Years ago I left the media in the flash holes to see if it would make any difference in accuracy. I separated all the brass into a plugged pail and a not plugged pail and loaded them up. I did hundreds and in the end it showed no difference with the accuracy and the all went bang. I had lots of time and I love to shoot.
Tumbling primed brass
- Thread starter LawrenceN
- Start date
Years ago I left the media in the flash holes to see if it would make any difference in accuracy. I separated all the brass into a plugged pail and a not plugged pail and loaded them up. I did hundreds and in the end it showed no difference with the accuracy and the all went bang. I had lots of time and I love to shoot.
Sounds like a bad idea. You'll get grit and dust into the primer for sure. If you have primed brass you want to clean, maybe just clean it by hand (a baby wipe, or a paper towel with some acetone or rubbing alcohol on it will work fine). Remember to take the deprimer out of your die when sizing, and you should be good to go.
- Location
- Western Manitoba
Perhaps you ought to try some and let us know how that worked out for you?? Maybe "going bang" is enough proof for you; maybe average group size of 5 or 10 shot groups at 100 yards, is needed to compare. Maybe group size at 1,000 yards?
If those were previously fired 303 British cases, is probable that you will want to inspect them, one-by-one, for "incipient head separation" ring on inside of the brass - just forward of the solid case head.
Likely makes difference if "some" means 12 cases or 2,500 cases.
Yesterday I ended up with some .223 brass that was pried with Ginex small rifle primers that still had too much lube on it- (lanolin/alcohol) so I decided to try tumbling it for an hour in fine ground walnut shells. AS I noted previously, I did this before but with a very small sample.
Of course I forgot about it until this morning at 5am when I woke up and had a feeling I had forgotten something
On the plus side, the brass was VERY shiny. I duped the brass into my Dillon separator and gave it some really good spins then took 3 cases and chambered them to see if the primers would pop. They did, so I dumped them into the brass collator and within an hour I had over 1000 rounds of shiny loaded .223 ammo.
Today at the range I went through about 350 or so rounds of it in Tavor X95, WS-MCR, WK-180 and Ruger American bolt actions. They all went BANG!
So would I use this technique for ammo I was going to compete with, go hunt with or to work up a load with? Nope, no way. But this stuff didn't need to be super precise or reliable but it turned out to function fine and hit the steel at 100 meters. 4", 6", 8" etc targets were all good to hit. I didn't measure group size.
Of course I forgot about it until this morning at 5am when I woke up and had a feeling I had forgotten something
On the plus side, the brass was VERY shiny. I duped the brass into my Dillon separator and gave it some really good spins then took 3 cases and chambered them to see if the primers would pop. They did, so I dumped them into the brass collator and within an hour I had over 1000 rounds of shiny loaded .223 ammo.
Today at the range I went through about 350 or so rounds of it in Tavor X95, WS-MCR, WK-180 and Ruger American bolt actions. They all went BANG!
So would I use this technique for ammo I was going to compete with, go hunt with or to work up a load with? Nope, no way. But this stuff didn't need to be super precise or reliable but it turned out to function fine and hit the steel at 100 meters. 4", 6", 8" etc targets were all good to hit. I didn't measure group size.
Another 300-400 rounds shot today..No problems.
Again, I'm not going to endorse this as a good practice but it seems fine if you spin the brass and get the media out. Keep in mind I'm using fine granulated crushed walnut shells that I buy in 50 lb bags from Princess Auto, it's for sandblasting stuff I think. Something chunkier like corn cob media may not spin out as well.
Again, I'm not going to endorse this as a good practice but it seems fine if you spin the brass and get the media out. Keep in mind I'm using fine granulated crushed walnut shells that I buy in 50 lb bags from Princess Auto, it's for sandblasting stuff I think. Something chunkier like corn cob media may not spin out as well.
I had a few thousand 223 all primed and ready to go before that a_ _ hole in Ottawa "banned" the rifle I was loading them for. After
4years and counting I acquired another rifle in that caliber, the brass wasn't as shiny as I like so tumbled a couple hundred of them with walnut shell for a few hours. Not one misfire and they were just as accurate as another bunch I loaded without tumbling.
4years and counting I acquired another rifle in that caliber, the brass wasn't as shiny as I like so tumbled a couple hundred of them with walnut shell for a few hours. Not one misfire and they were just as accurate as another bunch I loaded without tumbling.
I have never had the need to store primers in glass jars but tumbling or vibrating primers is no big deal, lots of factory ammo is tumbled prior to packaging.
- Location
- WMU247 near Edmonton
I've tumbled live primers not an issue
Thats extreme. I forgot about some 30-06 handloads in a jar of water for over a week and they still went bang
On a different note, I asked a shipyard painter to let me try some of the walnut media they use for anti-skid deck painting.
I used it as tumbling media for some 9mm brass. It did a nice job and I was happy until I tried to load some rounds on my Dillon press.
Several decapping pins broke until I realized that the media was larger than what you buy for tumbling and also harder than the corn-cob stuff I had been using.
It was jamming in the primer holes and was so hard that the decapping pins bent.
So much for trying to find a cheaper source of media! I eventually went to a wet tumbling system and the patch of grass where I pour out the dirty water is a healthy green.
I used it as tumbling media for some 9mm brass. It did a nice job and I was happy until I tried to load some rounds on my Dillon press.
Several decapping pins broke until I realized that the media was larger than what you buy for tumbling and also harder than the corn-cob stuff I had been using.
It was jamming in the primer holes and was so hard that the decapping pins bent.
So much for trying to find a cheaper source of media! I eventually went to a wet tumbling system and the patch of grass where I pour out the dirty water is a healthy green.
Lizzard walnut bedding, never had a problem
I think that is finer than what I got for free(sort of) from the painters. I do prefer the wet- tumbling results from the Thumbler rock tumbler.
Princess auto also has different sized walnut media
- Location
- Blaster land, Okanagan BC
Works well and is fairly fine, add some varsol and nu finish liquid wax and cases come out shiny.
