Friends-

I recently purchased a Caldwell "Tack Driver" Shooting Bag and on the directions they recommended either filling the bag with kitty litter, rice or corn cob media.

Intuitively, it would seem that rice would make a darn fine cleaning media. Has anyone tried rice in their tumbling brass polishers and, if so, what were your results?

Thanks in advance.

Broken rice + a teaspoon of jeweler's rouge make up for a cheap and efficient cleaning medium.

WOW!! What a fine idea!! I usually buy the walnut hull medium and add a little rouge as needed to reactivate. But with rice, I have enough in a bag to last me several years!!

Thanks for sharing that one.

Andre and Mike-

Thanks for your comments; where does one fine jewelers rouge these days?

Here is one source.

I have a small jar of red paste that a friend gave me over 10 years ago. I put a little kerosene in it to turn it back into paste. I hardly ever need to use it.

The stuff posted above may be a better option for our needs.

I use whole white rice that I bought from a thrift food store. Got around 30lbs for $5. I picked up a whole brick of red polishing rouge from a surplus tool store for $3. They had several grades of rouge all of different color (probably should have got the green rouge). I just use a knife and thinly scrape off about 2 teaspoons of rouge to a tumbler full of rice. It works great for polishing just like corncob. I don’t think it cleans as quite as fast as walnut but it works great polishing regardless and is cheap. Just throw it away after about 3 or 4 runs and put in new. I store all my media in the 2-gallon plastic cloth soap jugs. Make it nice when emptying and refilling tumbler. I use a small-expanded metal thrash can ($0.50 at goodwill store) and a 5-gal bucket as a media separator. A couple of small rags soaked with lacquer thinner in tumbler helps cut down on dust and cleans up media and brass. If brass is really dirty and tarnished I presoak brass in 10% cider vinegar, 90% water with a little bit of dishsoap and pinch of table salt and dump in tumbler slightly wet after shaking solution out of case. I have also had god luck with common auto polish or buffing compound as additive for media. I do run brass through cloth washer machine and air dry in sunlight if I use buffing compound.

I (wife) have also made up several bench rest bags out of old denim pants legs sewn up full of rice. Lighter and cheaper than birdshot, and work just as well. (Don’t use deer corn –weevils will get in it fast).

quote:

Originally posted by 30 Caliber Mag Fan:
Friends-

Has anyone tried rice in their tumbling brass polishers and, if so, what were your results?

.

Not as good for cleaning as walnut and no matter what you do to it ,it leaves a powder residue on the cases. Even if you wash the talc off before using you still get the residue.

Pet store walnut shells are just fine , inexpensive and will last almost forever if you use orange 409 and cut up static cling dryer sheets. Add a little Bon-Ami once in a while.

Rice is great instead of sand bags. roger

I've tried rice. As Bartsche says, it leaves a residue on the cases. As I recall, a STUBBORN residue. NEVER AGAIN! It breaks down into some kind of starchy, pastey substance that really cruds up your case neck/shoulder area inside. The outsides are nice and bright, though

I've also tried whole grain wheat and milo straight from the combine. Both work, but not well.

Kitty litter is made with clay and is a disaster.

I've tried pet store corn cob (usually too coarse) and pet store walnut (usually too pricey). But a while back I came across a sale on 25 pound boxes of walnut media at Harbor Freight and Tool for less than $20. I won't run out any time soon.

BTW, I can't stand jeweler's rouge in my media. It leaves a dusty film that just can't be good mixed with your powder and primer compounds. A little Lyman white tumbling enhancer (about the same thing as old fashioned auto car polish) speeds the action of either walnut or corn cob, and does so without adding any nastiness.

When I was sifting pet store corn cob to get the 25% or so that was fine enough for use in a tumbler, I would use the rejected 75% for "sand" bags. It makes for a lighter, more portable alternative to sand that is handy to carry in the field for varmint shooting and works nearly as well.

Thank you gentlemen for sharing your experience with rice in a tumbler. I guess I'll just eat the damned stuff!!

Bartsche and Steve-

Thanks for your comments. The experts have spoken.

Off to Sportsmans Warehouse for a bunch of tumbling media.