How often do you tumble your brass?

[fiddler]

I tumble with dry media every time I resize to get the lube off as well. Dry media lasts a long time and can do lots of brass. Even when it darkens in color it is still effective to clean and shine for a very long time.

 

[freddyfour]

I hardly ever clean my brass, it is all rifle brass.

 

[roadcarver]

I tumble before every reload, but not deprimed yet. I use corn cob media. I also throw in strips of used dryer sheets in the tumbler.

 

[kevin82]

Tumble before sizing and again after to get lube off.

^^^this^^^

 

[Magellann]

I clean it mostly every time, once in a while I'll skip it if it looks pretty good.

 

[Varmit]

I hardly ever clean my brass, it is all rifle brass.

me too. Brass goes from my cartridge case at the range into the rifle and back again. I inspect and wipe each piece with a rag and before and after re-sizing. I don't use picked up brass.

 

[hometownhero]

I size then stainless pins tumble every time. With 9mm I tumble then size then tumble again.

 

[freedomintheskies]

I'm in the "me too" camp.

I use walnut shell media in a vibration tumbler.

Before and after sizing - only costs an hour of electricity and the cases look pretty

What he said!

I put a wee bit of jewelers rouge or autosol metal polish in every so often too. My media is Princess Auto bulk walnut shell- $35 bucks for a 50lb bag.
Makes for some purty brass too.
Ex:Here is a block of .223 rounds that I did earlier this week.

 

[burnaby]

WT makes the resizing so smooth it is hard to go back to dry media.

 

[Eagleye]

When I deem they need cleaning. Can be one or two firings, but may be 5 or 6.

Not anal about shiny brass. I Just make sure it is not dirty so as to scratch dies. [ so far, have not scratched any]

Regards, Dave

 

[donor]

I tumble brass only if it was a range found and I'm about to FL size it.After that I found it to be waste of time just like cleaning primer pockets.
I'll rather spend time on case trimming and bullet quality control(cast bullets).
Neck annealing is a good way to spend time but only in some calibers.

 

[rl4930]

I tumble every firing with spent primers in, then I de-prime and neck size. I clean my primer pockets manually. No lube when neck sizing. Only when bumping shoulders.

 

[Chas59]

Tumble before sizing and again after to get lube off.

Me too, love my shiny brass, part of my OCD.

 

[silverfoxdj]

I tumble every firing with spent primers in, then I de-prime and neck size. I clean my primer pockets manually. No lube when neck sizing. Only when bumping shoulders.

Wouldn't it be easier and more effective to deprime first ??

 

[The Cold Lake Kid]

I dry tumble, with primer in, then de-prime/re-size. (I find if I de-prime then tumble, I have to clean media from the flash hole.)
After that, I run it through an RCBS Ultra Sonic Liquid.
Cleans up my cowboy brass pretty good!

 

[Magellann]

I started out depriming before cleaning, but not anymore. Its gets deprimed as I reload, I have not had a single fail to fire yet..

 

[Longwalker]

Reading all these posts would lead a newbie to conclude the tumbling brass is a required step. It is not. I tumble mine, nearly always before resizing, but it is not required in order to make good ammo, it just looks nicer.

 

[f55]

My name is f55, its been 9 months since my last brass tumble.

 

[freddyfour]

Reading all these posts would lead a newbie to conclude the tumbling brass is a required step. It is not. I tumble mine, nearly always before resizing, but it is not required in order to make good ammo, it just looks nicer.

I like them a bit on the dirty side.......

 

[Why not?]

Rifle brass gets tumbled once every four or five years, whether it needs it or not.

Ted