38 Special: The Wet Fart Chronicles

[Recycled bullet]

I really like my Frankfurt Arsenal Wet Tumbler. This was the brass that I recently deprimed and resized with the hand press earlier this week, well I finally dumped them in the bucket and added hot sink water and a bunch of stainless steel pins, then poured in a guesstimated capful quantity of citric acid powder, a squirt of dawn dish soap then sealed the lid and let it rip.

And the meanwhile I went and I took turns shooting my Ruger Wrangler, a Ruger Blackhawk and a Smith & Wesson 686. I finally used up the last of the federal auto match I'm so glad to throw that box away. I shot 250 357 magnums. Both revolvers shoot it well but I'll give the Blackhawk the nod at 50 yards it groups a little better about a fist size group. I really like how fast I can reload the 686 compared to the Blackhawk. Although obviously I'm just making work for myself at this point

Got done with that then got back and poured out all the trash water from the tumbler. I am left with beautiful glistening shiny brass. This brass is so shiny that it gives house cats temper tantrums. If I didn't have a whole bunch of bullets to load into these casings I might be tempted to thread them on some fishing line and make me a new necklace or bracelet

[cwtebay]

Them's some shiny brass!!
Can't say I have ever fired 250 rounds of 357 in a setting!!

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

[ascast]

very pretty !

[1I-Jack]

You've got SS pins still in some of those.

[lar45]

Much nicer than my walnut media

[Recycled bullet]

The brass is in the toaster oven I repeat the brass is in the toaster oven. I'm going to have some shiny dry remington 38 spl brass tomorrow

[hawkeye1]

Wow! I’m impressed. I didn’t know wet tumbling worked so much better than my walnut and corncob media in vibrating tumbler. Of course mine would prolly work better if I replaced the media more often. So, after you tumble the brass, do you have to put it all in the oven to dry? Is that unhandy or not a big deal?

[Recycled bullet]

No big deal at all. I use the same hardware cloth basket in the same oven for powder coating bullets. I set it at 200°F last night, time to check and see if they are fully dry. The drying works faster and better with primers out.

[Bigslug]

Here's a question for you: Will those stainless steel pins stick to a magnet? If so, I'm thinking that could possibly be exploited for separation.

A possible word of caution (or paranoia): I tumble pre-sizing with the primers still in to keep the flash hole unplugged with walnut shell, but I'm also a little concerned with eroding the primer pockets with those pins. It'd be worth monitoring how much effort it takes to seat your primers going forward.

[MUSTANG]

What do you do to keep the Brass from Tarnishing after wet tumbling and drying? If I do not put in a vibratory tumbler for 1/2 hour after Pin Cleaning and Drying; I get dull tarnished brass in 3 to 5 days.

[AnthonyB]

Mustang;
I never have that problem but have found that too much Lemi-Shine is counterproductive and that the pins themselves need to be cleaned every so often, especially after cleaning brass lubed with lanolin and Iso-Heet. Just running the pins with the standard cleaning solution or some Castrol Super Clean has me back to shiny brass in no time.
Tony

[Budzilla 19]

Mustang, to answer your question about tarnished brass, if you would replace the Dawn dishwashing liquid with Turtle Wax Zip Wax, it’s a car wash and wax together, no more tarnished brass and no tumbling in walnut media required. Water beads off. Just a suggestion.

[beemer]

I have the Harbor freight rock tumbler with the two small drums so I only do small batches, covers what I need. The results are much the same. I don't tumble everything or every time I fire them, only really nasty stuff or pickups. I still use a vibratory and corn cob media most of the time.

When I tumble I put in a little dish soap and a pinch of Lemi-Shine that seems to help with the tarnish. Pins do stick to a magnet. I use one of the magnets with the release handle to work with pins.

[Recycled bullet]

My stainless steel pins are magnetic.

I manually shake the pins out. I dump the contents of the wet tumbler into a large or medium bucket then I rinse it out in the sink over and over until I get most of the soap out and all of the dirt out.

Then I bring my second clean bucket and I sit on the couch and watch a DVD in this case I watched about 20 minutes of a John Wick movie while I shook the pins out, and then I dump the bucket of separated wet brass into the hardware cloth tray.

And now my second batch of brass is drying, in this case all of the 357s and 38s that I shot last night. Primer seating force is increased, it feels like the primer pockets are tighter after I wet tumble them with pins. This is the same with little revolver cartridges like 38 Special and also with bottleneck Centerfire rifle like 308 Winchester. I feel that my primer seating force and seating depth more consistent with the wet pin tumbled brass.

In summary it is a net Improvement for me and has led to higher quality ammunition and also has significantly improved the inspection process because the smallest defect is glaringly obvious.

[JimB..]

I use a universal depriming die, don’t like the idea of running dirty brass through the sizing die. Of course if it’s just revolver brass that never hit the ground it’s probably fine.

For drying I spread them on old towels in the garage, often with a box fan pointed in their general direction.

+1 for wash n wax

For especially dirty brass I’ll sometimes use dawn instead of wash n wax and change the water in the drum after 30 min, then add wash n wax.

If brass comes out kinda greasy, quick rinse and run again with dawn, repeat as needed. Usually it’s lube not broken down by the gentler soap in wash n wax.

Only downside to wet tumbling is time and the increased tendency for the expander to stick. Stainless pins don’t deform, erode, or work harden primer pockets or case mouths, that’s all just internet noise. When you rinse you will find brass flakes in the bottom of the bucket, I’m pretty sure that’s the sharp edges created by the extractor on the case head being knocked off.

[PJEagle]

Frankford Arsenal makes a wet media separator that removes the pins from the brass in about a minute.

[sundog]

I like Meguiar's wash & wax and lemishine and a [quick] cold water rinse. Usually after a universal decap so I can run clean brass through the sizer die. I air dry on a fluffy towel.

[Recycled bullet]

Mustang, to answer your question about tarnished brass, if you would replace the Dawn dishwashing liquid with Turtle Wax Zip Wax, it’s a car wash and wax together, no more tarnished brass and no tumbling in walnut media required. Water beads off. Just a suggestion.

Hey Budzilla 19 can you please tell more about the wash and wax? That sounds like a pretty good Improvement that I might pick up a bottle at the parts store try it on my next batch.

[dondiego]

I let my brass air dry out on the porch after tumbling in the FART. My pins are magnetic and are separated from the brass with a Dillon tumbling basket and a Harbor Freight magnet with handle release to move the pins and pick up strays.

[Gtrubicon]

I also use wash and wax instead of dawn, the have the simple green version now and it work’s excellent. The brass stays shiny. I still add a very small amount of lemishine.