? for those who use SS Pins in wet tumbler

[Noah Cash]

Wife gave me a wet tumbler with 5Lbs SS Pins. Works fantastic in straight wall cases, My questions is for the small mouth bottle neck cases, .223 5.56 MM and the like. Does it work ok, how do the pins clear so there is not a lot left in the cases?

I tumble cases in a Dillon separator and only a very few pins are left to clear in the .45s .38s ect. but I forsee a problem with .223 and the like. Am I over thinking it, is it really an issue? Any shortcuts or pointers?

Thanks for the input in advance

[Buffalo Bill Mathewson, 37826]

I have only wet tumbled pistol cases but I found with them if I fill the bottom tub of the separator with water so the cases and pins are submerged as the separator is turned the pins wash away and sink to the bottom of the separator tub. Without the water submersion some of the pins stayed in the cases.

[Ace_of_Hearts]

I de-prime my brass and then wet clean this way after every firing. Then I tumble dry them in crushed walnut.

No matter what you do, you will find that some pins work their way inside the case and hide there.

I have found the way to minimize the problem is to place 3 or 4 neodymium magnets in with the dry media. The magnets collect the errant pins and make them easy to remove when the job is done.

Be sure to inspect for pins and media before you reload/prime the cases.

[Noz]

I do 32-20 and 44-40 both of which are mildly bottlenecked with no problem. Much better that the ceramic media.

[Rusty Chains]

I will not be running my pins in 5.56/223 cases. I had the "experience" of throwing about 400 of those cases in dry corncob media that was pet bedding stuff that was cheap and ground fairly coarse. Good thing I was slicing the necks to make those into 300 Blackout. Over half those cases got jammed up but good, once I sliced the necks, I was able to clear all of them. When they first came out of that media I thought I was gonna have to toss a bunch of them. I dumped the rest of that media in the compost pile, and bought real tumbling media, and wrote the time spent recovering off to "educational experience" and to be fair to the fellow who suggested the idea, he is mostly a pistol shooter.

[Kid Rich]

The stainless pins work fairly well in .223 and other bottle neck cases. kR

[Hurricane Deck 100366]

Stainless pin tumble all my 5.56, 30-06, 300WM, 30-30 and 308 cases with stainless pins and have had great success. As has been stated, when running them through the media separator, having the bottom half submerged in water is the entire trick to getting them all out. I run the separator a little longer with necked case just to make sure that all come out. I use the Frankford Arsenal separator.all the pins end up in the bottom of the bucket ready to be rinsed and put back in the tumbler. No really any more work than pistol cases in the long run.

[Echeconnee Drifter]

I just tumbled 140 5.56 cases some one had left laying around on the ground when I showed up to our monthly shoot Saturday. First time I'd ever tumbled bottle necked cases that small and I haven't noted any increase in the amount of stray pins hanging around inside the case mouth as compared to the straight-walled .45s I tumble all the time.

 

IME the most likely place for pins to get stuck is inside the flash hole (usually when two or three try to cram through the hole at the same time). Just agitate them pretty good when you separate the media. You shouldn't note any more issue with the bottle-necked cases than the straight-walled. It appears to me that the most common reasons for media left in the case isn't that the case mouth is too small for them to exit, but rather that they just stick to the case wall due to soapy water residue.