Just started cleaning rifle brass. Average time to run with walnut media? This is in a vibrating unit.

Depends on whether you added and polish additive or not.

If you added some liquid additive, couple hours. If not, let it go 5-6 hours.

It also depends on how hard the tumbler vibrates. My Lyman tumbler will finish in about 4-5 hours (or over night). But my red one (not sure who's it is) takes about 8 hours since it's not as powerful.

I load them up and let it run overnight in my lyman.

I let mine run overnight typically whether it really needs that long or not.

I have a hornady tumbler and use corn cob medial. No polish and I run it overnight.

1.5 - 3 hours but I'm using SS...I only tumble after a neck turn though. Any other time I steel wool or Balitisol the outside of the necks and run a nylon brush and load again. You really want the carbon in the neck to help get a consistant tension.

Maybe Im wrong, im definitely no reloading pro, but I would think that a consistently clean case would provide just as much consistant tension as a consistently dirty case?

I think consistency in your prep/loading will lead to consistency in your ammo.

~3hrs in the STM. If I'm using the vibratory... a long time. I've left them in for days before.

There are a couple schools of thought. One is the brass is pourous so the carbon give is one smooth surface giving you a more consistant neck tention across the bearing surface of the bullet. The second one has to do with metals reacting to each other and causing things not to slide properly.

No expert either but just providing a different perspective....I can tell you I have never heard a benchrest guy talk about tumbling brass they clean and use. I hope that helped?

I found if you sonic clean first then tumble it cuts time in half an looks better but still through in tumbler an forget about tell morning lol

Chad, your red one is probably a Thumlers.

I've used both and generally use walnut and do it overnight. Does anybody worry about walnut residue/dust inside the case? I get anal about that and blow the inside and the primer pocket out before reloading.

My brass never gets too nasty, so I just vibrate it till it looks Ok. The degree of "Ok" varies from time to time.

And I usually vibrate the brass before I resize and deprime, so I don't have to concern myself with media in the flash hole.

Us ring s&s media I run the tumbler about 3 hrs much longer and it starts PEENING the necks. As far as removing all the carbon from the necks, it can affect the neck tension, so I use a nylon brush with Boron Nitride or powdered graphite in the necks to get consistent pressure. I use a Wilson straight line seater and a 21st Century arbor press with a hyd. Seating pressure gauge. With a -.002 bushing I get 24 to 26 lbs of seating pressure. Works great on my F-class at 1K.

I know this isn't a thread about this topic, but I thought I would reiterate that I've had this happen to me before. I left a batch of 260 brass in my Thumblers Tumbler with stainless media and when the brass came out, the case mouths were noticeably thicker than when they had gone in. To confirm this, I took a couple of pieces to my case trimmer and tried to run them over the .264 pilot and even with extreme force I couldn't get the pilot inserted into the case mouth. I ended up having to chamfur the hell out of the case mouth just to get it onto the trimmer pilot (which fit great before).

Figured I'd throw out a word of caution to folks with tumbling with stainless. Don't leave those cases in for over 2-3 hours if you can avoid it.

I run mine through the wash with a batch of clothing. 30-40 pieces at a time, as many as 50 - 60 of the 223 and 243 size brass. The run'em in the drier. works like a charm.
I usually re-size/de-prime prior to the wash. I put them in thick cotton socks and knot the ankle end of the sock. No film left on them and they come out as clean as new brass.

I have a Lyman 1200 and use it for pistol brass. I am using some sort of walnut shell, commercially available product given to me. Doesn't matter if I leave it on for one hour or four, the brass never gets shiny. I can rinse them in Lemi-shine and hot water for 30 seconds then dry on a cookie sheet in the oven and they look better than out of the tumbler.

BTW, I don't really care that much how shiny they are as long as they're clean. I will try the clothes washer and dryer trick.

I do it until I get tired of listening to it or remember it is on which ever comes first.

Let me guess, you are not married. I clean my shot hulls in the washer/dryer, but only after SWMBO is gone from the house for several hours. She caught me once, several years ago, and still blames me for every spot and stain.

OH, BTW guys, I get my corn cob media from the media blasting supply here in Fort Worth. It's much cheaper and you can specify the grit you want, plus get enough to supply yourself and a buddy for life. Call Canfield Joseph and ask for a bag of 40 grit corn cob blasting media. Pick up a couple bottles of Nu Finish in the orange bottles to treat the raw corn cob and you have some mighty fine tumbling media.

You can clean your log cabin with it too!

Cast I'll be your buddy. What is SWMBO?

She Who Must Be Obeyed. You need corn cob media?

I've got plenty. Thanks

6 hours or so in a dillon tumbler w/ cob media and no polish.

Cast, how do you clean you shotgun hulls?