I am using, or better have stopped using cleaning media. I can only get a Lyman red granular stuff.

It leaves a red residue all over everything, and gets stuck in the primer pockets, is hard to get out of the cases, the residu stains your hands and clothing. It's crap so I have gone to soap and water.

I see that a lot of people use other materials as media, and seeing as I can't find much of anything gun related in my area I'wondering if my local animal store has anything that could work.

What should I look for in improvised cleaning media?

Express,
if you can find the product Bed "o' Cobbs in your pet store 1/8" size not the 1/4" size. i buy a 40lb. bag for $14.00 here is the company's web site. maybe they have a distributor in your area. HTH Rick
http://www.bedocobs.com/

Thanks Rick, only that I live in Italy, which is why I am having trouble finding suitable media.
I will have look for that product all the same in my local pet store though.
Thanks

If you have a feed store near by you could try chicken scratch. Fuzz

What you want to look for is terrarium media for lizards and such. It's walnut hulls in the same granulation as tumbling media. I would think that you should be able to find it if keeping lizards and tarantulas is as popular in Italy as it is here.

Good luck.

...I used to breed myself, mostly snakes, some lizards & arachnids too...

But I never used these mediums, either fully replicated the natural environment with live plants and such for the enclosures I kept in the house, and plain old tissue paper for the breeding facility.
Some years I had up to 300 animals in the shed....

I wasn't reloading at the time so I never thought to look for that application for substrates.

Thanx for the tip!

[ 01-29-2003, 21:12: Message edited by: EXPRESS ]

Hey paisan !

Try small-grain rice if you can't find any of the suggested media. Rissoto would work too, but would be more pricey !! Maybe dittalini?

Buona fortuna e tiro spesso!

Unprocessed rice works well, as does any whole grain. I've used both wheat and milo straight from the combine (but screened to remove foreign matter) and both of them work well. (Processed rice will leave a white, gummy coating of starch on the cases, so don't use Uncle Ben's Converted Rice, etc.)

Any medium will work better with a teaspoon or so of old fasioned abrasive car polish added.

I use a finely ground corn cob(I think) from a taxidermist. They use it for tumbling birds. It is fine enough that it doesn't clog flash holes and it works great.

I too use rice with a touch of corn polishing media mixed in for the first tumble, and then toss the batch of brass into a bowl or corn media. Rice would be easy and cheap. Works great.

the best media for clening brass is automatic dishwashing detergent. it's got a high alkaline content and when mixed with really hot water will take the resizing lubracant and powder residu off of the metal. it's formulated not to stick on metal so it washes completely off and the best part is you don't get anything stuck in the flash hole. I fill my tumbler not quite halfway up with brass then fill it the rest of the way with really hot tap water. I pour in a few shakes of detergent then I tumble it for an hour. the key is not to put too much brass in at one time so you have enough water to dissolve the residue and lubricant. after the initial cleaning I pour the old water out and new hot water in minus the soap. tumble for 10 minutes this time then change the water. I keep doing this until the brass feels clean, usually it takes twice. I then preheat the oven to 150 degrees and put the brass in on an old cookie sheet. buy your wife a new one and use the old one or get use to cold showers. after the brass has been in there a few hours I turn off the over and leave it over night. the next day I have clean dry brass!

Whatever you use, spike it with a good shot of Bon Ami. It's a finely ground very mild abrasive, more of a polishing compound actually. I think it is fine calcium calcite.

Anyway, it cuts polishing time in half and won't hurt either your cases or your dies.

Leftoverdj,

That's exactly what my Dad says!!!