Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Cheap tumbler media????

Any cheap tumbler media that you can pick up locally rather than ordering it from somewhere????

Sportmens Warehouse carries media from Lyman and RCBS. I don�t know how cheap it is but it�s there. I ordered 20 pounds of untreated walnut shell from Graf & Sons a number of years ago. It was cheap and I still have about 4 pounds left.

Lizard Litter at Petsmart. Ground walnut hulls, and it's dirt cheap.

Ted

Yukoner has the cheap solution. Pet supply stores often also stock corn cob media for the bottom of gerbil and hampster cages. It comes in a couple of types, some coarser than others. Be sure you get the right size.

Another substitution: The lubricant used for pulling wire and cable through conduit is essentially the same stuff as Lee case lube, but it's $5 a quart instead of $2 a tube.

Yet another: 1/3 janitorial ammonia (10%) and 2/3 cheap liquid detergent is about the same as Sweet's bore cleaner. If you're feeling frisky, you can mix it 1:1 instead of 1:2.

How does that lizzard litter work???

Hey Thanks for that one, I checked and its 11.00 for 10 lbs, a good price for Walnut, great tip, I will give it a go as I am running low on media

Yep, and 10 lb will last a long time!

Ted

The pet store media I have purchased in the past has worked quite well. The only caveat might be that it is sometimes ground more coarse than the media sold by Lyman, and can tend to hang in the primer ignition hole, or even in the primer pocket. The ground corn cob bedding material tended to hang up inside my 30-06 brass, it took just a bit of extra effort to ensure that each case was clean of media.

I now use Lyman treated media from Sportsman's warehouse. Considering the amount which I actually use, it is well worth the premium in cost.

Lizard litter with a capful of NuFinish car polish.

I use corncob media treated with Flitz, Brass comes out looking better than new

Oilfield drilling mud supply companies sell course,medium and fine ground walnut shell by the 25 pound and 50 pound sack.
Discount price last time I looked was about $15.00 a bag for 25 pounds.

Sooo.. if you live in a state with drillin rigs get to know your local worm roughneck.

He could likely bring you a sack home from work in his lunchbucket.

I wonder what would work best coarse or medium???

One bag of course grind should last a lifetime. I've given away most of what I used to have on hand and still have plenty left to refill a Dillon 1200 a couple more times.

I like to mix 1/4 treated to 3/4 untreated "lizard litter". The treated seems to leave a haze which the untreated takes care of. Plain creates a lot of dust.

Crushed walnut media at Petsmart...bird litter isle...then add some auto wax to it in the tumbler....add brass after the media & wax are fully mixed & dry..