I think that I'm sold on wet tumbling!

[La Sombra]

@Chief Rickand @Itchy Triggerboth have extolled the virtue of wet tumbling.

As a black powder shooter (All Hail the Holy Black), I have been less than thrilled with the results from my vibratory tumbler. So I went and ordered a Frankford Arsenal Wet Tumbler, stainless media and the magnet.

 

Holy Shitte! The results from 2 hours tumbling makes my brass look new. It is cleaned inside and out. I'm sold on this.

 

La Sombra

 

[Captain Bill Burt]

I haven’t regretted the switch and it definitely helped reduce my blood lead levels. 36 down to 14, and counting.

[Ranger Dan]

I've always used dry media tumbling. Think I am going to switch. A friend who wet tumbles then reloads using my dillon brought the cleanest brass over. I need to start shopping for a wet tumbling solution.

[Will Kane]

1 hour ago, La Sombra said:

@Chief Rickand @Itchy Triggerboth have extolled the virtue of wet tumbling.

As a black powder shooter (All Hail the Holy Black), I have been less than thrilled with the results from my vibratory tumbler. So I went and ordered a Frankford Arsenal Wet Tumbler, stainless media and the magnet.

 

Holy Shitte! The results from 2 hours tumbling makes my brass look new. It is cleaned inside and out. I'm sold on this.

 

La Sombra

 

Earlier this week, I wet tumbled some really dirty 45-70 brass I shot in a Plainsman match last year. I ran it through clean hot water and Dawn for a couple of hours twice. It came out gleaming.

[Denali Drifter]

I have two batches of 9mm wet tumbling right now, .  2.5 tbsp of Armor All Wash and Wax and a dash of Lemishine for 3-4 hours and even the dirtiest of brass comes out sparkling clean with just a touch of wax on it to protect against tarnishing later.  I started wet tumbling about 5 years ago.  Won't go back to dry media.

[Will Kane]

I’ve had really good luck using this for wet tumbling soap.

[La Sombra]

@Will Kane,

I think I'll try that next time I tumble. (Which should be Sunday!)

 

La Sombra

[Captain Bill Burt]

1 hour ago, Ranger Dan said:

I've always used dry media tumbling. Think I am going to switch. A friend who wet tumbles then reloads using my dillon brought the cleanest brass over. I need to start shopping for a wet tumbling solution.

I use a Rebel 17 and this

 

1 hour ago, Denali Drifter said:

I have two batches of 9mm wet tumbling right now, .  2.5 tbsp of Armor All Wash and Wax and a dash of Lemishine for 3-4 hours and even the dirtiest of brass comes out sparkling clean with just a touch of wax on it to protect against tarnishing later.  I started wet tumbling about 5 years ago.  Won't go back to dry media.

I use about a tablespoon of each per 300-400 pieces.

[Krazy Kajun]

1 hour ago, La Sombra said:

@Will Kane,

I think I'll try that next time I tumble. (Which should be Sunday!)

 

La Sombra

You don't have to use the pins to get the brass clean.  I tried the pins the very first time I got my Frankford Arsenal wet tumbler and sure the brass came out all shiny and stuff but it took me forever to get those pins out of the brass.  I tumble with the fired primers in the brass.  I kept finding pins inside the brass when I tried to reload them, depriming pin found most of them for me.

 

Now I tumble using a little Dawn and a small amount of Lemishine and my brass look brand new when finished and there are no little pins scattered all over to deal with. You can use whatever soap and wax that you want.....choose what works for you.  But you do NOT need to use pins to get very shiny and clean brass.

 

Kajun

[Warden Callaway]

I've only used Simple Green and Lemi Shine. Have the pins but never used them. 

 

[Cheyenne Ranger, 48747L]

to get pins out dump the brass and pins into a media separator like RCBS', fill with water and rotater the cage about a dozen times.   The pins  will drop out and end up on the bottom

 

to make this more fool-proof I use SS chips vs pins.  they are tiny in comparison and I've never had one left in the cases

 

I am not affiliated with the SS chip supplier other than a happy customer

 

their link:  https://tbbullets.com/southern-shine-media-2/?fbclid=IwAR1322QRi9xaZg4LWdF04XtYQO96a_MAWvsADdw0oi2w_W3J57JnOfbNzFQ

 

also on FB if you are on that:  https://www.facebook.com/southernshinemedia/

[Cheyenne Ranger, 48747L]

I do find I need to hit my clean dry cases with a spray of Hornady's One Shot lube as there is nothing left on the cases after they 'bath'

 

makes resizing loads easier

 

I'm old and lazy

 

 

[Sedalia Dave]

46 minutes ago, Cheyenne Ranger, 48747L said:

to get pins out dump the brass and pins into a media separator like RCBS', fill with water and rotater the cage about a dozen times.   The pins  will drop out and end up on the bottom

 

 

This is what I do. I have the RCBS media seperator and the Frankford Aresonal tumbler.

 

Learned not to overfill the basket. I limit the level of brass to no more than 1/3rd of the volume of one half of the basket.  Close the basket and then fill the tub till it covers the brass plus 1" Too much brass and the pins will not drop out of the basket. Too much water and as you turn the basket the water doesn't wash the pins out.

[Mister Badly]

After I separate the pins and brass I put the brass in a bag made from two large towels and shake it up very well. That dries the cases pretty good and gets any loose pins out of the cases. If it's sunny I put them on a tray in the sun. If not I spread them out on a towel and have a fan blowing across them for a few hours.

[Krazy Kajun]

1 hour ago, Cheyenne Ranger, 48747L said:

I do find I need to hit my clean dry cases with a spray of Hornady's One Shot lube as there is nothing left on the cases after they 'bath'

 

makes resizing loads easier

 

I'm old and lazy

 

 

I'm with ya on the old and lazy. Right before I reload the brass I'll put them in a one gallon zip lock bag and spray some Hornady One Shot around in the bag and on the brass and then close the bag and roll the brass around in the bag.....helps spread out the lube to the cases better.  The One Shot will evaporate in a few minutes and then I load them.  Max Payne says "It's like giving your Dillon an action job!" and I agree with that.

 

Kajun

[Chief Rick]

I've tried two different car washes with wax and am now using Dawn with a dash of LemiShine, have never opened the bag of media that came with it.  After seeing in an old did dehydrator, I always put the brass in loading blocks to inspect case necks prior to loading, so I give them a blast of Hornady One-Shot Case Lube.

[Jack Spade]

9 hours ago, Cheyenne Ranger, 48747L said:

I do find I need to hit my clean dry cases with a spray of Hornady's One Shot lube as there is nothing left on the cases after they 'bath'

 

makes resizing loads easier

 

I'm old and lazy

 

 

If you will use armor-all car wash and wax or the maguires pictured above you won't need any lube on pistol cases.  

[Tucker McNeely]

+1 to the wet tumbler option here also.  I put a Folgers can of the 240 or 270 cup size full of brass in each load.  Then I lay out to dry.  I use car wash with wax to clean with Lemishine also.  If you are thinking about it, I highly recommend it.  

[Nostrum Damus SASS #110702]

The super shiny brass attracts me like a bass to a wacky worm, but I have a couple of basic questions:

 

1.  Does super shiny brass shoot straighter than the perfectly clean but less than pretty stuff that comes out of my dry media vibratory tumbler? 

2. Does anyone other than you see how nice and shiny your brass is, other than at the loading table?

 

ND

[Mister Badly]

With the super shiny brass I am able to visually confirm the powder charge when reloading on my Lee press. I have a light shining at a downward angle across the top of the case and the super shinyness reflects light inside. 

[Nostrum Damus SASS #110702]

6 minutes ago, Mister Badly said:

With the super shiny brass I am able to visually confirm the powder charge when reloading on my Lee press. I have a light shining at a downward angle across the top of the case and the super shinyness reflects light inside. 

OK, if you need that level of shine.  I have no trouble inspecting powder charges in my cases in the loading tray with a bright flashlight.

[Irish Dan O'Shootem]

15 hours ago, Cheyenne Ranger, 48747L said:

to get pins out dump the brass and pins into a media separator like RCBS', fill with water and rotater the cage about a dozen times.   The pins  will drop out and end up on the bottom

 

to make this more fool-proof I use SS chips vs pins.  they are tiny in comparison and I've never had one left in the cases

 

I am not affiliated with the SS chip supplier other than a happy customer

 

their link:  https://tbbullets.com/southern-shine-media-2/?fbclid=IwAR1322QRi9xaZg4LWdF04XtYQO96a_MAWvsADdw0oi2w_W3J57JnOfbNzFQ

 

also on FB if you are on that:  https://www.facebook.com/southernshinemedia/

This is how Ido it works great. I also deprime my brass first.

[Cheyenne Ranger, 48747L]

My shiny brass brings a smile to my face which is reason enough for me

 

+ I got to my more stuff to do it--that is always a 'good thing'

 

 

[Cheyenne Ranger, 48747L]

1 minute ago, Irish Dan O'Shootem said:

This is how Ido it works great. I also deprime my brass first.

 

yes, to get the most out of this, depriming first is a must. 

 

if you don't you need to do it quickly after the wet tumbling or you could get a bunch of stuck primers do to corrosion between the primer and primer pocket.  If bad enough you deprime pin can punch through the primer leaving the sides of it still in the pocket

 

[Springfield Slim SASS #24733]

A loading tray is great if you load just for you, but I load for 4 shooters in my family, using my Dillon 550. About every 5 loads I deprime before I wet tumble, with soap and Lemishine, to clean out the primer pockets, which only works with steel pins. I also like to be able to check the powder level, which also works better if I use the pins and get the insides shiny clean. After tumbling I use the Frantfort brass tumbler, they dry outside on a towel, and even with bottlenecked 44-40 I have no problem with left-over pins, as long as the cases are totally dry. I haven'tb roken a depriming pin on my 550 in 10 years, and that was caused by a small piece of gravel in the case. No, they don't shoot better than dirty cases any more than my car going faster after I wash it, but it makes me feel better, and makes inspection of cases much easier.

[Nostrum Damus SASS #110702]

So, I reload for me and my wife, but we hardly go through large piles of ammo between us, given our relative infrequency of shooting matches.  Looking at the comments, it does seem to be a useful thing to do every so often -- even if to clean the primer pockets which I generally ignore (as I dry tumble to clean before decapping), though I wouldn't do it every time.  It is a bit complicated though because I live in an apartment and not a house with garage, driveway, backyard, outside running water, etc.  I'll have to look into it.

[John Kloehr]

21 hours ago, Captain Bill Burt said:

I haven’t regretted the switch and it definitely helped reduce my blood lead levels. 36 down to 14, and counting.

This!

2 hours ago, Nostrum Damus SASS #110702 said:

Does anyone other than you see how nice and shiny your brass is, other than at the loading table?

Brass pickers.

[La Sombra]

1 hour ago, John Kloehr said:

This!

Brass pickers.

 

+1 on the brass pickers.

 

@Nostrum Damus SASS #110702, different strokes for different folks. We all do what we believe is best for each of us. This goes from caliber choice, shooting category, and alias. Have fun.

 

La Sombra

[Nostrum Damus SASS #110702]

Of course, La Sombra!  No one, least of all me, is suggesting otherwise!  I was just trying to figure out if taking advantage of a Black Friday deal on a wet tumber kit was something I wanted to do -- and I've decided YES!  More toys is more fun!

[Irish Dan O'Shootem]

22 hours ago, Cheyenne Ranger, 48747L said:

 

yes, to get the most out of this, depriming first is a must. 

 

if you don't you need to do it quickly after the wet tumbling or you could get a bunch of stuck primers do to corrosion between the primer and primer pocket.  If bad enough you deprime pin can punch through the primer leaving the sides of it still in the pocket

 

I've never had to do it. But I would think PB Blaster would help get stuck primers out.

[Sedalia Dave]

3 hours ago, Irish Dan O'Shootem said:

I've never had to do it. But I would think PB Blaster would help get stuck primers out.

 

When using a progressive press the extra force goes caused by a stuck primer goes unnoticed. I find out when the new primer doesn't seat. Even if i did notice it 1 piece of pistol brass is not worth the effort.

 

I have been wet tumbling without depriming pistol brass for several years and have easily reloaded over 50,000 rounds of 38 special. In that time I have had less than 5 stuck primers. As I shoot a lot of range pickups that may have been out in the weather for a while I can't say what caused the primers to stick. 

[Buckshot Bear]

besides the wet tumbler, the second best thing I bought -

 

[Shooting Bull]

Now I'll throw you a big curve ball, get rid of the pins.  Yep, I said it.  Ditch the pins and add about a tablespoon of Strat O Sheen burnishing compound to whatever your regular formula is.  Gets your brass every bit as clean and shiny without the hassle of having to separate the pins afterwards. 

[Eyesa Horg]

59 minutes ago, Shooting Bull said:

Now I'll throw you a big curve ball, get rid of the pins.  Yep, I said it.  Ditch the pins and add about a tablespoon of Strat O Sheen burnishing compound to whatever your regular formula is.  Gets your brass every bit as clean and shiny without the hassle of having to separate the pins afterwards. 

Are you also using the Lemi-Shine with the Strato-Sheen?

[Shooting Bull]

15 minutes ago, Eyesa Horg said:

Are you also using the Lemi-Shine with the Strato-Sheen?

 

No, I've stopped using Lemi-Shine but that has nothing to do with the Strat O Sheen.  If you have hard water the Lemi-Shine is definitely a benefit. But we have a whole house water filter/conditioner system so our water is already very soft.  That makes the Lemi-Shine redundant and unnecessary.