What media for vibratory tumbler?

[Kc_Kracker]

I was wondering what kind of media is suggested for cleaning your brass should it be sand or walnut or what is recommended

[Encore 280]

I think you can use walnut or corn cob. Never heard of using sand.

[savagehunter]

Walnut reptile bedding and some polish

[Igor]

I was wondering what kind of media is suggested for cleaning your brass should it be sand or walnut or what is recommended

To get dirty brass clean I use walnut media.  Then, to put a nice polish on it I use corn cob media.  It comes out looking like new brass.

[jrebel]

Walnut and Corn will both work. A lot of folks will add nu finish or other polishing compounds to make it look pretty.  They also make wet tumblers which work awesome and use steel media...but only in wet tumblers. 

[Encore 280]

You can add liquid Brass O to the media. Add a couple tablespoons to it while it's running and let it dry then add your cases.

[300rum]

I only use Walnut media as it holds up better then anything else I have used.  It's the only thing I buy from Harbor Freight (made in usa), you can smell the communism when you walk in that place!  I have added stuff to it in the past, Dillon's polish, but I don't anymore.  I really don't care how shiny the brass is and I would be hesitant adding some polishes as there is some evidence that it can change the structure of the brass (weaken it).  For pistol rounds if you really have to have shiny you won't have a problem but for higher pressure rounds where you bumped the shoulder back a bit far, who knows? 

[bearpaw]

I was wondering what kind of media is suggested for cleaning your brass should it be sand or walnut or what is recommended

There are a lot of youtube videos on tumbling media and methods.

[C-Money]

I am fairly new to tumbling brass. Got a tumbler for Christmas in 2021. One of my presents was Lyman walnut media, to go along with the tumbler. It sure does a great job. If memory serves me well, the media already has polishing agents in it. It truly comes out with a shine better than new. Have a toothpick handy to get media out of the primer pocket, as some gets stuck in there. I highly recommend the Lyman product.

[timberfaller]

  walnut media.

every now and then I add some refresher stuff!

[Evil_EdwardO]

I used to use a mix of walnut and corn media but I now use small grain rice and have had better results.

[HighlandLofts]

For really clean brass go with a wet rotary tumbler.

Dry tumbling leaves a lot of contaminates on the brass.

[GWP]

I used to use a mix of walnut and corn media but I now use small grain rice and have had better results.

Rice huh? Interesting!
I have a number of different ones, but untreated walnut would be my preferred.
One of my pre-treated ones has a reddish color and it clings to the cases. I dislike the reddish powder sticking to things.
My brass does not have to look new, just has to be clean.

[Evil_EdwardO]

I used to use a mix of walnut and corn media but I now use small grain rice and have had better results.

Rice huh? Interesting!
I have a number of different ones, but untreated walnut would be my preferred.
One of my pre-treated ones has a reddish color and it clings to the cases. I dislike the reddish powder sticking to things.
My brass does not have to look new, just has to be clean.

I find that the rice actually absorbs most of the dust and residue that's normally left on the brass. I heard it from a few Pro F-class shooters and decided to give it a shot.

[Magnum_Willys]

Unless you have old range brass skip the wet tumbler.  The pins remove carbon from inside necks and peen the case necks.  Both are bad. 

[jrebel]

Unless you have old range brass skip the wet tumbler.  The pins remove carbon from inside necks and peen the case necks.  Both are bad.

I've been wet tumbling for years and have no ill effect.  Brass is in great shape.  Any more info to support your claim.....I kept my old media tumblers just incase it was to good to be true. 

[jasnt]

I like carbon in my necks too with bolt action rifle rounds.  I don’t clean in side my rifle brass. Only steel wool the neck and shoulder.  I like the ash annealing leaves in the neck. Jmo
Never heard of Ill affects of tumbling.

Pistol or ar brass I love the sonic cleaner when I actually do clean it.   

Just how I do it

[HighlandLofts]

 If carbon is so good on the cases why doesn't the factory add it to the new cases?

[jasnt]

If carbon is so good on the cases why doesn't the factory add it to the new cases?

cause then they wouldn’t be new
I like the carbon inside not out side.

[bearpaw]

If carbon is so good on the cases why doesn't the factory add it to the new cases?

cause then they wouldn’t be new
I like the carbon inside not out side.

Are you thinking that holds the bullet in place better?

[jasnt]

If carbon is so good on the cases why doesn't the factory add it to the new cases?

cause then they wouldn’t be new
I like the carbon inside not out side.

Are you thinking that holds the bullet in place better?

no
The carbon in the neck becomes ash during the annealing process.  I anneal every loading.  What started as just being lazy ended up lowering velocity es.  The ash works like a dry neck lube imo.  Next batch I cleaned and es went back up about 25%.  ( this was just with that load combo and the only one tested) Further testing showed not cleaning brought it back down again. 
I’m not saying it’s the right way, just what works for me and the way I reload. 
Cleaning the outside with steel wool keeps my dies and chamber clean, and it’s faster for me than a cleaner, I don’t load huge batches at a time (25-50). I don’t see an advantage to cleaning the inside of the case and did find advantages to not doing so in my process. 

[callturner]

Unless you have old range brass skip the wet tumbler.  The pins remove carbon from inside necks and peen the case necks.  Both are bad.

Peening is caused by too much time in the tumbler and not the right amount of liquid. and over annealing. I want my brass looking factory new before I anneal it. To each his own, but new brass carries no carbon from the factory. I shoot a lot of BP,  45/110 and I want my brass clean as I paper patch.

[HighlandLofts]

Some of my pistolm brass has over thirty reloads and wet tumbled every time with no wet tumbler damage.

[BULLBLASTER]

Stainless tumbling for me also. Have rifle brass with 10+ firings and no issues. If the mouth gets beat up a bit just hot it with the deburr tool before sizing. I havent had to do that since reducing tumble times to 90 min ish.

[Karl Blanchard]

I went down the rabbit hole pretty good on clean vs dirty and the results were very consistent. My consensus was dirty brass didn't gain me any measurable benefit over spotless, like new brass out of my wet tumbler. Here's an example from one of my 300wsm barrels. I was also testing match vs standard primers.  These results were mirrored in 6 other chamberings.


Standard Federal 215's

[Karl Blanchard]

Federal 215 match

[jasnt]

Both instances your es was less with dirty brass.  Not a lot but it was less. 

[Karl Blanchard]

Both instances your es was less with dirty brass.  Not a lot but it was less.

I'm aware but as I stated, it's an inconsequential amount. That ES doesn't move my POI any adjustable amount way out past where I'd be shooting game. The difference in primers moved the needle more than clean vs dirty. Everyone has their own way of doing things, mine is shiny clean brass.

[Okanagan]

FWIW John Barsness, a credible gun writer (to me)  wrote that he did extensive testing and found no ballistic advantage to cleaning brass, so he doesn't anymore.  (Not an exact quote but my paraphrase combining several places he has mentioned this.)  If I recall correctly, he did find that some carbon left inside the case neck eliminated or greatly postponed cold welding (?) of bullet to case in ammunition unfired or stored for a long time.  I'm not sure of the correct term but have found long stored ammunition to have some bullets adhere quite strongly to case.

I like the look of clean brass but have backed off of cleaning more than wiping the outside.

[HighlandLofts]

I'll keep wet tumbling my brass.

[b23]

If you want clean brass, inside, outside, and primer pockets, I don't know of anything that compares to wet tumbling w/SS pins or chips.  Curious, of those that wet tumble with SS media how many dip the necks in dry graphite after?  I pretty much always dip the necks of my cases in dry graphite.

[BULLBLASTER]

I dont. My brass comes out of the wet tumbler and then goes right to the annealing machine, followed by sizing, deburring, then loading. Im not interested in completing even more tasks to each piece of brass for what i have proven to myself is not a measureable benefit (cleaning outside of each, lubing each neck, etc). Incan already keep acceptable es and good accuracy at any ranges i am interested in shooting so why add more steps?

[Evil_EdwardO]

FWIW John Barsness, a credible gun writer (to me)  wrote that he did extensive testing and found no ballistic advantage to cleaning brass, so he doesn't anymore.  (Not an exact quote but my paraphrase combining several places he has mentioned this.)  If I recall correctly, he did find that some carbon left inside the case neck eliminated or greatly postponed cold welding (?) of bullet to case in ammunition unfired or stored for a long time.  I'm not sure of the correct term but have found long stored ammunition to have some bullets adhere quite strongly to case.

I like the look of clean brass but have backed off of cleaning more than wiping the outside.

Erik Cortina also did testing and found the same results. He says he doesn't clean his brass anymore because it's a waste of time. Also, there are a few in my pistol club that don't clean their pistol brass.

[HighlandLofts]

Everyone has their own thoughts on tumbling. It's not rocket science.
.

A couple of weeks ago I tumbled some dirty range brass in the dry tumbler for two hours in walnut media.
It was clean enough for some people.
Not for me.
I retumbled it in my Frankford Arsenal wet tumbler for an hour with the stainless steel pins.
The water was black as can be from the carbon and other contaminates  left on the cases after being two hours in the dry tumbler.


If you are going to tumble why not get the cases as clean as they can be.

[b23]

Years ago when I first got setup to wet tumble with SS media I ran some 223 brass I'd picked up off the ground at outdoor ranges through my wet/SS setup.  This stuff had been laying on the ground outside for years and was in full tarnish mode, it was nasty.  I used a decapping die to pop the primers out because there was no way I wanted it anywhere near my dies.  This stuff was bad and my expectations weren't particularly high but I'd heard of guys claiming even the most tarnished brass will come clean but I wanted to see for myself.  Dumped that nasty brass in the Thumler Tumbler full of water and SS pins with a squirt of Dawn dish soap and just a tiny pinch of LemiShine and let her run.  It probably was in there for about eight hours or so which is way longer than I typically let it run but this was a test so it didn't really matter.  When I dumped the water out through the strainer it was gross and pretty much black but I was amazed at how clean the brass was inside and out as well as the primer pockets, it literally looked like it was brand new brass it was so clean.  Had I not been the one that put it in there I don't know that I would have believed it was the same brass.

If someone wants clean brass I don't know of anything that gets brass as clean, inside/outside as well as primer pockets, like wet tumbling with SS media does.

[HighlandLofts]

I bought and sold about two and a half tons of range brass in the past couple of year. I set aside the nastiest tarnished brass.
When I tumbled this really tarnished brass I did it stages. I srperatrd it into three lots.
One lot to dry tumble in walnut media.
One lot to dry tumble in corn cob media.
And one lot to wet tumble.

I ran all thre batches for five hours.
Moat of the wet tumbled brass came out looking like new cases. A few didn't come out as good.

Both of the dry tumbled brass never lost the tarnish.
They were clean but really tarnished.