polishing ammo

[weaveand]

Okay so I recently bought once used brass that has already been tumbled cleaned. However, it does not have the bright shinny finish I would like. Can I polish them with a polishing wheel before I reload them? I would never consider doing it after they are loaded do to the heat, but can I do it before? Will it cause any problems in my AR?

[mustangfreek]

So i am assuming YOUR reloading these?

So i would assume you have stuff like press,dies,TUMBLER, etc..yes..

I Reload and what i do to get dirty brass looking good before i tumble , ( as i am not in the wet tumbling club YET) , is use the same recipe, put a splash of dawn soap, spoon full or so of lemi-shine and filled with some hot water and throw brass in, and every few minutes stir up with old paint brush or something..then rinse after hour or so..Then dry , then throw them in the tumbler with a mostly corn cob mix, but also probably a 3rd of ground up/crushed walnut with a few splashes of NU-FINISH car polish (many other additives also that can be used) and tumble for a few hours, then resize, trim or whatever then another hour or so in the tumbler, with just clean corn cob, nothing added..My brass comes out as good as new..

I also tumbled loaded brass , only when it has sat around a while or is some older factory stuff. No problems, even did some 223 and no issues..

[GaSwamper]

So i am assuming YOUR reloading these?

So i would assume you have stuff like press,dies,TUMBLER, etc..yes..

I Reload and what i do to get dirty brass looking good before i tumble , ( as i am not in the wet tumbling club YET) , is use the same recipe, put a splash of dawn soap, spoon full or so of lemi-shine and filled with some hot water and throw brass in, and every few minutes stir up with old paint brush or something..then rinse after hour or so..Then dry , then throw them in the tumbler with a mostly corn cob mix, but also probably a 3rd of ground up/crushed walnut with a few splashes of NU-FINISH car polish (many other additives also that can be used) and tumble for a few hours, then resize, trim or whatever then another hour or so in the tumbler, with just clean corn cob, nothing added..My brass comes out as good as new..

I also tumbled loaded brass , only when it has sat around a while or is some older factory stuff. No problems, even did some 223 and no issues..

Perfect. Follow this recipe and your brass should look new. The only thing I do different is a few drips of brasso in the media.

[LukeE.]

Lyman sells walnut shell media that's mixed with jewelers rouge that does an excellent job! It can be hard to get out of the smaller diameter necks of ,223 though so I avoid using it on empty ,223 brass. I tumble empty brass in walnut shell or if it's really dirty brass I will throw in a handful of "black beauty" sandblast media. Once the ammo is loaded I throw it into the tumbler with the Lyman walnut shell/jewelers rouge media and let tumble for 15-20min and it comes out shinier than any store bought ammo I've ever seen. It is 100% harmless to tumble loaded rounds and it doesn't harm the powder. If have tumbled over 10,000 rounds of loaded .223 in just the last year and have had no issues. I also know several more that do the same thing. My tumbling time per batch is only 30-45 minutes and there's no waiting for it to dry out.

[avtech850]

I use stainless steel tumbling media and ultra sonic cleaning. Both work great, but I am OCD to the point of obsession when it comes to brass prep and reloading.

[velocity2006]

I have been using walnut media with windex sprayed onto some pieces of paper towel, helps to absorb some of the dirt/grime rather than all of the walnut eating it. Would like to go wet stainless media, but have been it like that for the last 4 years or so and the results are good. I clean after firing, then I deprime/resize and trim as needed, clean primer pocket and then clean again. Stuff looks better than most factory ammo available in my area.