I see what you're doing Bob, and this is so smart of you, as your brass thins out from so many firings you are replacing the change in internal case dimensions by layering carbon deposits on the inside of the case! Man, you are a genius. Is this what you've been talking about when you mention tolerance stacking? You are stacking carbon in order to keep your tolerances? Haha!

Bob you may want to start stocking up on carbon credits before Al Gore comes a knocking.
But on a more serious note do you debure the flash holes? They look to have a strange shape.

No, I do not. I have a KP burr tool from my bench rest days but don't bother using it for this game. I am not convinced it ever helped shrink my groups. That hole is as punched from Winchester. I had another nearly break and one that had a full diameter crack from that #16 box of 50 yesterday. Thumb pressure while it was held in place by the removed bolt was all it took to separate the head. Talk about a nasty flash hole burr. These were all new Winchester .308 cases sized down to 7mm. The charge for all 17 firings was 38.0 RL-15 with 140 to 160 gr. bullets. All of the 50 cases are now in the metal recycle box. I can say this with out a shred of scientific proof to back it up. Reloder 15 is one of the dirtiest powders I have ever used. It takes more scrubbing effort and more solvent and patches to clean up a bore than other powders. The patches come out very black compared Varget which come out light grey. But it sure does make very accurate ammo.

I also have used mostly Re15 for my .260 and find it more accurate than Varget and yes it is more dirty. I also clean between relays to keep up with it thou. My barrel does not copper foul so that is a plus.

also that is one serious flash hole burr.

Those punches are running at multiple stations at a very high cyclic rate. No doubt a brass slug sometimes sticks to the punch pin and it does the punching instead of a sharp steel punch. That might explain the ragged holes and nasty burrs.

Score one for the dollar a pop drilled flash hole import stuff.

Or pop one of these into a drill and clean up new brass after it's FL sized, trimmed, and primer pocket uniformed....

Sinclair Gen II Universal FlashHole Deburring Tool
http://www.sinclairintl.com/.aspx/pid=3 ... rring-Tool

I finally bit the bullet and ordered a stainless media tumbling kit tonight. I saw that Sinclair had the Thumler's model b high speed tumbler and media together for $219.95 and I found a promo code DQY that got me free shipping on any order over $125. I'll report back in after I run it through its paces a few times. It sure will be nice to not have to clean out primer pockets anymore. My new reloading sequence should be deprime, tumble, and then neck size/prime/charge/seat all in one whirl through the new LnL progressive press. Forster finally had a bushing bump neck die for 260 Rem, too, so that's also on the way. Between the press and accessories, stainless media/tumbler kit, and the die/bushing, I've spent way too much to not have a nice new gun to show for it...

Jason, I bought 5 lbs of the SS tumbling media from Buffalo Arms
http://www.buffaloarms.com/stainless_st ... x?CAT=3889
And using a friend's tumblers cleaned over 1000 30-30 once fired brass. I can tell you that I am very happy with the results.

lone ringer wrote:Jason, I bought 5 lbs of the SS tumbling media from Buffalo Arms
http://www.buffaloarms.com/stainless_st ... x?CAT=3889
And using a friend's tumblers cleaned over 1000 30-30 once fired brass. I can tell you that I am very happy with the results.

Tony, Still happy with the process?

Bob259 wrote:

lone ringer wrote:Jason, I bought 5 lbs of the SS tumbling media from Buffalo Arms
http://www.buffaloarms.com/stainless_st ... x?CAT=3889
And using a friend's tumblers cleaned over 1000 30-30 once fired brass. I can tell you that I am very happy with the results.

Tony, Still happy with the process?

Bob, its the best and cheapest way to clean brass I have tried. I can tell you that I have cleaned over 10 thousands of pieces of brass since I first tried the SS tumbling media and will not go back to what I was using previously which were large vibrating tumblers with walnut hull media.

Make sure you buy a rotating tumbler with a big enough motor. The one I am using my friend bought at a garage sale for $25 and refurbished himself. It was built by somebody to use two drums at once and the motor is large enough to turn them a good speed. I figure the total weight it turns is over 30 lbs if each drum loaded with 10 lbs of brass and SS tumbling media plus the weight of the drums which are not very light. I have a newer one with a small motor and only works with very light loads so you are warned.

Thanks Tony. I was thinking of looking into a rock tumbler Vs the Tumblers Tumbler they show on their site.

Bob259 wrote:Thanks Tony. I was thinking of looking into a rock tumbler Vs the Tumblers Tumbler they show on their site.

Bob, as long as the drum in the rock tumbler is LIKE the one in the Tumblers Tumbler (six flat sides) you will be fine. I have a Tumblers Tumbler with the small motor and its not good enough for tumbling large quantities of brass at once.

If you happen to have an RCBS Sidewinder, it can be used with the stainless media as well - just make sure not to overload it.

There are many types of stainless media out there too - a friend of mine uses something he found on eBay called jewelers' mix which consists of a bunch of odd shaped pieces rather than the pins discussed here. He got it really cheap and seems very happy with it. I have some that is like fat football shaped pins rather than the thin ones. Works good but won't get small rifle primer pockets clean.

Stephen

Here is another source for tumblers that work well with SS media: http://www.biggdawgtumblers.com/

DougF