Pins Stuck in Case After Tumbling

[JimSC]

I just wet tumble with a dishwasher cleaning tab, gets em clean enough for me

 

[Retired shooter]

All in what works for you. To each their own.
My son got started with pins. I followed up, and modified the process. We are both very picky , about the brass and how it gets treated, absolutely no range brass. His brass Lapua 338 , mine 6 ARC, Hornady, changing over to Starline 6.5 Grendel. The bigger the case, the more chance of escaping pins.

Cases are deprimed, dawn, lemi shine, stainless pins hot tap water, timer set for 30 minutes. Do not need anymore than that. Throw everything into Dillon tumbler ,rotate underwater,. Empty into another pan, coldwater rinse. Now pay attention. "" When removing cases from cold water rinse, shake the case sideways under water, the movement of the water will dislodge any errant pin that maybe playing hide and seek"" just like a riptide pulls swimmers out to sea. All cases go into aluminum pans , quick towel dry , summer months outside for solar dry, winter months ,short time in oven low temp. for final dry.

Before priming Always, Always, Always inspect interior of case for. FOD.

Have never found a runaway stainless pin. Inside a case or primer pocket, even large rifle .

Have a great one.!

 

[Longtrain]

Pins were a pain, stuck in the necks of 6mm cases. Switched to chips, never had a problem with them remaining in a case (I do check).

 

[DocBII]

Spread the cases out and run a strong magnet over them. Cases with pins remaining in them will become evident

Jarhead870,

Not always,

HTH,
DocBII

 

[C.E.Smith043]

There's other stainless tumbling shapes besides pins that plenty of people use with great success and much easier to ensure no pins left behind or stuck.

Exactly!!!

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[Dave M.]

I was cleaning .223 brass in my stainless pin tumbler and discovered this situation…….
while placing the brass mouth down in my loading block something caught my eye in one of the flash holes…… it was a stainless pin inside the case stuck width wise across the flash hole, I thought maybe it was a one off situation but I checked the other 49 pieces and found 5 more, which got me thinking about the thousands of rounds of 223 I’ve cleaned and loaded and the occasional unexplained flyers I’ve had, what happens to that pin when I pull the trigger, the primer can’t be hot enough to melt stainless but can the ignition of the powder charge melt it, if not it’s going down the barrel, will it damage the bore????
wow…..

Another reason NOT to mess around with cleaning brass. It does absolutely NOTHING for accuracy, and some people, myself included, would argue that cleaning the brass is making your rounds less accurate. I’ve seen the same thing happen with crushed walnut hull pieces stuck in the primer holes.
Dave

 

[Dave M.]

This might sound strange, but I have not cleaned a case in 20 years.

Even though I have. shot thousands and thousands of rounds of 6PPC and 30BR in competition.

EXACTLY JACKIE.
These stories of SS pins stuck inside brass and in flash holes are crazy. I never clean brass, not because of pin issues, but more because it does nothing for increasing accuracy.
Dave

 

[SBS]

Why shooters obsess over surgically clean cases is one of shootings great mysteries.

Shiny cases are sure easier to find in the PD towns. Can't always find a good clean spot to set up.

 

[762willdo]

Shiny cases are sure easier to find in the PD towns. Can't always find a good clean spot to set up.

My p-dog rifles are .223 and .223AI and I only shoot nickel plated brass for that reason..

 

[Larry Koch]

medium corn cob, mix in some car polish (nufinish) works about the best and is cheap.. Franford arsenal makes a good polish but its way over priced and nufinish car wax don't separate if not used. plus you can wax your stock and barrel.
The main reason I got into reloading in 1980 was to save money and shoot more. Some how these merchants are trying make pay more and shoot less.

 

[6MMsteve]

A simple magnet test will qualify brass quick n easy

 

[searcher]

This might sound strange, but I have not cleaned a case in 20 years.

Even though I have. shot thousands and thousands of rounds of 6PPC and 30BR in competition.

Not strange to me. I quit brushing the insides of the necks about 20 years ago. I prefer to have that carbon coating in the neck and it has never shown to get thick enough to mess with my tune or be substantially measurable in thickness after seating the bullets. I'm guessing if guys shoot low power loads or slow powders, it could be an issue where the cases are getting heavily sooted.

 

[Retired shooter]

Clean shiny brass works extremely well in the reloading dies.

 

[Tangent]

I find walnut shell (buy from sandblasting suppliers for cheap) some car polish and one hour vibrating gets the cases clean enough and nice and slippery for sizing. I obviously still lube the cases, Oneshot or Imperial, both work fine. I think I'll add some dryer sheet as suggested.

 

[farmerjohn]

I don't stress about SS tumbling at all. I've tumbled 10,000+ pieces (pistol and rifle) with pins, and while I have seen a few stick in the case, it's no where near multiple pieces per load ... I inspect every case and it's pretty rare that I even find one. I never obsess about shine or over cleaning and usually just do the minimum...High volume gas gun rounds get pretty dirty and no way I'm running uncleaned rounds through the dies. Also no way I'm hand wiping each piece!

Although I mostly dry tumble (also minimally without obsessing over shine) still have to check flash holes. I've also messed up putting liquid polish in and then putting the brass in too soon ... the insides got caked with clumps of polish and corn cob!

Different needs for different people and applications, but bottom line is reloading demands paying attention at every step.

I am interested in what farmerjohn mentioned ... what happens when pin is annealed along with Brass in the AMP??

It doesn't hurt the pin, the pin falls out during the process and into the innards of the machine and shorts every thing out, friend of mine did it and it was expensive to repair. Warranty didn't cover it. Company said they warned about using the pins in the instructions. Luckily I don't have to buy one because both my shooting partner and my son both have one and I use theirs, AFTER I assure them that there is nothing to fall out of my cases.... John

 

[Forum Boss]

One thing that can reduce the need for tumbling is to clean the necks right away BEFORE the carbon hardens. At the range, minutes after finishing a shooting session, I spray Ballistol on a large patch. I wipe the carbon off the outside of the necks. (Plus a quick wipe of the case body). The neck carbon comes right off, with generally no further outside cleaning needed.



NOTE: If your cases get on to the ground -- that is another story.

 

[markm87]

Clean shiny brass works extremely well in the reloading dies.

This! And I also just prefer handling clean, lead free brass. I mean... I brush my teeth even though they don't chew food any better than if I hadn't.

 

[jimmymac]

Brass needs no more than a wipe down if you are worried about your dies. I don’t need any more steps. There are already too many. As alluded to by @Forum Boss I clean the necks while sitting at the shooting bench. I used to do the Ballistol thing, but one day I forgot it and tried out my home brew 50/50 mix of Hoppes #9 and Kroil. Glad I forgot it because the home brew is the best I’ve used. It takes seconds and removes all the crud.

 

[SSchnd]

NOT ALL SS PINS ARE CREATED EQUAL! Some are smaller larger shorter longer, I also use chips as a medium but the pins I use do not stick the cases I service, 308, 30-06, 6BR, 223, 6.5CM. Have the same pins from years ago. Do not have to use media for clean brass.
Dawn and if desired sprinkle of lemishine if hard water but they dry better with it, or Brash Juice does a wonderful job wet alone.
One must develope the proper process that is both effective and effecient.
Poking dry media out of flash holes sucks IMHO.

 

[DiRTY DOG]

Pot meet kettle... Boasts about never cleaning dirty brass cases... Spends $$ on fancy custom stock paint jobs w/27 layers of high gloss clear coat.

Shiny brass bad! Shiny stock good!

Things that don't effect accuracy, but we still do because we like shiny things...