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Old April 15, 2014, 09:07 AM   #1
UncleGrumpy
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Trouble with Tumbler Media

Hi,

After 12 years I dragged my hornady tumbler out of retirement last week. Got me some new "no name" treated walnut shell and was ready to go.

Started with 50 x .17 Rem cases after 2 hours of tumbling I had a heap of cases with compacted shell that had to be dug out by hand. Flash holes were often jammed with shell grit.

I then tried 48 x 22-250 cases. 43 cases had to have the flash hole pick clean by hand and 2 had to have compacted shell dug out.

I know the "no name" walnut shell is going to be the problem. If I get some brand name walnut does it also get compacted in the .17 rem's and will the flash holes get just as clogged up?

cheers
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Old April 15, 2014, 10:00 AM   #2
sig2009
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First. I clean my brass with the primers intact. And when I drop all the cases into the media separator and give it a few turns the media all comes out of the cases. Never had a problem with walnut. If you don't have a rotary media separator you should look to purchase one.
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Old April 15, 2014, 11:39 AM   #3
filthy phil
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I use crushed walnut from the pet store (used for litter)
the $12 (iirc) bag was so big I divided it into 3.
ive used one of those portions 4x and I tumble for 1.5 hours.
Comes out clean enough for me.
I Leave the dead primer in, but I understand for rifle brass you might want a cleaner flash hole
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Old April 15, 2014, 12:27 PM   #4
hodaka
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Yep, I think most of us have learned the hard way that with pet store walnut media you tumble before depriming. I imagine media labeled "for case cleaning" would have the same problem.
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Old April 15, 2014, 01:38 PM   #5
MEATSAW
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Use finer media (I use Zilla lizard litter from Petco) and it won't clog or...

Tumble before de-priming.
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Old April 15, 2014, 01:46 PM   #6
jepp2
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When using walnut media, I get the fine walnut blast media from Harbor Freight. It is the 20/40 sieve size and it will not get caught in the case or flash hole. Pet store media can vary in size depending on the pet store. So lizard bedding at one pet store can be a different size than lizard bedding at another pet store.

I deprime before I tumble. If any media were to get caught in the flash hole, the depriming pin when sizing just knocks it out. Your loading process might be different.
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Old April 15, 2014, 04:37 PM   #7
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Quote:
jepp2 said: When using walnut media, I get the fine walnut blast media from Harbor Freight.
This is the way to go.
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Old April 15, 2014, 04:42 PM   #8
chris in va
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I'll third that, HarborFreight. It's like a 20# bag.
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Old April 15, 2014, 07:43 PM   #9
UncleGrumpy
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Thanks for all your input. It looks like I have a few different ways and things to try.

regards
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