• This Forum is for adults 18 years of age or over. By continuing to use this Forum you are confirming that you are 18 or older. No content shall be viewed by any person under 18 in California.

Pins Stuck in Case After Tumbling

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…..
 
762willdo,

Just one of the downsides to tumbling with pins. Check every flash hole, make sure the case is dry inside without any pins stuck to the sides. They may or may not prevent the primer from working, but they will not do your barrel any good. I've ended up making sure to champher the case mouth every time cases are cleaned or trimmed if using pins.

Ultrasonic cleaning requires making sure the cases are rinsed and dried, but not much else.

HTH,
DocBII
 
Stainless pins are one of the larger and more dangerous bottles of snake oil ever sold to shooters. Get rid of them.

Shiny brass does nothing for performance, and some carbon in the neck is a good thing.

If you’re doing tons of brass, especially range brass, there are other options for that as well.
 
Well that sucks. If you have doubts about the ammo you’ve loaded I’d probably error on the side of caution. One of the big gripes about using stainless steel pins to clean brass is exactly what you have discovered. I’ve never used pins to clean, just old fashion media but after reading a lot of the threads on the subject this issue pops up. Stainless steel pins would be ok imo if you cared for the trouble of checking your flash hole which is something you should be doing anyways imo.
 
I used to use Ultrasonic cleaning. Then tried Wet tumbling with stainless pins.

Now I've gone back to the vibratory tumbler with 75 % corncob and 25 % walnut tumbling media. I also throw in a handful of dryer sheets cut into 2.5" x 2.5" squares. And the same amount of dryer sheet pieces into the Frankford Arsenal tumbling media separator that you spin by hand inside a bucket.

Corn Cob Tumbled.jpg
 
Always inspect your brass after tumbling regardless of which media you use. I've picked both walnut and corncob pieces out of the flash holes as well. Its just part of the process. I that's too tedious, tumble with the primers in place, then deprime and clean the primer pockets afterwards. Bottom line is adopt a process and make it rote.

Hoot
 
Last edited:
I inspect every single piece during my chamfering step to ensure there are no pins. Without fail, there are always at least a few with pins inside.
 
Whatever cleaning method you use you will have this. Brass inspection is part of the reloading process for any responsible reloader. Ive found plugged flash holes with pins, walnut, and corn cob medias. I have also found a few pins cross wise in the mouth of cases. I inspect every case. I like mine clean because dirt wears on dies. To each their own
 
It won't necessarily go down the barrel, but it could. When I first started SS tumbling, I didn't do a post tumble rinse. I do this now since the pins can adhere to the inner case wall... and the obvious flash hole stickers.

I found out about this when a hot SS pin ejected out of an AR and landed on my buddy's arm (he was shooting the rifle)

After that I employed a rinse after each tumble and haven't had an issue since. (shake out all the brass manually, and agitate them all by hand in fresh water) Sometimes errant pins will break loose in the rinse tote.
 

Upgrades & Donations

This Forum's expenses are primarily paid by member contributions. You can upgrade your Forum membership in seconds. Gold and Silver members get unlimited FREE classifieds for one year. Gold members can upload custom avatars.


Click Upgrade Membership Button ABOVE to get Gold or Silver Status.

You can also donate any amount, large or small, with the button below. Include your Forum Name in the PayPal Notes field.


To DONATE by CHECK, or make a recurring donation, CLICK HERE to learn how.

Forum statistics

Threads
165,018
Messages
2,188,237
Members
78,646
Latest member
Kenney Elliott
Back
Top