Hi Gang,
Finally getting to reload rifle calibers, .556 specifically.
I put fistfuls of .556 brass into my dry media tumbler, and that is one pain in the neck to get the media out of the case. Not doing that again.

Looking at ultrasonic cleaners, stainless steel media, etc.

What do you recommend, and why?
Thank you.

I've been reloading for 55 years now. Without a doubt, wet tumbling with a stainless steel media
cannot be beat.

Don't waste money on ultra sonic

Ted, ok, but why not??

It doesn't hold a candle to wet tumbling with pins

Exactly what Rapidrob and Ted Thorn said. I've used traditional vibratory cleaners with walnut and corn cob media for years. Switched to Ultrasonic and finally to wet media with stainless steel pins.

Wet media with stainless steel pins beats them all. I decap all my brass, then run it in big batches. Cleans the whole case, inside and out including the primer pocket. Let em dry and you're good to go.

Don't mix brass of different pistol calibers together. Once I tumbled 44 magnum and 10mm brass together. Almost every 44 case had a 10mm case stuck inside of it. I use 1 drop of dawn dishwashing liquid and 1/4 teaspoon of lemishine for each batch of 500 cases.

Great information, thank you. I have been focusing on ultrasonic, so this is very helpful.

quote:

Originally posted by Rapidrob:
I've been reloading for 55 years now. Without a doubt, wet tumbling with a stainless steel media
cannot be beat.

Very true.

I use wet and dry.
I use the dry tumbler to dry my wet cases, and I use it to remove the lube from the cases after sizing.
you do not want to get case lube in your wet system.

tumbling media is very easy to get out of a case by using a media separator.
the same separator also works to get the pins out of the cases after wet tumbling.

For 40 of my 62 years of reloading I never used a tumbler.Today they are prettier but I don't believe they shoot any better. roger

quote:

Originally posted by rlabom:
I put fistfuls of .556 brass into my dry media tumbler, and that is one pain in the neck to get the media out of the case. Not doing that again.

I also believe stainless steel media can't be beat but occasionally, not often, a couple of pins will be stuck in a flash hole so I inspected them all after tumbling. In addition, pins will occasionally stick to the inside of the case but since I run a wire down the inside of the cases to check for incipient head separations, that action will remove any stuck pins.

There is a choice in SS media

Pins and chips

It depends. I have a traditional vibratory media tumbler, a pin tumbler and ultrasonic. All the pistol brass goes in the pin tumbler. Blasting rifle brass does as well. The challenge with putting precision rifle brass in the pin tumbler is that you will peen the inside and outside of the neck lip. Easy to feel. I put precision rifle brass in the ultrasonic. You do have to moly the necks after though.

If your having a problem with media getting stuck in cases (or primer holes) its the media, not the tumbler or technique. The stuff Lyman sells is crap.

While I agree wet tumbling does a superior job, often I don't think the extra effort is worth the trouble.

Try changing your media. Go to Kramer Industries and select the size media you need, I think I am using 20/30 size walnut grit.
They have all kinds of other media, including steel pins, shot, ceramic, everything if you want to experiment.

I load the 223 and do not have a problem with media sticking in the case or flash holes.

Any time you have firearms that throws perfectly good brass away and makes you go look for it on the ground, it should be wet tumbled.

Unless you like cases with embedded dirt and grit that scratches your dies.

Stainless pins sounds interesting. Please tell more about the "wet" aspect. ?? Do you use water or ?

I use a combo of walnut and corn cob. Yes you have to check each case, but it's not that hard. I just dump it out and check the flash hole. No biggie.

Cleaning Cases - Part 2: Wet Tumbling

http://www.massreloading.com/r...ng_wet_tumbling.html

quote:

Originally posted by bigrdp51:
Cleaning Cases - Part 2: Wet Tumbling

http://www.massreloading.com/r...ng_wet_tumbling.html

Thanks. I think Ill stick with my system though. Seems to me that emptying media is no more troublesome than drying cases would be.

I use a viberating RCBS brass cleaner, My goal is to clean the case, not interested in making it shine like a new silver dollar..I don't clean brass often anyway. Use the right powder that doesn't smudge the necks and brass stays nice for quite some time. Wipe it off before resizing as a rule.