SS media cleanig
- Thread starter gnoble
- Start date
On the issue of peening, I don't tumble for as long as some, usually 30 minutes - 1 hour MAX, I also chamfer the inside of the case mouth AFTER tumbling not before. Then I prime and run it through my neck sizer (Lee collet, Redding, Wilson) last to insure the neck is as perfect as possible. I feel this helps to offset any issues with the neck or case mouth caused by ANY tumbling effect.
On the carbon issue, I think it's all about developing your loads consistently. If you clean your brass consistently, whatever way... then you should always have or have not the same amount of carbon in the neck.
Thanks
On the carbon issue, I think it's all about developing your loads consistently. If you clean your brass consistently, whatever way... then you should always have or have not the same amount of carbon in the neck.
Thanks
My experience with SS tumbling is that it can peen the case mouth in a pretty short time and that the burr it creates does affect the ammo.
These are pressure traces I get when my case mouths are clean and free of any burrs:
Notice they're all nice an tight together.
After tumbling the brass and trimming with my Giraud, I get traces like this:
On the cases that have traces out of sync with the others, if I take a bullet and try to slide it into them after firing, I can feel resistance in the mouth. The peening created a burr that interferes with bullet release that was not removed by the trimmer. Traces look the same as they do with cases have donuts.
The peening reduces the OAL of the case. After a few cycles of trimming and tumbling in SS media, the case mouth is no longer getting trimmed by the Giraud. The case have gotten too short. Kind of makes sense when you think about it; you trim the case and put a bit of an edge on it when you chamfer. This edge then gets beaten/rolled down by steel pins, but the case doesn't grow back at the same rate.
Tried it for a while, don't do it any more. Sold the tumbler and the pins. The effort to check for and remove the burrs outweighed any benefits. Went back to cleaning with a regular tumbler and an US unit.
These are pressure traces I get when my case mouths are clean and free of any burrs:
Notice they're all nice an tight together.
After tumbling the brass and trimming with my Giraud, I get traces like this:
On the cases that have traces out of sync with the others, if I take a bullet and try to slide it into them after firing, I can feel resistance in the mouth. The peening created a burr that interferes with bullet release that was not removed by the trimmer. Traces look the same as they do with cases have donuts.
The peening reduces the OAL of the case. After a few cycles of trimming and tumbling in SS media, the case mouth is no longer getting trimmed by the Giraud. The case have gotten too short. Kind of makes sense when you think about it; you trim the case and put a bit of an edge on it when you chamfer. This edge then gets beaten/rolled down by steel pins, but the case doesn't grow back at the same rate.
Tried it for a while, don't do it any more. Sold the tumbler and the pins. The effort to check for and remove the burrs outweighed any benefits. Went back to cleaning with a regular tumbler and an US unit.
SS media peening is real. The easiest way to detect is to run your finger nail along the neck towards the opening of the case. If there is peening, you will experience a slight catch before you fall off at the opening. Its effect on the loaded round is a bit like a donut at the neck opening instead of the base of the neck like the traditional donut i.e. not good.
It can be easily avoided by using 2x the amount of pins i.e. 10 pounds, less brass, and cleaning for 1 hour or less. More pins means more cushioning for the case to case collision and more clean power for the pins so less time is needed. Less brass and shorter cleaning time means less chance for collision.
It can be easily avoided by using 2x the amount of pins i.e. 10 pounds, less brass, and cleaning for 1 hour or less. More pins means more cushioning for the case to case collision and more clean power for the pins so less time is needed. Less brass and shorter cleaning time means less chance for collision.
bigedp51
The cases below are Remington .223 cases fired in a AR15 rifle, the cases were tumbled two hours in the Thumblers Tumbler.
My AR15s have iron sights or a three inch red dot sight and what little peening you see is not going to effect the bug hole groups I'm "NOT" shooting.
A simple twist of the deburring tool on the case mouth removes any rough edges and the type case cleaning method depends on the rifle and type shooting you do.
At 63 years of age with chronologically gifted eyesight I'm not our groups designated marksman in a Zombie attack. I have been selected to give covering suppressing fire and be Zombie bait for the younger guys to my rear with the expensive scoped sniper rifles.
As long as you have plenty of 30 round mags and a large stash of ammo, case mouth peening isn't a problem.
Some of us aren't shooting at stationary paper targets, with expensive target rifles and use pressure trace.
So just remember this, moving targets trying to eat your brains are harder to hit.
My AR15s have iron sights or a three inch red dot sight and what little peening you see is not going to effect the bug hole groups I'm "NOT" shooting.
A simple twist of the deburring tool on the case mouth removes any rough edges and the type case cleaning method depends on the rifle and type shooting you do.
At 63 years of age with chronologically gifted eyesight I'm not our groups designated marksman in a Zombie attack. I have been selected to give covering suppressing fire and be Zombie bait for the younger guys to my rear with the expensive scoped sniper rifles.
As long as you have plenty of 30 round mags and a large stash of ammo, case mouth peening isn't a problem.
Some of us aren't shooting at stationary paper targets, with expensive target rifles and use pressure trace.
So just remember this, moving targets trying to eat your brains are harder to hit.
If it is an issue just use a Redding trimmer to clean up the case mouth. 100 max 223 cases at a time after primer pocket cleaning with your Sinclair tool and they come out very clean.It is not following their instructions that "causes" problems with SSM cleaning.It is a great piece of kit. Primer uniform and flash hole clean with the Sinclair tools. Both the Sinclair and SSM combined really make nice brass but you need to anneal to get best performance.
I think part of the problem is people cleaning too many pieces of brass but it’s not the only reason as other factors like duration, softness of the neck (i.e. annealed) also plays into it. It is FWIW not a simple issue of trimming/chamfer/deburr to get rid of it as the peening can be pretty robust and you will end up shortening the case significantly if you try, and yes that stuff will do bad things to your neck tension.
I started using this method more than 3 years ago and left it a year ago because of the peening, went to US and found it less than effective even with a commercial grade cleaner and I am now back using SS but with 2x media, less brass, and shorter time. The method works now with no peening, but the honest truth is I do think that it does still have the disadvantage of removing the carbon from the neck which I do think is in fact the best “natural†lube for consistent neck tension.
I started using this method more than 3 years ago and left it a year ago because of the peening, went to US and found it less than effective even with a commercial grade cleaner and I am now back using SS but with 2x media, less brass, and shorter time. The method works now with no peening, but the honest truth is I do think that it does still have the disadvantage of removing the carbon from the neck which I do think is in fact the best “natural†lube for consistent neck tension.
I bought and shelved some ceramic bits that I tried instead of SS media. Bought #3's and probably needed a size or even two larger. They stuck in every primer pocket and getting them out of the .223's was a royal pain. The .308's were an easy fix as the sizes were obviously larger. BUT, they were just as clean as with SS media, and allegedly no peening occurred, which is why I went that way. BUT with all the issues of cleaning pockets out, I restored them for now. I'm thinking of buying some #5's next time round to see if that makes a big difference.
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