223 brass

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Nov 25, 2016
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Well I have never been a fan of wet tumbling as I didn't want to mess with the water aspect. But after tumbling 223 brass in corncob, I may rethink that, as 95% of the primer pockets had to be cleaned out. That extra time could've been negated with wet tumbling.

I may have to switch to rice first.
lol

By the way, I have walnut and don't like using it due to the fine powder mess every where.
 

id_jon

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I always wet tumble, it can be a pain for sure, but worth it to me. If you do it with 223, make sure that there's no pins stuck in the flash holes. I've never had that problem with other cartridges, but definitely a lot with 223.
 
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I vibrate in rice most of the time but if I had a bunch of filthy 556 range brass or if I was worried about cleaning primer pockets I’d break out the wet tumbler and SS pins.
 

Lawnboi

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Add me to the rice group. I switched to some of the finer stuff, walnut and corn cob. Makes it shiny but crap all over.

Occasionally have to punch out a rice kernel from the flash hole but no dust, no residue from the media, no clumping from wax.

I have no interest in wet ti long anything, or filling my cases up with steel pins. Too risky with suppressors and annealer. That and I don’t really give a rats if my brass or pockets are clean

You do need to find just the right rice though.
 

Wrench

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Try wet tumbling without pins or I've heard bb's produce good results too.

The results I get in 1 hour in the pins can't be touched in my vibratory in a week.
 

Jbird1

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Jan 16, 2017
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I was reluctant to wet tumble with pins also but after trying it I won’t be going back to corn/rice/walnut. The steel pins just do too good of a job.
 

Formidilosus

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Oct 22, 2014
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I wasn’t meaning to say something was wrong with tumbling, I was asking if there was a functional purpose to it?
 

Stu

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Dec 29, 2019
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Heck, I'll bite. Form, do you clean your brass? Do you not have a mess in your die in short order without cleaning up 5.56 brass? I've been wet tumbling large quantities of brass without any media with good results and very little time spent working it. I can't remember the last time I cleaned a primer pocket though.

My goal in shooting/reloading has been to dedicate to fewer cartridges (223/6.5CM) and only process large quantities at a time. I find I shoot a lot more and spend way less screwing around. Reloading is a chore.
 

Stu

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Dec 29, 2019
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Getting dirt off and that’s about it. I also use wax so do tumble for a short time to get wax off
Have you tried a mix of lanolin and high % alcohol in a spray bottle? This is uber cheap, fast as one-shot, and I can't find a reason not to do it other than having to clean it off after sizing (I'm too cheap for one-shot)
 

Montucky

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Have you tried a mix of lanolin and high % alcohol in a spray bottle? This is uber cheap, fast as one-shot, and I can't find a reason not to do it other than having to clean it off after sizing (I'm too cheap for one-shot)
I tried the Lanolin & alcohol last weekend. Mixed 10:1, it works good. You need to be in a heated environment for it to work decent, had to keep spray bottle & lubed cases close to the woodstove so it would dry on cases. Sizes very well but definitely leaves a residue that needs to be removed with tumbler
 

Stu

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Dec 29, 2019
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223
I tried the Lanolin & alcohol last weekend. Mixed 10:1, it works good. You need to be in a heated environment for it to work decent, had to keep spray bottle & lubed cases close to the woodstove so it would dry on cases. Sizes very well but definitely leaves a residue that needs to be removed with tumbler
and a little dab'll do ya
 
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