stainless steel pin media

hunter29180 said:

http://www.stainlesstumblingmedia.com/

anyone use these in a tumbler?

what were your results?

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I use them in a wet tumbler and the cases come out looking like factory new inside and out. I decap before putting them in and the primer cups and flash holes also look like they have never been used.

The tumbler is a "Thumblers Tumbler Model B". Add 5 lb of pins, one gallon of water, 1 tablespoon of cascade, and 1 tea spoon of a lemon cleaner. I tumble for 4 hours then spread them out on a pizza pan lined with two layers of paper towels and dry in the oven on the lowest setting (about 1.5 hours)

When they are dry I give them a quick shot of Remington dry lube. That helps them go through the dies easy.

The cartridges sure look pretty when you finish. You can't tell them from brand new.

P.S. The wet tumbler gets rid of the dirt and dust and noise.

hunter29180 & stev32k:

I would note that perfectly clean interiors of cases is not necessarily an advantage. The carbon residue from firing is a lubricant for the bullet as it is seated.

The neck tension the case has before bullet seating gives the inside diameter of the case an approximate 0.002 inch interference fit to the bullet (by design). Without the carbon residue the bullet might seat hard, collapsing the case wall.

If you just have to use this cleaning method then use an inside the case neck lubricant. NECO offers a graphite you apply by dipping only the neck into a bottle of small metal balls and powdered graphite. There may be other methods too (??).

LDBennett

LDBennett said:

hunter29180 & stev32k:

I would note that perfectly clean interiors of cases is not necessarily an advantage. The carbon residue from firing is a lubricant for the bullet as it is seated.

The neck tension the case has before bullet seating gives the inside diameter of the case an approximate 0.002 inch interference fit to the bullet (by design). Without the carbon residue the bullet might seat hard, collapsing the case wall.

If you just have to use this cleaning method then use an inside the case neck lubricant. NECO offers a graphite you apply by dipping only the neck into a bottle of small metal balls and powdered graphite. There may be other methods too (??).

LDBennett

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thanks for the advise LD!

question though..would not new cases you buy have the same problem? just wondering as this is first time anyone has given that advise...am looking into the graphite from NECO though...brass is getting too expensive to waste!

LDBennett said:

hunter29180 & stev32k:

I would note that perfectly clean interiors of cases is not necessarily an advantage. The carbon residue from firing is a lubricant for the bullet as it is seated.

The neck tension the case has before bullet seating gives the inside diameter of the case an approximate 0.002 inch interference fit to the bullet (by design). Without the carbon residue the bullet might seat hard, collapsing the case wall.

If you just have to use this cleaning method then use an inside the case neck lubricant. NECO offers a graphite you apply by dipping only the neck into a bottle of small metal balls and powdered graphite. There may be other methods too (??).

LDBennett

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I have not noticed a problem with excessive force needed to seat the bullet. The case neck is belled out and the bullet seems to slide in nice and easy with hardly any resistance. When I've had to pull bullets (a lot) I don't see any sign of scraping or scratching on the surface.

I did get resistance when resizing the case and the exterior had some scratches. Spraying them with the dry lube seems to help.

I ran a batch of 9mm cases in the tumbler without decapping first and it took noticeably more force to seat the primer. When they are de-primed before cleaning it feels very smooth when the new primer is seated. If they are de-primed after cleaning it feels kinda rough and takes more force.

stev32k:

I'll admit that pistol cartridges are not the problem with this but rifle cartridges are as there is no belling.

As for primer pocket cleaning, I NEVER clean pistol cartridges primer pockets and only clean rifle primer pockets when I trim after as many as three of four reloads. I can not tell the difference between cleaned and uncleaned primer pockets for primer pocket seating but I seat the primers on the press which has huge leverage which might hide the difference. I find the residue is on the bottom of the pocket, not the walls of the cavity. It does not make sense to me that the force to insert the primer would be any different unless it is the bottoming of the primer in the pocket. But anyway, we all get to do it the way we want.

LDBennett

I too have found no difference in bullet seating with the thousands of rounds I have water/stainless tumbled. I was not aware that commercial ammo utilized lubricant in the seating process, do they?