[Thewelshm]

But mine always comes out pretty, starts life in walnut then separate tumbler with corn and nu shine. 357 Magnum

thewelshm

 

[Abby'sDad]

I mix walnut and corn cob 50/50 with a little Nu-finish; two hours done.

 

[jonesy814]

I wash in a water, vinegar, dish soap solution. When dry I tumble with ground corn cob, with some NuFinish car polish added

 

[Hawg]

I use corn cob and Meguiars car polish.

 

[series guy]

I wet tumble with stainless pins. Brass looks like new inside and out. Including the primer pockets. 45 minutes to an hour in the tumbler and it can handle 500 - 600 cases.

 

[Thewelshm]

I think I have the edge mate..., now you are going back to check my picture right..

thewelshm

 

[SidecarFlip]

I think I have the edge mate..., now you are going back to check my picture right..

thewelshm

I don't believe so. Your case interiors look to be black and loaded with powder residue whereas Series Guy's cases are squeaky clean inside.

I cannot see your primer pockets Paul, but I bet they are cruddy too (unless you cleaned them), With STS, the pockets are as clean as the inside of the cases.

STS will always win out over dry tumbling no matter what media or additive is use and that is why people are switching. In fact, with STS, there is no need for additives. Dash of Dawn dishwash detergent, dash of Lemishine and good to go. Double rinse, dry on cookie sheets in a warm oven (or in the sun) and thats it.

Didn't send you my old dry tumbler for no reason a while back. I did it because I have no use for it anymore. Might as well let someone else use it.

 

[Charlie686]

I don't have a tumbler. After I soak the dirty brass in citric acid ( available at the local grocery store ) I soak and aggitate in dawn dish soap. Rinse well and depending onn the weather either air or over dry. Shiney brass looks nice but it doesn't perform any better or worse than dull brass. I guess I'll buy a tumbler one day when I get tired of the wet wash process...

 

[mrerick]

I got a stainless pin wet tumbler earlier this year, and won't go back to the vibratory tumbler.

They come out absolutely new inside and out. Best looking brass I've ever produced.

Just loaded a few thousand after cleaning up about 20,000 cases...

 

[guido4198]

OK..I'll ask: What is STS..??

 

[Engineer1911]

Systemic Tumbling Syndrome: The faulty belief that shiny brass produces smaller groups or higher scores.

 

[NWDave]

The faulty belief that shiny brass produces smaller groups or higher scores.

Not me, I just like shiny things.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Systemic Tumbling Syndrome: The faulty belief that shiny brass produces smaller groups or higher scores.

That is a good one. I see you have a humorous mind...

STS denotes the media used in the tumbling operation, 304 stainless pins.

Candidly, dry tumbling with an additive like Nu Finish or any mildly abrasive compound (you can use liquid final rubbing compound as well) will render the outside of the case very shiny and silky smooth.

2 things dry tumbling cannot do no matter how many hours you run it in a vibratory tumbler and that is:

It will not address dirty primer pockets (other than maybe lodging a bit of cob or shell in the flash hole you have to physically remove and...

It will not clean the inside of the case.

STS will leave a matte finish on the outside and THE INSIDE of the case and it WILL CLEAN THE PRIMER POCKETS AND FLASH HOLES.

In my perspective and for what I do, I really don't care if the outside of the case is shiny, means nothing to me, matte is just fine.

For me, what is very important is that the INSIDE of a case is CLEAN and devoid of powder residue and the primer pockets and flash holes are also clean. One clean flash holes and pockets totally eliminate me hand cleaning them with a brush, but more importantly, the inside of the case is clean and residue free which in the case of bottleneck cases is very important as powder residue adversely impacts annealing the case mouth and it adversely impacts seating a bullet because powder residue is abrasive so it causes the bullet to seat harder than a clean case. What I do and what I load, the inside of the case needs to be clean and powder residue free. Dry tumbling will never achieve that.

Finally, with dry tumbling you add an additive to achieve that 'shiny case' but that additive is also deposited on the inside of the case and never removed. I don't want anything inside a loaded case but propellant.

Might not be critical with pistol loads but it is with long range rifle loads.

... and dry tumbling is messy. It's dusty and it's dirty. STS is neither.

The positives far outweigh the negatives.

 

[Hawg]

For me and my style of shooting dry tumbling works just fine. I don't care if my cases are bright and shiny or dull and discolored. My 44-40 cases are very dull and blackened from shooting black powder. They still work as intended. Now back in the day when I was loading rifle cartridges for 1000 yard competition I took more care with cleaning my cases.