Okay so I've just bought my first tumbler.

Do I use corn cob or walnut media?

Do I use an additive?

Do I tumble after all other case prep activity and before priming?

What can go wrong?

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tikka 3 barrels

First thing you have to do is learn to read...

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[This message has been edited by ricciardelli (edited 04-12-2002).]

Pete - I use both walnut and corn media. Walnut seems to do a better job of cleaning really dirty cases, corn polishes better for light cleaning. Walnut seems to break down a little quicker and I screen my media if it looks too broken down and powdery.

I have a de-priming only die so that I do not run dirty cases into my sizer. I toss my brass in to the tumbler with a cap full or two of Dillon�s Rapid Polish. This is a non-ammonia based cleaner. It generally takes about a hour to three depending upon the number and condition of the cases. Once clean, I throw them into the sink with very hot water with a drop or two of normal dish soap. I then run them into a pre-heated oven at 140 degrees until dry. This takes no more than a few minutes.

By the time I use a little Imperial Sizing wax and run the brass through my sizer, they are protected from tarnishing. Most of the time I will run a RCBS primer pocket brush around the primer pocket to ensure flash holes are clear of cleaning media and powder.

I use corn cobs. I inspect, wipe down, lube, deprime/resize and dump the cases in the vibrator. After about 15-20 minutes, I take them out, inspect for any errant pieces of corncob in the flash hole, reprime, load and shoot. Shiny brass has no effect on accuracy.

ricciardelli, I too am new to the tumbling thing. I went to your pages, but they just tell why to tumble and use Walnut and Corn. Did I miss something? My main question is do I have to do anything after tumbling? I have tumbled alot of .44 shells in corn media and they look good now. Do I need to wipe them down? Is there any residue from the media that will hurt anything?

I am not a big fan of the water thing and putting in the oven. Every time I do it alot of the residue from inside kinda clumps up in the primer hole. So if I can do this dry I prefer it.

bigcountry - If you are tumbling your cases long enough you should not have any lose powder residue left in your cases. This is especially true of straight walled cases like the .44. Anything left in the case that is capable of clumping is the media.

Using polish with your media quickly removes powder fouling. It cuts tumbling time by half or more. Another reason to wash the brass after tumbling is to remove the polish from the cases before you ram them into your dies. The polish residue will contaminate powder if any remains in the case and the polish is an abrasive. These are things you don�t want in your dies, chamber, or bore.

I have cleaned my brass this way for decades and I have washed them in the same manner - I never had a problem with clumping???

bigcountry...

Nothing to do much after tumbling...

I generally have an old beach towel and I dump the cases onto it after tumbling. Then just fold the towel over in half and rub 'em around a bit. That removes any residue from the outside of the cases and keeps your fingers clean.

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