Your Stainless Steel Media Tumbling times...

[markm87]

Under magnification what does the end of your pins look like?

Mine look flat cut... pretty much squared off... there's some flaws on them from being cut. They'll stand on end. I get those doubles stuck in my flash holes every so often.... and all you can see is the ends.... I mean.... they're flat.

When they get magnetized they'll stick straight out sideways on a flat steel surface.

 

[jlow]

I also might be a little cranky because I now have an AR 15 that throws perfectly good brass away and makes me go hunting for it. :'(

This is one unfortunate thing about this board and that is it appears to allow its memebers to fly off the handle by those who thinks this is a good place to take out their fustrations. The problem with this is people who post with an intent to help gets turned off. Something the moderator of the board should ponder.

 

[Bradley Walker]

Drunk posting maybe?

 

[jlow]

Drunk posting maybe?

Right! Possible, didn't think of that one.... :

 

[amlevin]

Anything is possible, the brass was range pickup BUT I assumed the brass was new because I saw the Swat Teams loading their ARs. The cases could have had these defects before I picked them up and been recycled and reloaded practice ammo.

The local SWAT Teams use a lot of Black Hills Ammunition "Remanufactured" Ammo. BHA uses lots of Military brass and all I've picked up looks pretty much like what you showed. If I am correct, they use large tumblers that are more like cement mixers than what we are used to for cleaning their brass. Check the primer pockets. BHA has a bad habit of reaming the primer pockets so large that one doesn't even have to have the case fully inserted in the shell holder and a primer will slip in.

 

[markm87]

BHA has a bad habit of reaming the primer pockets so large that one doesn't even have to have the case fully inserted in the shell holder and a primer will slip in.

BHA does nothing right that I've found. I know what you're talking about on that reman trash. They damn near tumble the head stamp off the brass. And it's not trimmed at all. They must have expader balls that add a TON of brass length.

I'm somewhat of a spring chicken amongst you guys here when it comes to making precision ammo, but I do know how to check out ammo, pull it down, guage it, measure it, etc.

I've done this will BHA, .223, .308, and 300WM. And I've NOT ONCE found a single thing that Black hills does good.

 

[Bradley Walker]

I've done this will BHA, .223, .308, and 300WM. And I've NOT ONCE found a single thing that Black hills does good.

...Cept shoot like a house a fire... It consistently outshoots factory ammo, I know that.

 

[Bradley Walker]

OK FOLKS!!!

I just bought a Thumler... and I have pins already. I was gong to buy a HF to start but said SCREW IT and bought the good one MADE IN THE USA.

 

[markm87]

...Cept shoot like a house a fire... It consistently outshoots factory ammo, I know that.

But it IS factory ammo. Athough it may outshoot a lot of the REALLY bad ammo you can buy, it's never impressed us in the guns we've tried it in.

Someone on another forum has had good luck with it too... And I believe him if he says it runs well in his rifle... But we have a buddy that failed a 100 yard timed qual because of the trash.

Whenever we find some in a tote or in the garage, we pull it down and salvage what we can from the components. I won't run that stuff in any of my guns.

 

[jlow]

That is precisely the reason why anyone judging the SS media effects have to look at the casing before tumbling it to make sure it is the media that is doing the damage. Sounds like common sense but….

Never shot any BHA but I was recently at a one-on-one precision rifle class in Virginia and my instructor swears that he will never recommend BHA, seems like they vertically string pretty bad at the extended distances.

 

[Bradley Walker]

...Cept shoot like a house a fire... It consistently outshoots factory ammo, I know that.

But it IS factory ammo. Athough it may outshoot a lot of the REALLY bad ammo you can buy, it's never impressed us in the guns we've tried it in.

Someone on another forum has had good luck with it too... And I believe him if he says it runs well in his rifle... But we have a buddy that failed a 100 yard timed qual because of the trash.

Whenever we find some in a tote or in the garage, we pull it down and salvage what we can from the components. I won't run that stuff in any of my guns.

http://www.shootingtimes.com/2012/03/21/special-forces-to-civilians-black-hills-mk-262-mod-1-review/

I have no idea what you are talking about.

 

[Leaddog]

2 hours for 66 and 2.5 hours for 100. Peening gets cleaned up after resizing and trimming with a Giraud.

Pretty close to my times also. Once everything has been sized and trimmed I toss them in my standard tumbler to get the lube off and they are ready to go.

No need for an additional tumble. After your rounds are loaded, just take a rag lightly moistened with 91 or 99% Isopropyl Alcohol and wipe them down. It's fast and gets them cleaned up.

 

[thefitter]

When I first started with SS media a couple of years ago I tumbled for 2-3 hours because that's what everyone one was doing. Now when I get back from the range I just pop out the primers and toss it in the tumbler for 15 minutes while I futz around with something else on the bench. I feel that's all I really need because I started with new brass to begin with and a single firing does not get them very dirty. 15 minutes pretty much cleans it back to factory new and I get no peening. Depending on what caliber and how I'm sizing them I might run it through again for a few minutes to get off the sizing lube. Personally I'd rather do that than wipe off each case by hand.

 

[Cigarcop]

When I first started with SS media a couple of years ago I tumbled for 2-3 hours because that's what everyone one was doing. Now when I get back from the range I just pop out the primers and toss it in the tumbler for 15 minutes while I futz around with something else on the bench. I feel that's all I really need because I started with new brass to begin with and a single firing does not get them very dirty. 15 minutes pretty much cleans it back to factory new and I get no peening. Depending on what caliber and how I'm sizing them I might run it through again for a few minutes to get off the sizing lube. Personally I'd rather do that than wipe off each case by hand.

15 minutes....sorry, I'm raisning the BS flag.......it just won't make them look like as you stated "factory new" in that short of time

 

[Gappmast]

To get rid of the sizing lube I put them in hot water with dish washing detergent and then rinse with hot water.

 

[jlow]

The 15 min time span does seem to be an awfully short time as I usually go for 3 hours. However, since I have not tried it, I won’t raise the BS flag yet.

For removing lube, 15 min is definitely more than enough as the lube will dissolve and wash off with the Dawn detergent very quickly. I have actually gone back to using corn cob media for lube removal since it is faster being a dry process. I tumble for 30 min and blow the primer pocket and neck clean with compress air.

 

[thefitter]

When I first started with SS media a couple of years ago I tumbled for 2-3 hours because that's what everyone one was doing. Now when I get back from the range I just pop out the primers and toss it in the tumbler for 15 minutes while I futz around with something else on the bench. I feel that's all I really need because I started with new brass to begin with and a single firing does not get them very dirty. 15 minutes pretty much cleans it back to factory new and I get no peening. Depending on what caliber and how I'm sizing them I might run it through again for a few minutes to get off the sizing lube. Personally I'd rather do that than wipe off each case by hand.

15 minutes....sorry, I'm raisning the BS flag.......it just won't make them look like as you stated "factory new" in that short of time

No reason to BS anyone, why would I? And I'm not sure how dirty you think brass gets after 1 firing. But I stand by my original statement that 15 minutes and it looks just like I took it out of the Lapua box.

If you tumble brass for 2 hours you will even remove the annealing coloration. Try it, take some new Lapua brass, or even home annealed brass that you can see the annealing stripe on and tumble it for 2 hours. I personally see no point to that but to each his own.

 

[amlevin]

Actually, I haven't given much thought to a "short wash cycle" for my own nice clean shiny stuff I've only fired once. Makes sense though because it still looks pretty good when I just wipe the cases down with a coarse paper shop towel.

Unless I have a case or two that have real sooty necks or the insides look like there full of soot, I can see how the short cycle might just be enough.

For range pickup or military brass, it usually takes a full 3 hours for the stuff I've processed.