I certainly need to read your thoughts on this...

[Derek M.]

I was going over some of my reloading steps with a riflesmith I trust and admire very much. One thing I never knew or heard of is what he wrote in an email to me recently about the use of tumblers/vibrator-tumblers and brass cleaning...and what they'll do to a hand lapped barrel. Anyone ever hear of this?

<font color="blue"> ..."Throw that tumbler in the dumpster. If you got to have super shiney brass, clean and hand shine the outside of the case. I just hand clean the powder residue from the outside of the neck with a paper towel wet with a little SuperTech Carb. cleaner I get at WallyWorld. The sooner the better after fireing the case. Tumbling media is abrasive...some tumbling media has extra abrasive added to it. Why would you want to contaminate the bore of a premium match grade barrel with abrasive and fire bullet after bullet over that abrasive and each round you fire you keep adding more abrasive to the system and keep fire lapping the bore??? I know you hear alot about fire lapping out there from complete idiots...including some very famous ones. Here is a guarantee from a premium match grade barrelmaker --- want to ruin a PMG barrel, fire lap it."
</font>

After I responded with disbelief, he wrote:

<font color="blue"> "Makes you want to puke to hear about some of these little custom bullet makers that pour a bunch of polishing compound on top of their corn cob media to put a mirror finish on their handmade bullets. Yea buddy, that's smart...let's see if we can embed enough corundum into the soft copper metal jacket to make it a ceramic bullet. And then they bitch about why their barrel never stops copper fouling."
</font>

Here was his advice on annealing:

<font color="blue">"I bet if you Google "How to anneal rifle brass" you will find out more than you ever wanted to know about the subject...search the archives of the 1000yd. forum on Benchrest.com. I spin mine at about 60 rpm on a little variable speed motor so the necks heat up evenly then quench them in a 5 gal. bucket of cold water...and yes, I do have to wear welding gloves. Warning -- don't heat too long and let the heat get down into the body of the case...that's why they call it "neck annealing". Depending on how your propane torch is adjusted, it only takes a second or two.
</font>

I have a LOT of respect for this guy. He built an amazing rifle for me. He also makes his own dies, bullets, etc. But I have never heard of not using a tumbler (well, mine is the vibrating kind). But I called a couple other guys I know from the range and another bullet maker, and none of them use tumblers either. They all use lacquer thinner and acetone.

 

[James Jones]

I tumble all my fired cases , I'm a little OCD when it comes to stuff like that , I can't stand to see ugly tarnished cases.
I use regular Walnut media untreated. I guarntee that if get a little bit of walnut dust in your case that its not going to cause nearly as much damage if any to your bore as the small pieces of carbon that are left in a fired case.
I do run each case through a light polishing with the drill after they have been resized , they are nice and clean when they get tuombled but they are mirrior finished by the time they are loaded rounds.

As for the neck annealing I use a drill and spin them in the flame then dunk them in a pot of cool water , I do this in a dim lit room so I can see the brass just start to turn orange.

 

[Derek M.]

I think I am just as OCD as you are. I really like having superclean cases before I resize them. Is there anything we can rinse them in after they are tumbled or is water fine?

 

[jb1000br]

I dont tumble, and now i have another reason why /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

didnt like the dusty residue it leaves.

I just hit the neck with kaboom and/or quickly with steel wool to clean the carbon, then a used bronze brush in a drill takes care in the inside of the neck.

JB

 

[Coyboy]

I use a chemical case cleaner. There are many different brands. Soak drain and rinse with hot water, then I dry them with a hair drier. Presto clean shinny brass in 10 minutes.

 

[LB]

Everybody has a program. And, everybody has a Vegas system that doesn't work.

I am not impressed with the man's argument. I use corncob, and that is just the start of my case preparation. I am 100% sure that by the time I am finished with all the operations I go through, there is no longer any media dust on the cases.

Maybe some people do things differently, and it may be a problem, but it is not even on my radar screen as a possibility.

I hear many different stories. One involves using 4/0 steel wool and the microscopic steel inbedding into the necks. I don't know about that? Maybe?

But, if I have a stubborn discoloration on the neck and scotchbright won't get it, I break out the steel wool. Does steel wool inbed? Does media inbed, in the neck area? If it does, how does it migrate into my bore?

I'm confident my <font color="red">Mojo </font> compensates.

Good hunting. LB