Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Which media for tumbling??

I frequently see two types of media. One is a green corncob media and the other is a reddish/brown media (crushed nut shells I think?). The labels suggest that the reddish brown stuff is "more abrasive". Which do you guys recommend for 30cal rifle brass.

I use the crushed walnut shells sold as lizard bedding at pet stores. People will say it's better for cleaning and corn cob media is better for polishing. I use the walnut because it works fine an it's easy for me to get. They both work for all calibers.

I use the same stuff as ned. I get mine at Petsmart. I dump some Lyman brass polish in it and it works great.

They sell two kinds of media because both work quite well. Most of the difference is in the minds of the users.

I use small ceramic pins, works better than walnut from my experience and they never wear out.

I've got some plain corn cob media, and then I use Turbo Charger by Lyman which really shines them up. Put a couple ounces into the media, and let her shake.

I prefer the crushed walnut shells...

Anyone here use rice? I'm thinking of using a few lbs. from the hippy market for my next load of media.

The only decapping pins I've ever broken were because of corncob media stuck in a flashhole. Never happened with walnut. YMMV.

Scott

I use rice with a little bit of polish as its so cheap compared to other media, work fine just takes a little longer

The walnut shell media is often dusty, the corn cob is not. What I usually do (and I overkill everything) is use a Lee universal de-cap die and decap all brass, then uniform/clean the primer pockets and then throw the lot into the walnut over night. Then I will run the lot in the corn cob for a couple of hours to remove the dust. Then I take an air nozzle with a rubber tip and blow the flashholes clear. Then neck size.

I used to use the green corn cob media but it was dusty and so I'd wash the cases in acetone. Then my gunsmith put me onto the pink Hornady media. I think its great, no dust and a nice sheen on the cases.

regards
JohnT

The walnut media can be dusty. I add a couple of teaspoons of the Frankfort Arsenal case polish from Midway an that seem to do a good job of reducing the dust by clumping it together.

I put a used dryer sheet in with mine and it seems to soak up most of the dust.

I use small pea gravel with my badly rusted 7.62 X 39mm cases. Thats makes them real shiny and they don't hang up as bad. The real trick is getting the fired berdan primers out, I generally use a bent sharpened rusty nail and a wooden mallet.

But seriously...... I use crushed walnut hulls. If you can get a 50 pound sack used in drilling oil wells, you can't beat it. It comes in medium and fine, I have never seen course although I guess they make it, otherwise there would not be a medium or fine. I used the same batch for three years before I changed it out.
Good shooting!
Marcus.