[Viss]

Another silly question from the rookie reloader. Do you reuse the media after cleaning brass? Thanks for your help and paitience. Dave

 

[LeMat]

I've been using the same media for the last 8 years! :lol:

I recommend not going that long as it get's fairly dusty and just doesn't do as well of a job anymore. I'm just fairly cheap and lazy and if anything, I may just wash it, dry it, and reuse.

I only use walnut, just to clean. Don't care about shiny all that much, but I've got a bag of corn cob media floatin' around here somewhere........

 

[azmick]

I use corn cob and toss it when it looks bad or when it takes too long to get the brass clean.

 

[carl418_resigned]

I use brown rice in a rock tumbler. With an occasional squirt of car polish, it does wonders with cleaning and shining brass. I usually can get 6 months out of the rice.

The down side is that the tumbler I have only holds about 50 cases at a time. I need a bigger tumbler!

 

[Viss]

Thanks for the info fellas, being frugal, I didn't like the idea of throwing the media out after one use. By the way, I ordered my equipment last weekend, I tracked the orders status last night and all items are backordered. Bummer!!!

 

[azmick]

I use brown rice in a rock tumbler

Carl, Is that how you make 'Dirty Rice' :mrgreen:

 

[carl418_resigned]

I use brown rice in a rock tumbler

Carl, Is that how you make 'Dirty Rice' :mrgreen:

:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Guest]

Viss, I am glad to hear you are planning to reload. Always ask questions if you are unsure and sometimes if you think you are sure as well. You may hear better advice or a better/faster way of doing something. Also, if you need reloading supplies or equipment, sometimes the guys here will sell you slightly used items pretty reasonable due to them going progressive or getting out of the business/hobby. Good Luck and welcome to the forum. B-)

 

[AdoramaMike]

Yes you can use it over and over again I change mine 6 to 8 months depending how much you use it. (3000 to 5000 rounds) in 6 months.

Mike

 

[mrerick]

I use crushed walnut shell media bought at PetSmart. It lasts quite a long time.

To keep the dust down, I throw in a 2 inch wide strip of Laundry Softener sheet with each batch. Toss the dirty strip when I separate the media from the shiny brass.

Marc

 

[AdoramaMike]

Wow, Marc did not think of that!!!!

Mike

 

[kraynky]

I use crushed walnut shell media bought at PetSmart. It lasts quite a long time.

To keep the dust down, I throw in a 2 inch wide strip of Laundry Softener sheet with each batch. Toss the dirty strip when I separate the media from the shiny brass.

Marc

Me too, works great!

Anybody notice how old this thread was? Still good info though.

 

[Bill56]

And, if you want your brass to be shinier, add 1-2 capfuls of Nu-Finish car wax/polish to the media once in awhile.

BTW, Marc's idea of the laundry softener sheet works great for dust of all kinds, including lead.

 

[TennSharpshooter]

I use corn for the first clean over and over again. Then if I want a shine I use Walnut media with a little polish in it. It can be used 10-12 times for best results. Always remember not to deprime before you clean. Media will get stuck in primer pocket inside of brass. When you deprime you will knock it out.

 

[gearchecker]

I have 2 batches for my media. First is 75% coarse walnut/25% corn. Then I finish with a 100% fine ground walnut. I use car polish for the final step. I replace 1/2 of it in each batch about every 6 months.
My tumbler holds around 200 handgun casings or around 75-100 rifle casings.

I've learned a couple of very valuable lessons that I'd like to pass on.
Don't mix 45 caliber with .41 caliber/ .41 caliber and .38 SPl, 9mm or 380 ACP. The brass will get stuck together and you'll ruin some if it trying to separate it.
It's best to only tumble one cartridge size at a time when cleaning your handgun casings.

Also, clean and polish your brass BEFORE removing the Primers!! Otherwise you'll spend a great deal of time cleaning and blowing out the primer pockets un-necessarily.

Regards,
Gearchecker

 

[Bill56]

To Paul and GC (or anyone),

I always deprime before throwing cases in the tumbler. I have a separate depriming die. Doing so gets the primer pocket cleaned out reasonably well. Yea, once in awhile there's some media stuck in a flash hole, but it's pretty seldom. I just use a small brad to poke it through.

What do you guys do to clean out your primer pockets? The primer pocket tools out there that I have seen really aren't meant specifically for pistol brass, they're more for rifle brass. Or don't you bother with it?

Bill

 

[Hellbent]

Bill, I use a primer pocket tool when necessary for pistol brass and always for rifle brass. Got in the habit of doing it on pistol brass when I started shooting black powder cartridge in cowboy shooting.

 

[Bill56]

Hi Duane, I'm the same as you. I always use the primer pocket tool on rifle brass. When I started this pistol reloading thing, I started with some .44 mag brass. With the large primer pocket tool, I found I was taking off alot of brass, going in pretty deep into the pocket. I stopped using it right away and did some reading on the Net. In a couple of places, I found it stated that at least the large primer pocket tool was intended for rifle brass. Thus far, I haven't used the small primer pocket tool on any of my .38 spl or .357 mag brass. The primer pocket brushes that RCBS sells have gotten pretty rotten reviews on Midway, but I've never used them myself. What say you, Duane?

 

[USMC Snakedriver]

I have Dillon equipment, and use their large vibratory tumbler with walnut media. It can handle several hundred pistol cases at a time. The same media has been used for over 8,000 cases. The tumbler ends up with a black ring of material around the top of the tub after each run that is cleaned from the cases. Using Simple Green and paper towels, all the crud is easily removed. The media doesn't seem to degrade at all. Dillon makes a liquid brass cleaner that gets included every three or four runs. Brass comes out clean and polished.

As for primers, pistol cases are deprimed after cleaning. Rifle brass is deprimed before tumbling. Reloading season is usually sometime around January. Once the reloader is running smoothly, it can kick out about 500 pistol cartridges an hour. We usually reload 5 to9,000 rounds. And it lasts for the entire year. Rifle is a whole different animal. It's reloaded as needed and can take hours for a hundred to two hundred rounds. Shotshells are the easiest, and the reloader will kick out about 6 to 700 shells an hour.

Sorry for the reloading recap, but the thread has me thinking about ordering needed supplies.

 

[Hellbent]

Hi Duane, I'm the same as you. I always use the primer pocket tool on rifle brass. When I started this pistol reloading thing, I started with some .44 mag brass. With the large primer pocket tool, I found I was taking off alot of brass, going in pretty deep into the pocket. I stopped using it right away and did some reading on the Net. In a couple of places, I found it stated that at least the large primer pocket tool was intended for rifle brass. Thus far, I haven't used the small primer pocket tool on any of my .38 spl or .357 mag brass. The primer pocket brushes that RCBS sells have gotten pretty rotten reviews on Midway, but I've never used them myself. What say you, Duane?

I've used the hand held Lyman Large primer pocket cleaner for years on pistol brass. Never had an issue at all. Recently, I got one of the primer pocket brush sets from RCBS. As long as it's not really old crudded up brass, they seem to work just as well. But for large primer pockets I usually just grab the Lyman tool.