Rouge in my cases

[wjg686]

Hi, folks!

I'm a relatively new shooter and have been reloading for my shotgun for a year, and for my .380, 9mm, and .41 mag for about 5 months. I've been lurking here since the beginning of the year and greatly appreciate all the help and information available.

My question is this -- today, I tossed the very dirty green corncob media that came with the Lyman 1200 tumbler and replaced it with rouged walnut media (?medium). 500 9mm cases are bright and shiny on the outside, and dull and red on the inside. Is this going to be a problem? Will I be firelapping the barrel of my beautiful blued BHP? Or should I shoot away, confident that the dust will settle soon? Thanks very much.

Bill

[Unclenick]

Rouge is so fine it won't affect your barrel dimensions significantly in its lifetime. You will shoot the barrel out long before that's an issue. However, dust can get loose after firing and stick to oil and generally help gum up the works. A pretty common technique is to get some plain, untreated corncob from the pet supply store and follow up your cleaning with a short tumble in that to remove loose dust and walnut oil.

Nick

[wjg686]

Up to now, I had just been tumbling cases in corn cob media. I switched to walnut (it came with rouge) when the corncob got too cruddy because of the consensus that it was the best media. Do people generally tumble their cases twice? I'm not sure I want to do that. Should I just go back to the corncob? Thanks again.

Bill

[Unclenick]

The green corncob is treated, too. The green is, I believe, chromium oxide abrasive polish. It is not as fine as the rouge, so it usually cleans faster but less shiney. It also seems to stick to corncob better than rouge sticks to walnut. Possibly because of the walnut oil? Plain corncob is light tan or cream color. Many people tumble in plain corncob exclusively because they only want to get loose dirt off the cases to avoid scratching their dies and don't care about a shine. It takes about twice as long as in green treated corncob and the cases don't get as clean looking, but they work fine.

Any medium you use will become contaminated over time, and loose polish will gradually come off. Walnut has the advantage of being a bit tougher than corncob, but it has a small amount of wood oil in it, so some people worry this will contaminate primers and powder over time. That is a reason given for a short additional run in plain corncob; to get the oil off. I've never had any problem with it. The particles are usually a little finer and do a better job of cleaning out primer pockets.

I don't know if you have a pour spout on your tumbler or some other media separator? Separation is the most dangerous part of case cleaning because a lot of lead residue dust from primer compound gets into the air when you drop the media. (I don't know whether to use medium or media, either; I can argue for both, but media is commonly used, so, on the premise that conventional wisdom is often wrong, I suppose it is more properly medium, despite there being a plural of particles?) You should always wear a dust mask when separating. That said, if you separate the media outdoors (best policy unless kids and pets roam your yard, in which case I would get a big cardboard box and cut an arm-hole in it and do the separating inside of it over a cookie sheet with a damp rag on it, then let the dust settle and stick to the rag for half an hour before opening the box). If you are where you can safely separate things outdoors, do it with a fan lightly blowing over the whole process. This not only carries the bad dust away from you, but will tend to remove loose rouge over time so subsequent cleanings leave less of it behind.

One other thing about case cleaning. If you shoot loads mild enough that your cases last a long time, eventually you will get enough primer residue that you can start seeing high primers; primers that don’t seat all the way and stand proud of the casehead. At that point you need to decap and clean the pockets out before normal reloading operations. You can try to do this in the tumbler. The fine walnut will have some success at it, but the larger corncob grit doesn't usually fit in the primer pockets well enough to do a good job. This is the one time I will actually use a liquid cleaner. One tablespoon of TSP, one quarter teaspoon of Dawn dishwashing liquid to act as a wetting agent, and a tablespoon of citric acid powder in three quarts of water. Put the cases and the liquid into a one gallon plastic container with a lid and shake it all up. Let it sit 10 minutes and shake it all up again. Pour the liquid off for the next time around, rinse the cases a couple of times. The cleaner and its rinse runoff are contaminated with lead, so check your local regulations (in my area I just keep the cleaner and rinse water in old milk cartons and bring them to one of the hazardous waste collection days the town holds twice a year). Put the cases in a terrycloth rag and shake them until the loose water is in the rage. Let them dry two or three days spread out, then tumble the usual way.

Nick

[wjg686]

My tumbler is the Lyman 1200 with the auto-separator feature (pull a plug from the bottom while the tumbler runs and the media drops into a separate bowl). I have been reloading in my garage, but my son recently left the basement to me(!), so I'll be moving downstairs to a less well-ventilated place. I hadn't thought of the lead powder issue. Dang!

I have so far tumbled before decapping and sizing, thinking I was taking it easier on the dies. Not true? Is there likely to be more scratching from the rouge (or chromium oxide) than powder residue? Also, the decapper would pop out any tumbling medium stuck in the flashhole if I do that afterwards. I'll take a closer look at the primer pockets before priming from now on. No high primers yet.

Thanks very much for your advice.

Bill

[Baldilocks]

I quit using walnut altogether almost 2 years ago when a friend recommended using new corncob media and a large bead of Flitz metal polish. OMG! Talk about the most incredible looking brass ever! I have used nothing else since. The media will work for thousands of cases also.

I used to use walnut and corncob in that order with the red jewlers rouge (can't rember the name) and it always cleaned the "film" out of the cases. But, I was tumbling cases twice and loading less. Give my receipe a try, see what you think.

And no, the film will not hurt anything in loading or firing. I am still shooting old loads that have remnants of the film in them and have never had a single misfire or failure to detonate.

[Hobie]

I buy untreated walnut media and add polish I get from Midway. Never had problems with the rouge impregnated stuff but this is easier and smells better.

[The Real Wyatt]

I tumble in untreated walnut for about an hour.

I resize and decap.

Then I tumble in medium fine corncob with a polishing comnpund for about two hours.

Brass turns out just beautiful.

I do about 250 cases at a time.