what am i doing wrong in my tumbling?

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boombag13

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hi all, grabbed a FA wet tumbler earlier this year, have done a few batches of pistol & rifle brass, obviously the ousides & insides come out looking like new, but i can’t seem to consistently get the primer pockets clean, i’m not overloading the brass, filling the water to where its supposed to....i’m at a loss lol any help or tips would be greatly appreciated!
 
I always clean the primer pockets before I tumble. Sure if you tumble for 3 to 4 hours you might get them clean. You'll also end up with pitted case mouths. I'd rather clean the pockets as part of the chamfer / deburr process and tumble for 60 minutes instead. If you're worried about dirty brass messing up your dies, deprime first, tumble for 30 minutes, do all the case prep including cleaning the pockets, then tumble again for 60 minutes.
 
boombag13 said:
hi all, grabbed a FA wet tumbler earlier this year, have done a few batches of pistol & rifle brass, obviously the ousides & insides come out looking like new, but i can’t seem to consistently get the primer pockets clean, i’m not overloading the brass, filling the water to where its supposed to....i’m at a loss lol any help or tips would be greatly appreciated!
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Either you tumble too many cases at once or you don't tumble long enough. Or your criteria for "clean pocket" is out of touch with reality. There's always 3 faint spots in the pocket that will never go away unless you scrub the brass to an extent that shouldn't be done (that's what some do with pocket cleaners). Post a picture of a tumbled brass.
 
Ok....this maybe a silly question......but are you putting the stainless steel media in the mix? My primer pockets come out quite good.......no problems.
 
boombag13 said:
zuke said:
What case's and how many?
I use a plastic container as a measuring device for pistol brass[/QUOTE

its either 45’s or 223/556’s, i’m using the media that came with the tumbler
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700 .223 is too many for 5lbs of SS medias. The medias get into the cases and tends to stay there in bottleneck cases. Try 1/2 that many and see how it goes, then increase or decrease until you get satisfactory results.

Just because the brass fit into the container, it doesn't mean you're not over capacity.
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VinnyQC said:
boombag13 said:
700 .223 is too many for 5lbs of SS medias. The medias get into the cases and tends to stay there in bottleneck cases. Try 1/2 that many and see how it goes, then increase or decrease until you get satisfactory results.

Just because the brass fit into the container, it doesn't mean you're not over capacity.
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the manual says it’ll do 1000 so i thought i was ok at 700....
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What solution are you mixing in with the tumbler? The only time I've ever gotten primer pockets not as clean as I usually do is when I decided to mix 1600+ pieces of 9mm, but everything still came out quite clean and shiny.

For the record, I mix a few squirts of dawn dish soap, and 1/4 tea spoon of lemi shine in with every load.
 
I'm a Cowboy Action Shooter and as long as the outside of the case is clean and shiny and the flash hole is open, I'm happy.
Some of the .45 Colt cases I'm using have been re-used since 2002 with no issues involving the flash holes.
 
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