Wet vs. Dry tumbling - effect on rifle accuracy

[goldpelican]

In cleaning the brass, I just got myself my first tumbler. It looks like the vibrator tumbler from HF tools, I bought some corncob bedding to try first, seemed to clean range brass I have quite a bit, I ran it for about a half hour to 45 minutes. I saw some youtube videos where some put nu shine in the mix as well, would this not contaminate the shell for powder? What mixtures does others here use? I'm trying this, but thinking of buying some walnut to try, could corncob and walnut be mixed? And just one more, how much media should I be using? I filled it to the first washer on the all thread bolt from the bottom up, I guess that would be about half full?

Thanks, Reno

Run it longer - I often do 3-4 hours. Sometimes less, sometimes longer.

"Winnow" new media outside to remove the bulk of the dust - pour it from bucket to bucket in a breeze, and you remove most of the dust that otherwise ends up on your cases.

Use Nu-Finish - a cap every few tumbles. Run the tumbler with just media for a few minutes before adding brass to break up the clumps of polish, otherwise they will end up inside a case as a clump.

Sift the brass through a colander, and reuse the media. I've polished a few thousand cases in my current media, it lasts a long time.

Tip the brass from a colander into an old towel, wrap it up and jiggle/massage to remove any remaining dust from the brass. Now it's good to prime and load.

 

[Reno380]

Run it longer - I often do 3-4 hours. Sometimes less, sometimes longer.

"Winnow" new media outside to remove the bulk of the dust - pour it from bucket to bucket in a breeze, and you remove most of the dust that otherwise ends up on your cases.

Use Nu-Finish - a cap every few tumbles. Run the tumbler with just media for a few minutes before adding brass to break up the clumps of polish, otherwise they will end up inside a case as a clump.

Sift the brass through a colander, and reuse the media. I've polished a few thousand cases in my current media, it lasts a long time.

Tip the brass from a colander into an old towel, wrap it up and jiggle/massage to remove any remaining dust from the brass. Now it's good to prime and load.

Well noted and I think I will clean my brass like this. I was at the thrift store I go to regularly (it's for hospice for cancer patients) and I always buy something if needed or not and just re-donate and leave a donation, but I bought a bowl and collanderer when I got home I drilled the collander with bigger holes so the corncob media will fall thru easily but the shells stay, Thank you for the idea! i will try the nu finish trick too!!

Reno

 

[Kaldor]

I did this batch of .308 in the evening and didn't want to wait

The dents on the case mouth were small, but noticeable. Out of 200 cases I've only found a few. I'll post a pic if I see more.

In this particular case, I dry tumbled first, then annealed, then sized, then wet tumbled (with lube still on them), then dried, then loaded

Yup, they are small, but I wouldnt want to seat bullets into an out of round neck for obvious reasons. Thats why I just run an M-die as a matter of course before any rifle reloading.

 

[Nature Boy]

Other than the additional work for not a lot of gain, this is probably why I won't be wet tumbling rifle brass, particularly for accuracy loads

As mentioned earlier, I'm finding a fair share of dented necks.

 

[Blue68f100]

Your cleaning procedure is a little different than mine. I anneal after the initial wet cleaning, and use a dry tumbler to clean off the lube. I don't get any dented necks doing it this way. After annealing the necks are really soft and can dent very easily.

 

[Nature Boy]

That makes sense

 

[Reno380]

I love reading these types of threads, I am learning so much. I also learned what happens if I put to much at one time in my tumbler, the infamous lid pops off, center rod gets to hot and bowl starts to spin, live and learn I guess.....

 

[Dentite]

I love wet SS stumbling. I didn't expect accuracy difference, but nice to hear it confirmed. As far as drying...I live in AZ where it's usually nice and dry. I just tumble the day before I want to load and the brass is dry with no extra steps. Well I do find one extra step helpful in the getting the brass less wet. After using my SS pin rotary separator, I through in some paper towels into the "cage" and tumble the brass in the separator for a few seconds. This won't dry the brass completely, but it'll dry enough to prevent water spots from our very hard water.