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New to wet tumbling...pins or no pins question?


nelson1each

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No pins produces brass that is plenty clean enough for shooting. Unless you dug the brass out of the berm (or like looking at shiny brass more than shooting) then pins are just not needed.

The time saved from not using pins really adds up if you are training seriously.


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17 hours ago, louu said:

 

Thanks for reading/quoting my post

I read thru the linked thread and didn't find any cleaner mentioned that cleaned primer pockets, wet tumbling WITHOUT PINS.

I've tried and use the stuff you posted when I use pins.

Some posters listed cleaners but didn't mention whether they were using pins or not, but I'm guessing they are.

😀

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I started with pins, but have since started going pinless on eveything but mstch rifle ammo to better clean primer pockets. I dont think pistol ammo needs it and none of my rounds have suffered from the change. 

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I just tried "Brass Juice" in my wet tumblr. No pins. Inside is pretty clean, outside is amazingly shiney. 3hr tumbling with distilled water. Rinse with tap water. Put in thrift store food dehydrator overnight. This will be my new brass cleaning method (unless my brass is dissolved or something crazy when I go to reload LOL!)

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For those wet tumbling without pins are you depriming still first?  I ask as I do an inital tumble with no pins on deprimed 223 brass and I noticed a white substance in the primer pockets after they dry.  Calcium maybe?

 

Right now I'm only wet tumbling rifle brass.  My process for 223 is deprime brass with universal decapper, throw in my dual drum HF tumbler with no pins, water, a splash of Lemishine and a squart of Dawn.  Run for 75-90 mins and rinse.

 

Once brass is processed I will wet tumble again with pins this time and the usual Dawn and Lemishine.  Produces really nice looking brass.  I only shoot 1000-1500 rounds of 223 a year so it's no biggie.  Though I am going through and processing 5-6k worth of cases right now the slow painful single stage way....just to get my storage up so I don't have to reload it for several years.

 

I'm looking to wet tumble my 9mm brass (will most likely need to move up to a bigger tumbler) and the pins are kind of a PITA.  I've been getting a lot of brass at my home range that when it's damp or raining are just caked with dirt inside.  I've stopped myself on many occasions as I'm putting a bullet on a case having to pull the case out as I see chunks of dirt caked to the walls inside of it.

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17 minutes ago, JohnnyD said:

For those wet tumbling without pins are you depriming still first? 

 I do not deprime my hoser 223 ammo. I'm using a 650 so I've never actually inspected a primer pocket after tumbling. All I can say is that I have never noticed any issue in seating the primer or in the round's performance. 

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You would think the primer pockets and inside of the case being clean would be more important than the outside. If the outside is clean enough to size properly I would be more worried about primers not seating or interior junk throwing off the powder charge? 

 

Sorry, not really a statement more of a question. Thoughts? 

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5 hours ago, GIO said:

You would think the primer pockets and inside of the case being clean would be more important than the outside. If the outside is clean enough to size properly I would be more worried about primers not seating or interior junk throwing off the powder charge? 

 

Sorry, not really a statement more of a question. Thoughts? 

I agree with this... which is another way of saying that people worry too much about thier pistol brass.  There’s a difference between “clean” and “obsessive compulsively polished to perfection.”  This is also one of the reasons I’m going to experiment with the Brass Juice as liquid alone doesn’t risk clumps of media left in the case.  (And I’ve never had an issue with unclean pockets and seating, FWIW.)

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I'm not overly concerned about how shiny the outside of the case is after wet tumbling since the finished rounds get run for 20-30 min in corn cob and nu-finish. My wet tumbled brass comes out plenty clean enough in cold water, no pins, dawn and a dash of lemi shine after running for 60 min.  

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As they used to say on Mythbusters, "I think we have a result."  One pile was in a vibratory with crushed walnut for 3 hours, and the other pile was in the same vibratory with Brass Juice and water for 3 hours.  You tell me which is which.  [Hint:  the cases with random bits of media still inside them came from the walnut batch.]

 

 

IMG_4662.jpg

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 I think for me it doesn't matter how shiny my brass is. I don't care if I can see my reflection in it or if it's clean enough to do shots with (pun intended). My goal is perfect function and pursuing the shortest possible path to reach that goal.

I don't think it's necessary for pistol cases and I haven't noticed any decline in function since stopping the use of pins. It saves a little time,  avoids some headache chasing pins,  and still leaves me with functioning brass. 

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For all practical purposes in USPSA Etc type shooting  get outside of cases clean enough so they roll smoothly inside the magazine and against each other. The benefit I see of wet  tumbling versus using corn cob/walnut media and  some polishing compound is it leaves no dust or residue at all on the cases for it to get gunked up. Especially in hot weather. Been there - done that,NOT fun!

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I don't think its a big deal to use pins, all I do is use my media separator then dump the pins through a rice strainer then dump them back into my drum.  Takes me an extra 2 minutes per batch. And this is a picture of the rice strainer on amazon with a few leftover pins in it.

 

rice stainer

20190115_102854_resized.jpg

Edited by mayassa
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I don't think its a big deal to use pins, all I do is use my media separator then dump the pins through a rice strainer then dump them back into my drum.  Takes me an extra 2 minutes per batch. And this is a picture of the rice strainer on amazon with a few leftover pins in it.
 
rice stainer
20190115_102854_resized.thumb.jpg.733c0e0f0ebf4e182b04b83162c2369f.jpg


My process is basically the same. Using strainer and rotary media/case separator makes the job of separating and collecting the pins quick and easy.


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On 1/12/2019 at 5:07 PM, jkrispies said:

As they used to say on Mythbusters, "I think we have a result."  One pile was in a vibratory with crushed walnut for 3 hours, and the other pile was in the same vibratory with Brass Juice and water for 3 hours.  You tell me which is which.  [Hint:  the cases with random bits of media still inside them came from the walnut batch.]

 

 

IMG_4662.jpg

 

What was your ratio? I won some free brass juice at a match and I'm tempted to try it in my $28 Hornady vibratory jobber.

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3 hours ago, Acer2428 said:

 

What was your ratio? I won some free brass juice at a match and I'm tempted to try it in my $28 Hornady vibratory jobber.

One capful of solution and then fill it with  water just enough so the brass is completely covered.  I did it in a Thumlet’s Ultra-vibr 18 which is pretty good sized.  Might do half a capful in a smaller machine that holds less water.  I used filtered water out of the fridge dispenser.  They recommend hot water and using distilled waterTo eliminate spotting.  Good folks to contact with questions.    

Edited by jkrispies
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On 12/29/2018 at 12:58 PM, MemphisMechanic said:

 

That last scentence is a good thing. Not bad. Use pins to get the inside of the brass spotless... and it sticks on your expander die. Then you’re dealing with more lube application needed to return to your previous consistency.

 

Leave the inside dirty. It acts like a powdered graphite lube and prevents cases sticking.

 

Why would it possibly matter if the inside isn’t shiny? Your ammo is just as accurate.

 

 

We have a winner!

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  • 1 month later...
On 2/24/2019 at 7:46 PM, Jay1957 said:

New to wet tumbling, but after one use I stopped using pins. I use Simple Green and lemishine. Tumble abou 90-120 minutes. I just do pistol and they are fine for my purpose.

Me too. What a PITA. Lemishine & Armorall car wash, hot water. I’ll try the Simple Green, thanks. 

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51 minutes ago, OPENB said:

Me too. What a PITA. Lemishine & Armorall car wash, hot water. I’ll try the Simple Green, thanks. 

You can get a gallon of simple green concentrate at Lowe’s for about $9. I use about an ounce or so. Actually use an old shot glass to keep it kind of consistent.

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  • 4 months later...

Tried brass juice on my 9mm once fired brass put them in the FA wet tumbler and set it to run for 1 hour. The timer stoped dumped it all into a strainer and wow amazing shiny brass looks like jewelry! I’m not kidding I was so excited starting my next batch! Dumped the shiny brass divided Half to dry on a towel and the other half on the FA dryer just to see if there was a difference when it dried. Both maintained  the shiny new brass look! Im really amazed! Used the same mixture for 2nd batch after an hour dumped the brass onto a strainer and wow clean and dull brass!!! What?! I couldn’t believe it I was so heartbroken 😭 washed it and mixed a new batch of solution and I’m still waiting I hope this gets it as shiny as the first batch... 

 

update: 

 

after an hour dumped the 2nd batch in the strainer and yahoo shiny brass again! 

 

Oh oh I was reading the instructions Use distilled water. I used tap water maybe that’s why it might have had a dulling effect on the 2nd wash. Who knows... all I know is fresh water and brass juice equals shiny brass! 

 

No pins!

Edited by Gviz
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