When I find an exceptional product or service I am happy to share it with my friends. As a western action shooter, I go through quite a bit of ammo in a year. I reload my own ammunition and part of that process is cleaning the brass casings. I have been using a typical vibrating tumbler with crushed walnut shells followed by corn husks. About two hours of tumbling with each media worked pretty good with smokeless powder but when I started loading black powder, that was another story.
It's really more than just wanting pretty, shiny brass. Since I shoot lever action rifles, I want the cases clean so they will function smoothly in the rifle action.
On the recommendations of friends and fellow shooters, I bought a rotary tumbler and stainless steel media from www.stainlesstumblingmedia.com . All I can say is that the results are simply amazing. The media is tiny stainless steel pins. The tumbler is a rubber lined watertight drum that rotates on rollers and is driven by a small electric motor and a belt.
I bought the deluxe kit which includes 5 lb of stainless steel media, the tumbler, a media separator, and a bottle of Lemishine for $254.95. That's a little pricey compared a vibrating tumbler but after using it just once, I was convinced it was money well spent.
See for yourself....
Here are 140 spent cases. About 30 were loaded with Goex FFG black powder and the rest were loaded with Trail Boss smokeless powder.
I de-primed them before tumbling because this media will even clean the primer pockets.
Here is the tumbler with 5 lb of stainless steel media.
You simply add your brass, 1 gallon of water, 2 tablespoons of Dawn detergent, and 1/4 tablespoon of Lemishine. Close it up and let it tumble for 3-4 hours.
Rinse and dry the brass and look at the difference!
It is like new! Super clean inside and out. Even the ejector grooves and primer pockets are clean and shiny.
