# Tumbling in rice.



## alleyyooper (Jul 6, 2007)

These cases are not new by a long shot. I had resized them then washed them in hot water and soap to get the case sizing lube off. Normally I use a Birch Casey case cleaner but am out. After a night of drying in a mesh bag in my wood burning furnace room I put them in the tumbler for a couple of hours.










One of the problems I discovered right off was to always decap first or you break a bunch of decapping pins. With RCBS you can get them free but why keep changeing the things when decapping first stops the breakage.
Another problem is the kerrnels of rice will get stuck in the flash hole. Thats what breaks the decapping pins.










Since the primer pocket needs a cleaning I find scrapeing the kernnels out of the flash hole isn't much extra work.

Tried the corn cob stuff and didn't like it at all. Would get stuck inside of 30 caliber cases so you had to dig it out. Could have just been some bad stuff as others do use it. Was complaining to a gun smith one day at his shop so he told me about rice. That is where I learned about it, been useing it for real close to 50 years now.

 Al


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## xdeano (Jan 14, 2005)

excellent post!! I would have never thought of that one. I've stopped using the tumbler on my 308 brass just because of the mentioned problem that you were having, they fill up the case and you have to dig the media out, talk about time consuming. I use a dentist tool to get the corn media out of the flash hole.

What kind of rice are you using, minute rice or the real stuff?

They sure look like they it does a good job.

xdeano


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## alleyyooper (Jul 6, 2007)

As you may be able see my tumbler is on the large size. I buy the 25 pound bags and use most of it. What I buy is the cheapest stuff I can find. Years ago it was the no name stuff. Today it is either Mejiers or Wally world cheapest stuff. It last a long time if you try to get as much case lube off as you can. Stuff in the picture is 8 years old and I tumble a few thousand cases a year.
You still have to shake the rice out of the case and the 220 Swift is sort of the pits to get the rice out of but still better than the corn cob media.
I just use a sharp small flat screw driver to clean the primer pocket of any residue and that gets the flash hole clean. Dremel has a dandy small brass brush for shining up the primer pockets. I have to order them as they are not carried any were localy that I have found.

 Al


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## Savage260 (Oct 21, 2007)

Have you guys ever tried a rotary media separator(I think that is what they called it)? I got one in a kit with my vibe tumbler from cabela's. It seems to work pretty well, as I have not had issues with corn cob in my cases....yet. It is an extra step in the process though. The cases get tossed around a bit and all the media falls out.


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

I have always used the vibrate type case cleaning system with corn cob. The cases get full, but when removing after screening I just bang a couple of cases together and it all runs out. Are you fellows using the tumblers like you polish rocks with?


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## alleyyooper (Jul 6, 2007)

Just a wee bit smaller than what us old fastion fellows use to make concrete in.

Rice come out holding a hand full upside down and giving them a shake.

 Al


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## People (Jan 17, 2005)

I have tired rice also. I was not impressed with the results in my Vibrating polishers. I did try it in my cement mixer (bought for polishing brass) and rice gives a much better sheen to the metal.

Personaly I like ground corncob for my polishing needs.

If you debur your flash hole that will prevent almost all of your pluged holes. I know it can be a pain in the butt to do it to 12,000 casings but it does help alot.

The opening scene of the movie "Saving Private Ryan" is loosely based on games of dodge ball Chuck Norris played in second grade.


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