Tumbling Brass

[welshwarrior]

Are there any advantages to tumbling brass?

 

I'm very sad and find it a little bit of a let down that my home loads don't look a shinny as shop bought.

 

So really the question help me convince myself that I must tumble or polish my brass in some other way.

[achosenman]

It depends on what you want. I always tumble and having tried solution, dry media, ultra sonic and wet stainless steel. I use the latter only, these days.

ATB

Edited April 19, 2015 by achosenman

[old man]

Daf, never mind the shine, IMO that doesn't help accuracy?

[rem708]

Having spent a long time amongst exceedingly experienced shooters in the USA I was given some advice regarding tumbling or any other cleaning for that matter. One should never over clean brass as it puts undue pressure on the bolt face. The reason being the brass slides easily in the chamber and the only way it can go is back towards the bolt.

 

Now do I like shiny brass? I sure do and I'm guilty of over tumbling and what’s more I tumble every time I reload. I justify this as I can inspect the case better but to be honest it's a poor excuse

 

Keep your brass clean by all means. Tumblers are not that cheap so justify the expense. I personally was loading over 1k rounds a week so there was no issue but if your only 10-20 a week then I would not bother.

 

As 'old man' has said it has no effect on accuracy!

 

Your quarry wont care - it’s just the shiny bullet they have the intimate relation with

[phaedra1106]

For smaller amounts a 30min 20-40c wash inside a sock in the washing machine will do nicely

 

Personally I use a stainless tumbler for most of my cases (50 to 100 at a time) just set it away for an hour or two and job done.

 

The one advantage clean brass has is that it's easier to spot any case defects.

Edited April 19, 2015 by phaedra1106

[reggiegun]

Are there any advantages to tumbling brass?

I'm very sad and find it a little bit of a let down that my home loads don't look a shinny as shop bought.

So really the question help me convince myself that I must tumble or polish my brass in some other way.

For the amount of brass your on about, I would ultrasonic clean. I used to use a small ultrasonic cleaner and see clean, brings them up shinny and primer pockets clean.

Them Gingar got into ME reloading for his calibre's as well, so I needed a tumbler!

[achosenman]

Having spent a long time amongst exceedingly experienced shooters in the USA I was given some advice regarding tumbling or any other cleaning for that matter. One should never over clean brass as it puts undue pressure on the bolt face. The reason being the brass slides easily in the chamber and the only way it can go is back towards the bolt.

 

 

 

It might be me being thick, but I'm having a hard time following that logic.

 

My understanding is as follows.

The metallic cartridges form a convenient place to put bullet, powder and primer. It also acts as a gas seal upon firing. It does not form a component to withstand the pressure of firing. Most centre fire cases obturate at pressures in excess of 30,000psi, this forms the gas seal. The pressure is contained by the chamber and breach mechanism.This point is easily demonstrated by excessive headspace. The result is case head separation. (Brass failure) This is because under the extreme pressure of firing ( Win270 65,000psi ) the case will obturate, the case walls grip the chamber regardless of how shiny they are, but the brass will stretch in a rearward direction until it meets the bolt face, (in bolt action rifles) where any further movement is stopped. If the rearward travel exceeds the elasticity of the brass, case failure and head separation is the result. If the brass case could move rearwards in this excessive headspace scenario, you wouldn't get the failure. The fact that firing dirty brass makes it a bit stickier to chamber, is completely irrelevant at the immense working pressures in modern firearms.

 

I might have this wrong but it sounds more like an urban legend to me.

 

ATB

Edited April 19, 2015 by achosenman

[Harnser]

I use a vibratory cleaner with crushed walnut shell media . A tea spoon of brasso in the mix and bobs your uncle squeaky clean brass . When the media gets dirty tie it in an old pillow case and put in the washing machine on a short wash without detergents and then in the tumble drier .

 

Harnser

[SPARKIE]

i have a massive industial ultrasonic cleaner with heater the lot holds about 10 litre of water you could put a thousand rounds in i recon....do i use it? not really i just use the old lyman 1200 tumbler. its clean enough for me and i like shiney brass.

[welshwarrior]

Been thick here hadn't thought about it but I've a 3l industrial ultra sonic cleaner I can use but will have to use a different solution.

[steve_b_wales]

I use a tumbler, but recently, I have starting using again, my ultra sonic cleaner. I heat up Birchwood Casey Case Cleaner in the microwave, and then set the cleaner for 5 minutes. The cases come out sparkling clean inside and out.

[Bewsher500]

citric acid in a US when i can be bothered

don't use lube so cleaning isnt a necessity

[Woodlander]

I was under the impression that residues can cause undue wear and tear to dies when resizing. I tend to clean the cases after firing and again after resizing/decapping,which then removes the lube and cleans the primer pocket. Probably got too much time on my hands