Stainless Pin Wet Tumbling- Gripe

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  • Pinecone

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 4, 2013
    28,175
    Walnut was fine most of the time, but every so often I'd encounter a case that was very tight when seating the primer. That stopped happening when started running them through the wet tumbler with pins every so often. I can only attribute that to build up of crud in the primer pockets. Everything else remained constant. Same powder, primers, cases, bullets, press, and person.

    I use Starline brass and Federal primers. I don't remember having this issue with Winchester primers though. Maybe more build up from the softer Federal primers? Or, maybe you're doing something different with the dry tumbling than walnut and dillon polish?

    I tumble in corn cob. With the primers IN the case.

    The primer cup covers the sides of the primer pocket. How is crud going to build up there.

    Maybe if you decapped first, then tumbled, the tumbling moved the crud.
     

    Pinecone

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 4, 2013
    28,175
    The purpose (for me) of the SS/wet tumbling is not so much to polish the cases, although they do come out very shiny, but to clean the inside of the case necks. My other method of inside neck polishing is very time and hand intensive. My main gripe with SS/wet tumbling is that the outside and inside deburr/chamfer on the neck mouth gets beat up, and I'm frequently having to re-chamfer them. And it's not great at cleaning the inside of the necks on cases less than 30 cal. anyways.

    The strange thing is, most everything I have read is that you WANT the thin layer of carbon in the case neck to give you consistent bullet pull forces.

    So you use a method of cleaning that takes much more work, and then MAKES even more work????????

    Yeah, that makes sense.
     

    Speed3

    Ultimate Member
    Aug 19, 2011
    7,816
    MD
    The strange thing is, most everything I have read is that you WANT the thin layer of carbon in the case neck to give you consistent bullet pull forces.

    Correct... I brush my necks and even lube the inside of the neck and bullet for consistency and have decreased my vertical spread at midrange(the is match type stuff, not plinking). A shooting buddy has the force meter gauge and noticed a difference in seating pressure by lubing necks and a decrease in vertical spread also.

    Everyone has their own methodology I guess, but I can tell you I've seen a difference at 600 yards. The difference would be more noticeable at 1k.
     

    KRC

    Active Member
    Sep 30, 2018
    615
    Cecil County MD
    There are ways to get "consistent bullet pull forces" other than a layer of carbon. Which wet/SS pin tumbling does not remove completely anyways, at least for me on less than 30 cal cases. For example, one could brush the inside of case necks with a bronze brush with a strip of KrazyKloth. Or use moly coated bullets. (Don't even THINK about rehashing that one!) Or straight up lube the necks with either a powder or liquid/grease. Or some combination of these. I've never relied on neck "carbon" as a lube as I consider this is just loading with dirty necks, and likely introducing more inconsistency, rather than less.

    FYI - by using ultrasound cleaning, followed by wet/SS pin tumbling with cleaning solution, the gross morphology of the carbon and other buildup on the inside of the case necks is dramatically reduced, and then much easier to clean than without the tumbling process. And the cases are VERY clean and shiny. And the inside of the cases are completely cleaned of combustion crud that is likely changing, in an inconsistent manner, the internal volume of the cases.

    It is true that I'm identifying issues with wet/SS tumbling, and am not completely sold on the process yet, but, like many other ideas I am made aware of by other shooters, I thought I'd give it a try. And as I encounter issues, I work to resolve them. And maybe eventually trash the idea. I'm not there with this yet, but if I do reject the process, it's not because someone posted ill informed opinion, but because I've been there/done that.

    While I suggested to the OP to try tumbling prior to resizing, this was in the spirit of suggesting a possible solution to his particular problem, not stating that "my way is better" or even without issues.

    PS - I don't do "plinking" or "blasting" ammo.
     
    Last edited:

    PowPow

    Where's the beef?
    Nov 22, 2012
    4,712
    Howard County
    I tumble in corn cob. With the primers IN the case.

    The primer cup covers the sides of the primer pocket. How is crud going to build up there.

    Maybe if you decapped first, then tumbled, the tumbling moved the crud.

    I dry tumble with primers in, but used walnut. I only started decapping when I wanted to try wet with stainless to clean the pockets. I could have used a tool to do that as well.

    I don't know how that stuff was building up like that. I have anywhere from 12-20 loads on some of my 45 brass. I don't wet tumble my rifle brass.
     

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