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Do you wet tumble your pistol brass?


nikdanja

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On 3/13/2017 at 10:04 AM, andersonj55126 said:

I wet tumble without the pins.  Speeds up the process and still works great.  I use one shot lube after drying.

 

I stopped using the pins as well and they come out just as clean.  I think for rifle brass where you want the primer pockets cleaned the pins are more beneficial.  

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I started wet tumbling a little over a year ago.  Like others, main reason was to cut down on the dust and the media left over in the brass, etc.   This winter I made the jump from a LNL to a Dillon 1050 with an Ammo Bot.  This jump was pretty significant for a lot of reasons. Relative to this thread, I was having a LOT of issues loading 9mm Minor.  At the suggestion of others, I started prepping my wet tumbled/dried brass first (decapping and resizing), which resulted in having waaaaay too many primer pull-back issues.  I tried everything, different dies, pins, pins with 45* angles, polishing, vacuum attached to primer tube, etc, etc, etc.   Again, at the suggestion of others that had run into similar issue, I went from wet tumbling back to dry tumbling, and my primer pull-backs went to near zero during processing.  Apparently, the residue from the primer tends to glue the primer to the case.  If I was still loading by hand I doubt I would have experienced this issue, at least I did not loading 45ACP on my LNL. But it manifested itself when I automated the loading process.

 

I have since sold my wet tumbling equipment, and will only go back if for some reason I find it better to dry tumble, decap, wet tumble, dry, size/load.  But since that means hauling buckets of brass from the garage to the basement, back up, then back down again, I doubt that will happen.   :cheers:  YMMV 

 

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Interesting info about the primer pull back.  I have a buddy with an Forcht that has similar issues at times.  I have yet to see this problem but I will watch out for it.  

 

I have two little ones at home so lead/dust is a concern for me.  I just head my two year olds blood lead checked and she is fine.  I will continue wet tumbling for this reason alone.  

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  • 3 weeks later...

My dry tumbler died, so I decided to try a Franklin Arsenal wet tumbler.  It works amazing.  Inside and out the cases are spotless.  Yeah I know, the shine is not required, but it does look great.  I don't decap anymore since I bought the brass dryer (relabeled food dehydrator I'm sure) after two hours the brass is really dry and ready to go.  I dump the brass from the dryer into a plastic tote and give the top layer a quick blast of one shot and into the redding pass through it goes.

I use Lemishine and Armor all wash and wax with SS pins, though after reading the above, I'll give it a try without the pins to see how that works.

You can fit a LOT of .40 and .45 brass into the FART!  It might take a little bit more time, but I'm really happy with the results.

 

@CrashDodson How full do you fill the drum with brass?  What is your recipe without the pins?  Do you change it up if the brass is really dirty/muddy?

Thanks!

Edited by Stealsack
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  • 3 months later...
On 3/22/2017 at 11:18 AM, CrashDodson said:

 

I stopped using the pins as well and they come out just as clean.  I think for rifle brass where you want the primer pockets cleaned the pins are more beneficial.  

OK, you all have me converted.  No more steel pins for pistol brass and a lot less mess in the reloading room. Agree, just as clean.  

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I much prefer using steel puns to get clean primer pockets even on pistol brass. With an enclosed media seperator it takes all of 2 minutes to separate them then I bake my brass in the over at 212 for 30 minutes. I can do 3k pieces of 40 In 64 minutes start to finish. 

 

And I decap/resize before I tumble

Edited by tcazes
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I swear that if my wife saw me put brass in the oven that a ) she would think I've finally lost my mind and b ) I would probably get beat with a stick or hit with a cast iron frying pan for putting brass in her nice clean oven.  LOL!!!!

 

So, if I end up going to wet tumbling, I'm going to need a dryer.  LOL

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If you really "spin it up" in a separator after the pins have all fallen out it will remove most of the water.  Then dump in an old bathtowel and shake back and forth a few times to remove water spots.  Then just lay out the bathtowel and spread the brass out and it will be dry pretty rapidly. 

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21 hours ago, Steve RA said:

If you really "spin it up" in a separator after the pins have all fallen out it will remove most of the water.  Then dump in an old bathtowel and shake back and forth a few times to remove water spots.  Then just lay out the bathtowel and spread the brass out and it will be dry pretty rapidly. 

I do this also, leave them on towel for 2-3 days.  I leave old primers in, and they take longer to dry out.  Have plenty of brass, don't feel the need for a dryer.  Caution using your oven with lead primer residue.  No difference noted in reloading or shooting leaving pistol primers in, saves a time-consuming step.  Skipping the steel pins creates much less mess of little pins all over the floor and jams in the press from decapping.  

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I usually wait till I have about 35 pounds of brass of any specific caliber then I bring it to work and throw it all in our industrial dry tumbler for about 8 hours and they come out looking beautiful.  

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I have run the decap then Wet tumble with SS pins then load. But that is taking too much time as I am ramping up my shooting. Going to just wet tumble with Pins/armor all wash/lemishine mix then load. Guess it shouldn't be any different. 

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I wet tumble pistol brass with primers, no pins, w/ Armourall wash and wax plus lemishine. Dry in the oven on warm. Punch primers when I size. This significantly reduces my tumbling time over dry media and the brass comes out cleaner. For rifle brass I decap first and use SS pins.

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  • 5 months later...

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