Stainless media question

[TSPIRI]

Hi I'm new to wet tumbling. I just picked up a small tumbler with a 3lb canister. I'm looking at ordering my stainless media so how much is enough for small batches of rifle brass. Is 1lb of media to 30 or 40 cases enough?

As far as media is concerned should I only look at straight pins? I've found stainless media with pins and 2 or 3 different shapes/sizes of shot mixed in and I'm just curious if one is better than the other.

Thanks

 

[SND]

You don't want odd random size pins that could get stuck in there.
I've stopped using stainless for tumbling rifle brass, sure it was quick to do a lot at once(200-300), but had some down sides and after a few stuck pins I decided it was no longer worth the risk for my use. Back to just ultrasonic, 50-60 rounds at a time.

 

[LUTNIT]

I use 5lbs of pins in a drum with ~300 .308 cases or ~1200 9mm cases at a time. Seems like a decent ratio. So assuming it's a linear relationship, 1lbs would be good for up to 60 cases of similar in size to .308.
You want to make sure the pins are either thin enough to pass through the flash holes or thick enough to not even go in; usually thicker is better. You also want to make sure the length wont get stuck sideways in the primer pockets.
The drum does need a certain fill capacity to work well. I've tumbled batches down to 1/3 the drum capacity with good effect, ideal is around 1/2 to 3/4 capacity, and I tried some over 3/4 (closer to 80-85%) and they didn't clean well at all.

I use the pins that came with my Lyman set and I haven't had a stuck pin yet tumbling 9mm, .40, .223, and .308. I have run into other issues with stainless tumbling I didn't have with dry media tumbling though. Any amount of sand in the tumbler seems to burnish the cases very dull and they become more difficult to size and it's quite terrible at removing wax from cases (Imperial/Redding sizing wax or Lanolin lubes). Both these issues result in me having to run some batches through the tumbler 2-3 times, rinsing and refreshing the water each time.

 

[diopter]

You don't want odd random size pins that could get stuck in there.
I've stopped using stainless for tumbling rifle brass, sure it was quick to do a lot at once(200-300), but had some down sides and after a few stuck pins I decided it was no longer worth the risk for my use. Back to just ultrasonic, 50-60 rounds at a time.

I use Neodymium Magnets to double check for any pins left in the brass just before resizing, one by one.

 

[stewbud]

and it's quite terrible at removing wax from cases (Imperial/Redding sizing wax or Lanolin lubes). Both these issues result in me having to run some batches through the tumbler 2-3 times, rinsing and refreshing the water each time.

I use Hornady sizing wax to lube my 38/55 cases when full length resizing.

I clean it off I place the rifle cases, and any other cleaned pistol cases, into the dry vibratory tumbler.

20 minutes later the wax has been evenly spread all over the cases and they are shiny - just like brand new.