That’s it...I’m tumbling pistol brass

[odfairfaxsub]

I’ll be honest, I’ve screwed up a lot of things in my life time but never a die. Shooting as much pistol brass as I have I never tumbled unless I found range pickups but my brass never for a pistol. Say what you want but it worked for 10 years and no die damage yet. Now here’s where I got smart. Needed a die and my dad had the caliber, ask to borrow it and first shell I ran up it bam!!!! Scratch. Next case scratch next one and next one scratch. Now I’m of the school I’m just going to tumble everything even if it’s just for 1/2 hour to knock off the hard stuff just a bit. Figure I can tumble when I get home from work and shut her down when I put the kids to bed. That’s pretty much what I do for my rifle work and should be sufficent for this. I just see a future problem here.

[Chad5005]

I don't care if its a 100 pieces or a 1000 pieces,i tumble everything for 2 hours to make sure they are clean,then put it up in containers or ziplock bags till ready to use,im never in a hurry and not messing up dies I forgot to add I wet tumble with ss pins,dawn and limishine

[Wheelguns 1961]

I have a timer on my tumbler, so if I forget, it shuts itself off.

[lefty o]

i tumble it all. it doesnt have to be pretty, but to feed dirty brass into your dies, and then turn around and run the same dirty stuff into your gun to me is nutz.

[mattw]

I tumble for at least 12 hours in walnut or cobb with the good orange polish and some mineral spirits. I like my brass to be really shinny!

[Wheelguns 1961]

I go three hours with walnut and two used dryer sheets. It works pretty good.

[Tom W.]

I inspect my brass before I size it, using carbide dies. I mostly shoot at an indoor range, and I'll take home whatever someone else leaves, and a lot of that I know is once fired.After resizing/depriming I'll tumble it for a while in corn cob media and some Nu Finish car polish. When it's ready I'll put it in surplus 50 cal ammo cans. But it all gets polished.

[Dale53]

I polish all of my brass. That habit was ingrained in me from my IPSC days when my 1911's put everything on the ground. I have a large Dillon Vibratory tumbler and have a timer in my utility barn where I do my casting and tumbling. I just accumulate until I have a load (I keep LOTS of brass), then tumble for three hours with Dillon's polish and ground corncobs. I have worn out one carbide die but that's after upwards of 200,000 rounds over the years. I can live with that...

These days I pretty much just shoot revolvers (getting too old and feeble to bend over picking up brass). I still believe in keeping my brass clean before loading it.

FWIW
Dale53

[glockfan]

I polish all of my brass. That habit was ingrained in me from my IPSC days when my 1911's put everything on the ground. I have a large Dillon Vibratory tumbler and have a timer in my utility barn where I do my casting and tumbling. I just accumulate until I have a load (I keep LOTS of brass), then tumble for three hours with Dillon's polish and ground corncobs.
Dale53

pretty much a carbon copy of the path ive followed along the years. i like my brass very clean in and out, an old habit i'm carrying since my early ipsc years . i leave my brass getting scrubbed by the corn for 8 hours in my large dillon 2001 tumbler with a spoon or 2 of carnauba car wax,and they're exiting shiny in and out.

[Mr_Sheesh]

8 hours... 1.5-2 hours does it in my wet tumbler. I like some speed in that (Otherwise I'd be given a bad time for disturbing the neighbors here.)

[therealhitman]

These days I pretty much just shoot revolvers (getting too old and feeble to bend over picking up brass). I still believe in keeping my brass clean before loading it.

Dale, this thing is the best. You need one.

[georgerkahn]

odfairfaxsub -- thanks for post, but you piqued my curiosity: what is the caliber, and brand/type (e.g., carbide?) of die. After 40 or so years loading, I've (knock wood) not yet scratched a die -- and surely do not wish to start now! In winter months I use a Thumler's Tumbler slow-speed model with walnut shells and/or a Hornady ultrasonic cleaner. From spring thru fall, I use the hi-speed version of same tumbler with stainless pins, Armor-All Wash n' Wax, Lemi-Shine, and a smidgeon of Dawn. Perhaps a little OCD (can one even be "OCD" in the reloading process?), I decap all my brass on a separate press, and the primer removal is a requisite before any tumbling. Then, nothing but tumbled, decapped brass ONLY will be in contact with dies. I apply/use the Imperial/Redding wax for sizing, too. Again -- I'd love to learn your caliber, as well as die type/brand.

Re your scratches, it is often NOT the scratch (e.g., "dent") which is a problem scratching your inserted cases, but the "moved" metal from the scratch now making a raised burr adjacent to it. If you were to turn, say, a piece of broom-stick, or sufficiently sized hardwood dowel to just barely fit in the die; chuck it into a drill press chuck, and insert the die to the now spinning dowel which you had liberally coated with plain-Jane tooth-paste -- it may be sufficient to remove said burr and restore the die to, hey!, even better than new functioning. Whatever, wood as a tool shouldn't affect functioning diameter, and tooth paste is barely abrasive enough to work down the raised burr. In machine work -- many years back (now I'm retired) -- we did this with success on hi-speed steel dies. (We used Squibb brand tooth-powder mixed with a few drops of tap water). Never tried it on a reloading die -- but, it might just work.

geo

[odfairfaxsub]

George, you might be right. It’s a old old old rcbs die for 44 mag. Almost could be considered aluminum in weight. I’ll be honest it might be aluminum w steel parts it might be steel. I’m going to throw more info tonight as to the construction of it.

[Pb Burner]

I have scratched a die, but RCBS replaced for free. Even so, since then, I never resize fired brass that has not been tumbled, ever. I tumble with corncob at least an hour before sizing and because I lube all brass before sizing they get another hour in the tumbler after sizing. A timer for the tumbler is money well spent, imo.

[DerekP Houston]

i tumble it all. it doesnt have to be pretty, but to feed dirty brass into your dies, and then turn around and run the same dirty stuff into your gun to me is nutz.

same here, I always toss brass in the tumbler, if I can't remember it doesn't hurt to clean it again....

[Uncle Grinch]

I have a timer on my tumbler, so if I forget, it shuts itself off.

Now that’s a simple but good idea. I’ve got a timer we used to use on our outdoor Christmas lights that will be perfect. Need to put it with my tumbler so I won’t forget it.

[dh2]

I tumble every brass case every time I load it, I use a timer 4 hours or so, it is in the shop so no one will hear it.

[bedbugbilly]

I mostly shoot 38s - Colt Short, Long & Special. I don't own a tumbler - probably should. When the brass gets dirty, I use a "poor man's cleaner'. I de-prime it and toss it in a clean 5 gallon bucket of hot soapy water. Let it set for a while and then I have a 1" "stirring dowel stick" that I swirl it around in the bucket with. After and hour or so of sitting in the hot soapy water, stirring it every ten minutes to mix the brass around, I rinse with hot clean water. Then I rinse the bucket, fill it with hot clean water and put in some powdered citric acid - let it sit of ra while, sir, sit, stir and so on. I then take it out and rinse it and spread it out on a towel to dry for a day or so. It's not nice shiny brass like the tumblers do but it does clean it up nice. So far, I've never scratched a die. My bottleneck rifle brass though, I do the above with after every shooting.

[osteodoc08]

Take the die apart and chuck up an old brass brush in a drill. Wrap with cotton flannel or cotton patch and smear with flitz. Wear a leather glove and hold onto the die and run the flitzed patch in the die to polish it. I’ve also installed the die upside down in a single stage press to try and hold it still as well.

I’ve taken up STM and have been happy. A bit more work but oh so shiny.

[dvnv]

Could be a non-carbide die...did you lube the cases?