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Are media separators reliable when used with stainless media? At the moment I pick the cases out of the final rinse water two at a time, mouth down, and shake them. It's a ball ache, but I'd rather that than load a round with a pin left in it. So far I have encountered one pin stuck in a flash hole and found one pin in the bottom of a brass storage bin. Stuck pins aside, can I depend on a media separator to remove all the pins?

Thanks!

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For small batches I use the same method you do but for larger batches I dump the lot into a rotary separator, only had two cases with pins in the primer pockets in the last 2 years and if I remember correctly that was as they came out of the tumbler. Never had any pins in the actual cases, this is with .44 and .308.

Rotary separator with flushing water works, still too much of a faff on for me though, then you've got to get the pins out of bucket of water.

dromia wrote:then you've got to get the pins out of bucket of water.

What about getting rid of the water first?

There has to be a way - hang on - what about - pouring it out? :lol:

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Yep and then all the bloody pins want to go with the water down the plug hole, as I've said a what a fecking faff on, I ended up using a magnet to get them out of the last remmants of the water, life is too short for stainless steel pains.

dromia wrote:Yep and then all the bloody pins want to go with the water down the plug hole, as I've said a what a fecking faff on, I ended up using a magnet to get them out of the last remmants of the water, life is too short for stainless steel pains.

That's one area that I don't find to be a problem. I just pour away the surplus water (without getting close to the pins, but I place a sieve in the sink just in case), then put a cover over the bowl and I'm done. If I don't expect to use them for more than a month I may transfer them to a plastic tub but I don't worry about getting all the water out. The pins don't corrode, unlike the tumbler.

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I must confess that I'm using spherical media purely because that's what my mates use and recommend. I can't compare them against the pins but I have no probs with mine. Mates won't use pins purely because they claim their more prone to loosing one in a case.
You're have to be pretty ham fisted to get all the way through drying, resizing, reloading.... But the resulting barrel damage doesn't bare thinking about.