonably priced vibrating tumblers came on the market, I'd dry tumble them.

I still dry tumble cases for the most part but sometimes I wet tumble with pins. I like bright shiny cases which make me shoot better.

 

[jmorris]

I tumble cases, but if I was shooting a lot I might not, just as it is time consuming.

That’s the opposite of what I do, I can clean thousands of cases at once by dumping them into a tumbler and turning it on and coming back later to get the clean ones out. My benchrest cases haven’t touched another case since each one was prepared, not a high volume thing at all so they just get rubbed down and brushed off.

Even if I did them by the thousands like my machinegun ammo, I still wouldn’t chunk them in the tumbler, the turned necks and lack of expander in the reloading process wouldn’t make it the best idea.

 

[jaguarxk120]

Last year I bought some reloads at a estate sale. Double checking what said on the box I pulled a
bullet, that's when things went down hill fast. I did not care about the powder as it went to
the lawn. BUT the inside of the case looked like a sewer, a old sewer!! The outside looked like new
having been run thru some sort of tumbler.
I pulled the other shells down, decapped and ran them thru the Thumblers tumbler with SS pins.
The case's came out look as new inside and out!
The pin tumbling works, maybe a little extra work, but worth it.

 

[Demi-human]

So far I have not run across a building code for reloaders so

There is.

1.) The projectile must leave the barrel.
2.) It must NOT blow up the firearm in the process.

(Generally I consider SAMMI specifications as the “Building Code”, but I get what you’re saying.)


@mdi , I can only imagine hand wiping 700 .223 cases, because I’ll never do it for real!

 

[kmw1954]

There is.

1.) The projectile must leave the barrel.
2.) It must NOT blow up the firearm in the process.

(.)

That would appear to be more a usage code than a builders code.

 

[Jack B.]

Back when I started reloading. I didn't know anybody that cleaned brass. I never heard of it but back then I really didn't know anyone who reloaded. I clean all my brass now. It just makes case inspection easier and I like having clean brass.

 

[Dunross]

When I first started reloading back in the early nineties a Midway tumbler was one f my first purchases after a single-stage press and dies. It keeps the worst of the dirt and grit out of my dies.

Just this week it started to act like the motor is giving out. Tens of thousands of pieces of brass through it.