DW58 wrote:I've seen mention of the use of Stainless media for case tumbling
Stainless cleaning gives great results (you'll find plenty of photos and videos online if you care to look), and it's one of the few methods that will thoroughly clean the inside of the case and the primer pocket(1) in reasonable volumes and without individual attention to each case.
Like vibratory tumbling, the cleaning process itself is relatively hands-free, but the separation and rinsing are more involved than with dry media. Then there's the drying. Other possible drawbacks include limited capacity (typical machines can handle 100 .308 cases). The super-clean necks mean that you don't have that carbon 'lube' to smooth seating, and the full metal-to-metal contact could theoretically increase the possibility of a cold weld if you keep loaded rounds for a very long time in storage. On the plus side, the media can be re-used ad infinitum (well, until the pins escape down the sink), so there's no need to replace the media periodically, and the cleaning chemicals are relatively easily and cheaply obtained in bulk. Various combinations of detergents, rinse aid, citric acid and car wash-&-wax products are used. The new kid on the block is the 'Rebel' tumbler, which addresses several shortcomings of the previous generation of tumblers, some of which originated as rock polishing tumblers that weren't designed for a wet process.
If you have a lot of brass to clean it can be a ball ache. I tend to get through about 100 rounds in a visit to the range, so I try to get them into the stainless tumbler soon after shooting. I still use my big vibratory for lube removal, polishing for storage, bulk cleaning etc.
(1) Lots of folks don't care about the primer pocket, while some think that crud buildup can effect primer seating depth and others believe that hardened primer residue can find its way into the throat and get embedded into a bullet and then score the barrel when fired.
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