Tumbling media activator.

[Treeman]

I actually wonder about this whole soot in neck matter.

[oafpatroll]

One advantage is that it doesn't remove the soot inside bottleneck cases. So you don't have to dry lube the necks before seating bullets.

I've not run into the need for that or rather knowledge of the need. What symptoms indicate it?

[janfred]

The going theory is if the necks are squeaky clean, there is some galling hapening between the brass neck and bullet when seating. Also, some say that there is cold welding when left loaded for an extended period. Dry-lubing the necks before seating bullets seem to solve these problems. The results are lower ES/SD numbers with no other changes.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QMGe8XZmD4c

https://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2013/05/ultrasonic-cleaning-case-neck-friction-and-bullet-seating/

For someone that reloads hunting or plinking ammo the differences are probably too small to notice, but the proponents do report improvemens on ES/SD numbers. Enough that even if the theories are wrong, the results justify the extra work for long range shooting.

I use a vibratory tumbler. I do not do wet tumbling. The schlep of drying cases makes me shy away. So, I cannot with first hand knowledge say the above theories are true. What I do know is that, provided I load within a certain velocity band, I have never had a problem getting reasonable SD's, irrespective if I loaded yesterday or last year, without lubing, annealing or neck-turning.

[oafpatroll]

The going theory is if the necks are squeaky clean, there is some galling hapening between the brass neck and bullet when seating. Also, some say that there is cold welding when left loaded for an extended period. Dry-lubing the necks before seating bullets seem to solve these problems. The results are lower ES/SD numbers with no other changes.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QMGe8XZmD4c

https://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2013/05/ultrasonic-cleaning-case-neck-friction-and-bullet-seating/

For someone that reloads hunting or plinking ammo the differences are probably too small to notice, but the proponents do report improvemens on ES/SD numbers. Enough that even if the theories are wrong, the results justify the extra work for long range shooting.

I use a vibratory tumbler. I do not do wet tumbling. The schlep of drying cases makes me shy away. So, I cannot with first hand knowledge say the above theories are true. What I do know is that, provided I load within a certain velocity band, I have never had a problem getting reasonable SD's, irrespective if I loaded yesterday or last year, without lubing, annealing or neck-turning.

Thanks, that's interesting. I can get my head around how that would work. The majority of rifle ammo I load is with cast and powder coated bullets and the jacketed stuff gets used fairly soon after loading. 300m is also about where I give up so that's probably why I haven't noticed issues.

Re the drying of brass, I have a couple of old black towels. When the brass has been rinsed I dump it in the towel, grab two corners in each hand to make a deep pouch. I roll them around in that for 30 seconds and then dump them on a dry towel in the sun and lay the wet towel down next to it. By the time the next batch has finished tumbling the brass and they are generally dry. If they aren't I leave them on the towel overnight and have never found them wet. I use 'waxed' car wash soap as my detergent which leaves a very light film which stops spotting and tarnishing.

[janfred]

What few realise is that the black soot you see on and in the neck is mostly graphite and works great as a dry lubricant when sizing. Seeing as the deposit was done at great expense in powder, I find it counterproductive to remove it, and then have to ad another lubricant for further processing.

To each his own.

[Againstthegrains]

If you are battling to find tumbling media, a friend of mine uses tastic rice.

With respect to the activator, it is just polish. What I find interesting, is that when ammo is nice and smooth and shiny, it loads and feeds a lot easier.

[Treeman]

just put the oven on low - 70  Cel is usually the lowest temp oven will set at. Put the cases on an old towel in oven tray, put the lot in the oven for 20 minutes.
I usually set two cell phones for 20 and 25 minutes (just incase I wonder off then wifes alarm will bother her)

When done switch oven off shake, rearrange cases and when tray is cooled down to handling without gloves you good to reload.

I have even set oven to 300 cell put case in, it heats up to alarm time and then gets switched off. They dry - properly dry. The temperatures reached are nowhere near annealing or even de-stressing temperatures/ no towel this way 

[Againstthegrains]

I made a drying rack made of upright bamboo sticks, narrow enough to easily fit through the case mouth, but wide enough to not get stuck in the flash holes.

It was a great idea for drying brass, but the problem is that the water runs down to the case neck and dries there. It then leaves a tiny deposit of salt in the case neck, which messed with my neck tension when seating. I guess its less damaging to have that salt deposit form inside the case.

I have donated my wood work project to my wife, to store her sewing bobbins on

[Treeman]

Why was there a salt deposit ? That is the question.

Use purified water or close too such.

[Againstthegrains]

All tap water has some dissolved salts in it, usually about 0.5-1g/L depending on the source it comes from. The salts are mainly dissolved calcium carbonate.

Reloading starts to get a bit costly when you now to rinse your cases in distilled water.

[223]

All tap water has some dissolved salts in it, usually about 0.5-1g/L depending on the source it comes from. The salts are mainly dissolved calcium carbonate.

Reloading starts to get a bit costly when you now to rinse your cases in distilled water.

Reverse Osmosis water is almost as pure as distilled water and much cheaper.
Only the last rinse needs to be clean water.

I use borehole water with exceptionally high carbonates content. 
The waters EC is above 1000 mikroSiemens/cm.  This means the water is slightly saline.

I rinse 3 times after tumbling, to make sure all the acid is gone, then sun-dry.
I have never had any issues with salt stains on my brass.

[Treeman]

Yes just a cup of RO water over a lot of brass will carry a lot away, I doubt the remnant salts will even be visible.