SS media cleanig
- Thread starter gnoble
- Start date
I will be watching this thread.My answer would be no other than some who turn their necks for tight neck chambers and have seen mild peening around the case mouth.
I have not seen any accuracy changes when SS cleaning. I also only clean 0-50 cases at a time and run for 30 min. so I don't get any peening .
bigedp51
johara1 said:
Case mouth peening from tumbling with SS media.
The mild damage to the the Royal Hungarian crown below was done by the King in 1237 when he walked through a short doorway. So the damage is not the same.
I havent seen any loss of accuracy. What I love about the wet method is how fast it works for me. I use the harbor freight tumbler and it is smaller than the rest so I only do 50 of my 25-06 at a time. 25 in each rubber can. Let them run for 30 minutes and its done. I have not seen any peening on my brass either.
Hope this helps.
Hope this helps.
My accuracy has not changed. I tumble in stainless media for 4 hours. I shoot .223 more than my other calibers. My rifles are sub 1/2 moa except for one, but that is another story. Preening? Yes, I get peening but I always do a quick twist with a chamfering tool takes care of any peening and makes for a more consistent seating force. Stainless media has been absolutely great for me.
Hmm well SS media promoters probably won't like me for this and well I'm not a competition shooter so my standard might not be as high as some others around here but here is what I can tell you. I have been using stainless media for probably close to two years now. I also have a vibratory tumbler that I use. I find that the stainless media gets the brass really clean but I am yet to see a difference in accuracy. It cleans the insides of the cases better and the primer pockets usually come out really clean also. I have gone to the extreme of using a lee de-priming die to pop the primers first. Then clean with ss media. Then I re-size, then clean again to get rid of the die wax or whatever... I have taken a lot of time to really clean the brass. In my personal experience I have seen no gain in accuracy over just cleaning in a tumbler then popping the primer and re-sizing and loading up the round with no further cleaning. SS media is kind of a pain in the ass IMO. Particularly with drying. Anyways I still do it because I feel like cleaner is better... but I have attempted to document an increase in accuracy and I have been unable to do so.
bigedp51 said:johara1 said:
Case mouth peening from tumbling with SS media.
The mild damage to the the Royal Hungarian crown below was done by the King in 1237 when he walked through a short doorway. So the damage is not the same.
Would that be peening on the brass and then pinging when the cross hit the door jam?
Preening no big deal beal I use a Giruad Trimmer, but my chronograph and targets tell me the inside of the neck needs that carbon, dry lubes such as Neco's moly/SS ball set up help, as does Reddings dry neck lube, but carbon is the best lube/barrier I have found, I only SS media to clean blasting ammo brass(pistol, AR15).
There was an earlier tip[in this Forum] to clean 100 223 cases at a time and consequently you cut back on your tumbling time. About an hour and the cases are spotless. Peening comes from over tumbling.Combined with annealing this is the Holy Grail for nice brass to load with.The lighter load does not overload the motor as well.BikeEffects said:
BikeEffects said:
As I understand it, some Long Range Competitors, remove the carbon from inside necks and apply some form of lube, graphite being one, to gain consistent neck tension. Graphite is a form of carbon ( actually a high grade of coal). In short range BR, the necks are typically brushed one pass after each firing (to remove excess carbon) with a nylon brush and 50+ years experience has proven that method provides the best uniform neck tension to date.
Perhaps the key is to address the carbon the same way each time....as in brushing immediately between relays, before it starts to "harden" - a bad choice of word since carbon is the hardest element, but if you wipe your outside case mouths shortly after firing -it comes off with your fingers....if you wait several days, you may need a solvent.
The simple answer is: if you can learn to use it to your advantage, the method has a long history of success ( at least from a Short-Range Benchrest perspective). In Long Range ?
The bottom photograph is 2,500 rounds of .223 / 5.56 MM that were cleaned in Stainless Steel Media, then polished with crushed corn cob and Dillon Rapid Polish. The top 2 photographs is some range pickup brass that just received a wet tumble in Stainless Steel Media with no polish. You can see the degree of cleanliness that is achieved. All with no "peening" anywhere on the cases.
This range pickup brass was BLACK and caked with mud when I picked it up off the ground. You can see the results. It even polished the burr on the inside of the flash hole. So I can't see how proper wet tumbling would cause this "peening" condition?
The brass shown with case mouth peening was most likely over agitated. This can occur if brass is tumbled in a cement mixer, or other type of machine with metal paddles. The Thumblers Tumbler, and others like it are completely rubber lined with no exposed metal the brass can bang into causing the dings shown. Like anything Stainless Steel Media has to be used correctly in order to achieve proper results.
For what it's worth, I've tumbled thousands of cases using this method, and have seen or experienced zero loss in accuracy, or any "peening". Another fallacy you'll hear about is "dezincification". Where as this method will remove Zinc from the brass, there by weakening it. Pure hogwash. I've shot .308 cases in both of my Springfield Armory M1-A rifles as many as 7 reloads with no ill effects. This is without question the best method for cleaning brass because it allows for noticing defects in the inside of the case. Other methods do not clean the inside of the cases to allow for this.
Since billt brought this point up. What interior case defects would you find and will they be obvious? The reason I ask is because I'm pretty new to this and my brass has only been reloaded maybe six times. My brass is Lapua, Norma or LC Match or Long Range so I wouldn't think I should be having any problems at this point. I give the interior a cursory inspection, but mostly it's because I'm making sure I don't have any stuck pins in the flash hole and I might be missing something.
bigedp51
billt said:
The brass in my first posting in the photo belonged to me and was done in a Thumblers Tumbler. The "dings" or peening is caused by the cases hitting the case mouth when tumbled. Normally you do not see the peening with the naked eye, I did not see the peening until I took a closeup macro photo.
The cases below are factory loaded once fired Remington .223 cartridges (never reloaded) that were fired in a AR15 rifle. They have been tumbled once in the Thumblers Tumbler, they have not been resized or trimmed.
This may be factory damage, "BUT" you have a soft annealed case mouth and when tumbled the cases will hit the case mouth. "BUT" this "IS" case mouth peening that people talk about, and I don't think Remington uses a cement mixer.
Below second tumbling after being reloaded once and trimmed, it has far less dings in the case mouth "BUT" the effects of the cases hitting the case mouth are still visible.
My tumbler was used correctly "BUT" you can "NOT" keep the cases from hitting each other in the Thumblers Tumbler.
P.S. billt, your Internet psychic abilities and extrasensory perception leave much to be desired. Now go take some closeup photos of your case mouths and blow them up and get back to us.
bigedp51
BaconFat said:
I'm in my mid 60s and retired, I wear glasses and have chronologically gifted eyesight. If you have good young eyes you "might" see a defect inside the case but I doubt it without a magnifying glass and good lighting.
After I tumble my cases in a cement mixer with plenty of sand, stones, portland cement and water I inspect for case thinning with my RCBS Case Mastering Gauge.
(I can see the big gauge with my bifocals) :
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