tumbling and case brand

[vujade]

hello.

A few newbie questions here:

1) when you tumble cases, is there a 'maximum' number of cases per media used? Or just make sure the tumbler has 2/3 media and fill it with cases?

2) Can you mix the shiny silver cases with the brass?

3) I mixed some FGMM cases with just the cheap Walmart Federal cases from the blue box hunting rounds... does Federal use the same cases for all their ammo or is the good stuff entitled to good brass as well. I wanted to keep them separate to keep consistency.

thank you,

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Others will know better. I've never seen problems tumbling nickel plated cases along with brass. Nickel-plated pistol brass works fine for me except it seems more brittle and you don't get as many reloads before the case mouth will split either on firing or bullet seating. Occasionally they will split on bullet seating on the first reload. The ones that split on firing don't split all the way back, just have a little crack in the case after firing that wasn't there before firing.

Maybe it is entirely different than described above with nickel-plated rifle brass.

Dunno if some federal uses better brass than other federal. When I use the rotary primer pocket uniformer on mixed pistol brass, the federal seems pretty soft brass and the uniformer cuts quick. But the federal pockets seem closer to what the uniformer bit thinks is "spec" than some other brands. A few brands of cases seem made out of much harder brass and it takes longer for the uniformer bit to cut.

Maybe softer more ductile brass is a good thing rather than bad. Dunno. Merely observing that at least on pistol cases, different brands seem to have different hardness. Maybe manufacturers use entirely different alloys on rifle cases and it has no correlation to whatever observed on pistol brass.

[JeffsSig]

1) when you tumble cases, is there a 'maximum' number of cases per media used? Or just make sure the tumbler has 2/3 media and fill it with cases?

Most tumblers will give a list of how many of certain cases each will hold.

Mine is a Lyman Turbo and It will hold 200 223s.

The best way I found is to put the brass in and start the tumbler then start adding the media until it seems all the cases are full and you will notice a "flow" of the brass and media as they move as it is running.

If you put to much media the flow will slow down. Just stop the tumbler and pour some media out. The brass rubbing against each other will speed up the polish and cleaning process when you have a smaller amount of media.

Im sure the experts will come along and give you better info and or an explanation.

Edited May 24, 2012 by JeffsSig

[vujade]

thanks for all info guys...i have about 130 308 brass cases tumbling. I watched it for like 5 minutes in awe. =)

Thanks for the info on the nickle cases; next I do need to buy to replenish the cases, I'll make sure to get brass.

[Dolomite_supafly]

Most people who tumble use too much media. I normally add the brass to an empty tumble then turn it on. I will add media little by little until the brass just begins to roll over on itself. That way the brass itself helps clean. With too much media the casings are shielded from each other and take a lot longer to clean up.

And while it is tumbling add about 1/2 dozen drops of Turtle Wax car polish to the mixture, It makes the brass nice a shiny.

Something else I did that seems to helps is this. I was low on media and needed a filler so I added a handful of airsoft BB's to bulk up the media some. It made the media clean so much better. Not sure why but it seems to help. Just make sure you use it on calibers where it won't get stuck in the cases. I normally used it for 9mm and 45 ACP.

Dolomite

[gregintenn]

I like nickel plated brass. I use lizard bedding from a pet store for media, and add a little Nu Finish car polish. You can get a feel for how much brass yours will tumble, because it'll start to slow down with too many. Dolomite gave some good advice. You don't need to fill the tumbler with media; just nearly cover the cases. Also, be sure to throw the media out when it gets dirty. You can tell when, because it takes longer to clean.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Yeah I like nickel plated cases fine. They just seem more likely to get case mouth splits on pistol cases. Maybe nickel plated rifle cases don't have that problem, dunno.

[Dolomite_supafly]

One thing you need to be mindful with nickel plated cases. Because nickel is harder than steel they can scratch the dies if it flakes off. And once the die gets a scratch it will leave an identical scratch on the cases.

Dolomite