I have a Cabelas' tumbler that I bought for dirt cheap. I've been using it to clean my 45ACP casings, but am wondering if I should use it for my 300WM rifle brass as well.

My question is this. Does tumbling hurt accuracy by removing the thin layer of carbon on the inside of the neck? I've overheard a couple of guys saying they don't tumble because it leaves the necks "too squeaky clean" and this increases the amount of friction the bullet has to overcome when leaving the neck. I don't know if this is an old wives tale or real info so I thought I'd ask.

Never take advice from the guys who were having the discussion and ignore the bit you overheard. Clean your brass as clean as you like and make sure the cases are uniform in weight and dimension.

Reckon what happens when you fire factory ammo, some of which shoots quite well, or new brass, or taper crimp or use a crimp die?

It appears consistency it the key to accuracy and so long as long as everything is always as consistent as possible, does it matter?

Clean your brass and THEN size it and carry on reloading. Will also be better for your dies to work on really clean brass.

I clean all my fired brass. Carbon deposits are hard on the dies.

"too squeaky clean"? I want one.

Too clean after tumbling? Then use this: http://www.redding-reloading.com/pages/imperialdrynecklube.html

quote:

Originally posted by Bullydog:
I have a Cabelas' tumbler that I bought for dirt cheap. I've been using it to clean my 45ACP casings, but am wondering if I should use it for my 300WM rifle brass as well.

My question is this. Does tumbling hurt accuracy by removing the thin layer of carbon on the inside of the neck? I've overheard a couple of guys saying they don't tumble because it leaves the necks "too squeaky clean" and this increases the amount of friction the bullet has to overcome when leaving the neck. I don't know if this is an old wives tale or real info so I thought I'd ask.

Squeaky clean reduces friction, not increases it..

Bullydog

Most of the time you want to increase the amount of tension the neck is holding the bullet with. I am sending off for smaller mandrels for my Lee Collet Neck Sizers in order to increase the amount of bullet grip.

Redding Bushing Dies are sold with different size bushings so that the amount of bullet grip can be increased.

Lee Factory Crimps are wonderful because they uniform the bullet release force as they increase it.

Almost any amount of bullet grip is negligible compared to the 60,000 lbs of force when firing a shot!

Now I do not believe in tumblers but my cases are not only sqeaky clean but polished. The inside of the neck is thouroughly cleaned to bare brass with steel wool prior to sizing and after sizing.

IMO, the abrasives and dust residue left by tumblers is destructive not only to your dies but to your chamber as well!

Unless you use the ceramic media, you can tumble for days and never get the inside of cases clean, or primer pockets with primers removed. The media just fills the cases and sits there doing nothing.

quote:

My question is this. Does tumbling hurt accuracy by removing the thin layer of carbon on the inside of the neck?

No.....and they folks that believe this need to be considered for the ignore button.

Tumble the brass all you want!

I don't quite know all that happens when we fire a cartridge but I seriously doubt there is any truth to friction to bullet movement from a clean or "dirty" neck. As mentioned above, the pressure WILL move the bullet out of the case pretty easily AND it will expand the case + neck, probably well before the bullet actually enters the rifling. The friction of that entry will have some significant impact on the bullet, but not from leaving the case neck.

I brush the inside of my necks with a bore brush in a drill motor, lightly lube the inside, and then resize. Afterwards I tumble to clean the cases and the lube from the inside of the neck. Tumbling will not completely clean the primer pocket but it does enough of a good job to suit me.
Needless to say, I wipe the outside of the case as I take it from the tumbler.

yes.Do it