[schmellba99]

Just to play devil's advocate (not being argumentative, just conversational)

For some, the answer is obviously "Yes!" For me, the answer is, "No."

1. I do not require my re-used brass to look new. I just want it reasonably clean. Vibratory cleaning with corncob or walnut gets this. Used dryer sheets (for free) will collect the dust and dirt nicely, avoiding mess, maintaining the tumbling medium, and producing nice clean brass which needs no further processing before the next reloading step. If REALLY shiny brass is wanted, that just requires more hours in the tumbler.

Fair enough. But my experience is that dryer sheets only mitigate the dust to some degree - they don't eliminate it by any stretch. You still have a lot of dust associated with dry tumbling, and that dust contains lead, carbon and who knows what else you probably don't want to breathe. And, dry tumbling has a limited ceiling. Some brass just won't get polished with it. Cleaned? You bet, and it works well for that.

2. I do not like extra fussing of any kind. With wet cleaning, you have the emptying out of the cases, the rinsing of the cases, and the drying of the cases, to do after you have gotten them shiny-clean.

It's really no extra fussing than you have with dry tumbling - instead of dust, granules of your media in primer pockets, etc. you have a little water. And water dries naturally.

3. Heating the cases in the oven to dry them carries with it the risk of annealing the cases, top to bottom, which changes their hardness. Now you have a set of cases which will behave differently in your dies, and in your rifle's chamber, than will all the other cases you have.

If you are using enough heat in drying your cases to anneal them, you are doing it very, very wrong. Annealing takes some fairly high temps (600 degrees and up for the most part) - a few minutes at less than 200 is not going to approach annealing. And you don't even really need to heat the cases up (I don't), so it's a moot point.

4. I already have a complete set of equipment for dry tumbling. Why spend $$ on a new technology when the old one gives satisfaction.

Good point. I do too, but I'm always looking for something better. Personal preference.

So, bottom line: I favor a one-step (effective) process over a two- or three-step (also effective) process. You pays your money and you takes your choice.

I think you are simplifying the "one step" process a little too much. I've done plenty of both and both processes take about the same amount of time. For the most part, they both get the job done just fine. We tumbling has advantages and disadvantages. Dry tumbling has advantages and disadvantages.

One thing I can say is that I will never have a piece of media get stuck in a die again with wet tumbling, and I don't have to deal with different types of dry media, dust or any of the other things that are associated with that type of tumbling. And wet tumbling will bring brass back to life that vibratory tumbling couldn't even think of touching. Like you said though, all personal preference.

OP - here is a good link of what wet tumbling can do:

http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=520125

ETA--If extra shininess is desired, one can add a capful of Nu-Finish Car Polish to the dry medium. Produces that oh-so-desirable shiny-brass look; does not seem to affect the reloading process any other way. And as far as having the interior of the cases clean, as far as I am concerned, that rates a big, fat, WHO CARES??

Nu-Finish works fairly well, but it's not as good as stainless. The one advantage is that it leaves a wax coating on the brass, which is actually kind of nice to have for a few reasons.

I like having my cases clean, and primer pockets clean. You simply cannot get that with vibratory tumbling.

(I fought stainless tumbling for a long, long time. Now I have two vibratory tumblers, bowls, etc. that I may never use again outside of a quick tumble of finished rounds if I get too much lube on them or something along those lines)