1 CAST BULLETS FOR BEGINNER AND EXPERT SECOND ... - Home

I'll take his word for it because he produces more cases than anyone with whom I have ever had
contact.
My friend also uses only corncob media. Not all corncob media is created equal, as some of it is
produced so that it has a better, harder, finish before the grit is put on it. He buys his ground
corncob plain, in 50 lb bags and adds the grit. He seems not to worry much about what grit he
uses, as the last I bought from him was some sort of automobile polish in gallon jugs that he had
gotten at a going-out-of-business sale. It works fine.".
Geo. B. Carpenter
"I shoot BPCR Silhouettes using nickel plated Remington brass that's well over 10 years old
Several years ago I started using a wet tumbler and ceramic media to CLEAN the brass because
I got tired of leaning over the sink and scrubbing out each individual piece. I use A Thumbler's
Tumbler (Tru-square Metal Prods.) AR-6 that's has about a 2 qt capacity. It's filled about half
full of media, and will hold about 100 cases. Once the cases are in, I fill it with water and a
squirt of Palmolive dish detergent and let it run for about 2 hours. Dump it all into a colander,
rinse the media and brass, remove the brass and put it in a bucket of clean hot water to rinses
the cases thoroughly, then let them dry.
I'm going into all this detail so you understand the next step........when dry, I throw them in a
vibratory tumbler with corn cob media to remove the dried soap residue, which, it seems, I'm
never able to completely rinse away.
Now, the brass comes out bright and shiny.......but that's a by-product of the CLEANING method,
not my intent. Most of the shininess is because of the nickel plating.
My unplanted brass, for 40-70SS, 40-50 Sharps BN and 38-55 get the same treatment and
DON'T come out shiny. They have acquired a patina of their own, but are not blackened or
corroded. The point of all this is the fact that tumblers can be helpful and labor saving additions
to your reloading equipment without the intent to make the brass shiny."
Tom Ireland
"Black powder people go to the trouble and expense of using ceramic beads and polishing
compound in a tumbler because they have proved, to their satisfaction, that clean interior case
necks promote consistent neck tension. Consistent neck tension relates positively to consistent
accuracy."
R. Dale McGee
"I'd like to add a sorta semi-on-topic note: For me, the case tumbler serves two distinctly
different functions:
1. They clean the brass, and
2. They polish the brass.
Polishing is nice: I don't think anyone really objects to nice shiny cases unless they're in a
hunting / camo situation. But it really doesn't serve a serious function other than cosmetic.
On the other hand, clean is not only nice, it's quite important: Dirty brass will scratch dies &
chambers, and seldom offers really good accuracy, to say nothing of the best accuracy.
But it's possible to clean cases without polishing them, and it can be done easily, quickly and at
very low cost.
A very weak solution of phosphoric acid is quite safe for your hands: Phosphoric acid is in most
soda pop, so far from being toxic, you can actually drink dilute solutions. And it's not hard to
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