Wet vs Dry Tumbling

[dennishoddy]

Some of the competition shooters were using Harbor Freight cement mixers and pins when loading a thousand or so a week.
Nothing but vibratory for me. Gets em clean enough and worked since 1980 when starting to reload.

 

[Rustytigwire]

Wet with pins removes all carbon. There are many discussions about how this may affect (increase) neck tension . (Like press fit cold weld omg these should go in easier why are they so damn sticky!)
Im still struggling with which (product/ lube) way to resolve this.
Or not getem too clean.
But the brass is sparkly.

 

[SPOONBILL]

First thing I do with fired brass is decap. I then sonic clean and dry tumble. That gets my brass clean and shiny enough that I will resize. I wont run dirty brass through my dies. After I resize I wash my brass thoroughly with Dawn dish soap to get case lube off and dry tumble again.

 

[swampratt]

Im still struggling with which (product/ lube) way to resolve this.
Or not getem too clean.
But the brass is sparkly.

I do not have sticky issues with my pin cleaned cases vs walnut media.
Maybe my tumble time and prep afterwards is the key or my copper pins.

Think about brand spanking new Lapua cases or Remington cases no carbon in those and they shoot well.

I do anneal after wet tumbling of my rifle cases and I brush the necks inside with a spinning nylon bore brush after annealing.
Then they get lubed with Hornady unique case lube by hand and Qtip.
then sized and lube wiped off and Qtip cleans the lube out of the inside of the neck.

Then after sizing and before final measuring they get the nylon spinning bore brush taken to the insides of the neck again.
Then loaded.

The brushing of the case neck ID really made a difference in sizing and seating forces no matter what method of cleaning was performed.
Accuracy improved a bit also with brushing.

I know some that will pin tumble then corn cob polish to make em slicker.
But they use stainless pins.
And the reason for corn cob was because sizing forces were greater with pin tumbling.

When i did a brass fail test shooting 4 different brand .308 cases until they failed I did not do any fancy cleaning just brush and wipe off.
Sub MOA ammo even sub MOA with mixed cases and not trimming the necks until they were .030" past trim length.

100 yard shooting though.
No annealing either and the winner was R-P .308 case with over 52 reloads until it got a case head crack.

 

[Forgalspop]

I do not have sticky issues with my pin cleaned cases vs walnut media.
Maybe my tumble time and prep afterwards is the key or my copper pins.

Think about brand spanking new Lapua cases or Remington cases no carbon in those and they shoot well.

I do anneal after wet tumbling of my rifle cases and I brush the necks inside with a spinning nylon bore brush after annealing.
Then they get lubed with Hornady unique case lube by hand and Qtip.
then sized and lube wiped off and Qtip cleans the lube out of the inside of the neck.

Then after sizing and before final measuring they get the nylon spinning bore brush taken to the insides of the neck again.
Then loaded.

The brushing of the case neck ID really made a difference in sizing and seating forces no matter what method of cleaning was performed.
Accuracy improved a bit also with brushing.

I know some that will pin tumble then corn cob polish to make em slicker.
But they use stainless pins.
And the reason for corn cob was because sizing forces were greater with pin tumbling.

When i did a brass fail test shooting 4 different brand .308 cases until they failed I did not do any fancy cleaning just brush and wipe off.
Sub MOA ammo even sub MOA with mixed cases and not trimming the necks until they were .030" past trim length.

100 yard shooting though.
No annealing either and the winner was R-P .308 case with over 52 reloads until it got a case head crack.

I am guessing many reloaders have their preferred methods of cleaning and prepping brass and some methods might be more effective than others. My methods work for me.

I dry tumble with a Franklin Arsenal vibratory tumbler filled with white rice misted with Meguiar’s Quik Detailer. I purchased 10 pounds of bulk white rice many years ago and still have over half of it left. I can clean many batches of brass before discarding the rice. There is no dust that corn cob or walnut shell media produces and it’s cheap.

I use a mixture of lanolin and Iso-Heet injector cleaner for lube. It is mixed in a pump aerosol spray hairspray bottle. The Iso-Heat is isopropyl alcohol (I believe it is close to 100 %) I let the alcohol evaporate before neck sizing the rifle brass. Before priming and after cleaning primer pockets I clean the inside of the necks with a Q-tip wetted with isopropyl alcohol before charging with powder and bullet seating.

After discussing annealing with Swampratt I have starting annealing the necks on every case before reloading. I have not yet had a chance to see if the annealing cases between each firing improve accuracy. I was lightly factory crimping the necks with Lee’s Factory crimp dies, but Swampratt has convinced me it not necessary. Again, I have not had a chance to test factory crimped vs. not crimping for accuracy.

My brass does not have to be totally pretty and shiny; it only has to be clean. If brass sits for an extended time before shooting, it will oxidize and dull anyhow. In my opinion and by what I have read, the oxidization on brass actually is somewhat a lubricant in itself.

As Swampratt has mentioned previously, the prepping of brass is an important part of the reloading process and one that takes the most time for my reloading. I have not got into neck turning, but will in the near future. I’m sure that will add a smidge more to accuracy.

The longer I reload the more I learn. I’m not sure anyone has a corner on the market as to the perfect way to reload and for most it is an evolving learning process. That is part of the enjoyment of reloading.

Happy reloading and shooting to all!

 

[crapsguy]

I'm still new to the reloading world so I'd appreciate any help y'all could offer on the subject.

Since I began reloading (about a year ago) I have been dry tumbling my brass, can anyone tell me, besides nice shiny brass, if there is an advantage to switch over to wet tumbling and if so, what that is?

try this - you might like it
when you come home from the range dump your brass in a plastic container [2-3qt] that has a lid
run your faucet until you have hot water and fill the container with the brass in it
add a teaspoon of lemishine [used in your wife's dishwasher] -- *more is not better
add a tablespoon of oxyclean and put the lid on and shake it up - you will notice the brass immediately starts to clean
re-shake every 15min or so ----- 2-3 times then rinse the brass off [I put mine inside an old t-shirt and shake it a bit]
this cleans the brass inside and out - with no abrasion and no concern about crap in your cases

I do a similar process after lubing and resizing my rifle brass using blue dawn instead of oxyclean
btw - lubing rifle brass by squirting inside of a ziplock bag with small amt of non-stick spray [ie Pam]
adding brass and shake/missage around works great too
covers very good - none inside the cases - easy to wash off

 

[Jack Shootza 50]

I'm still new to the reloading world so I'd appreciate any help y'all could offer on the subject.

Since I began reloading (about a year ago) I have been dry tumbling my brass, can anyone tell me, besides nice shiny brass, if there is an advantage to switch over to wet tumbling and if so, what that is?

I prefer wet although it is a bigger PITA for the clean up BUT they are squeaky clean and they have no abrasive media left on them, even when I do use a dry process I still wash them to get the media off, the stuff is hard on sizing dies.

 

[Rustytigwire]

I think the pins may in some instances rough the interior surface of the necks and provide a better "bonding or stickier" surface than a new or sized or carboned or lubricated neck.
I switched to ss chips but dont like chasing them.
Swampratt...copper pins is smart! Softer than brass makes good sense!!

 

[Hangfire]

I ran the wet vs dry tumbling across the forum back in June and not wanting the extra step of drying brass I decided to just stick with dry media tumbling like I've been doing since way back in the 80's when I started reloading.

I'll just continue to add a dab or two of Midway's brass polish to the media and change it when I see it start turning dark / getting dirty.......have been pretty happy with the results up till now so I'm just going to stick with it. Frankford Arsenal Brass Case Polish 32oz Liquid

 

[swampratt]

I still use my vibratory but it is used for steel and aluminum cases.