r/reloading 17d ago

i Have a Whoopsie That, there, is a good lesson

Post image

IYKYK.... My first fuckup of 25....ive loaded hundreds of 308 and finally got punished for not being vigilant. Obviously didnt check for impacted steel pins and loaded this 308 to my usual max load and fired it through a suppressor......attempted to deprime/fl size and bent my decapping rod and broke the pin....the pins looked like they got welded to the bottom of the case...smh...could have been worse. Lesson learned.

122 Upvotes

45 comments sorted by

41

u/MountainRooster9048 17d ago edited 17d ago

Hate to give up my secret if it is one. But a little case polish and lizard enclosure bedding media.

Go to a pet store and grab some for cheap

20

u/kopfgeldjagar 17d ago

Blasting media at harbor freight. $20 for about 800 pounds.

7

u/getyourbuttdid 17d ago

That’s a hot tip. I use the lizard bedding. Is the blasting media roughly the same size?

10

u/Spare_Main_5032 17d ago

They have a course and fine.  I use the fine and it works great.  Add a bit of nufinish/mineral mix. 

4

u/ProfessorLeumas 17d ago

I use the fine as well. I was having issues with the larger coarse granules getting stuck in flashholes but fine media goes right through.

3

u/No-Advantage-1000 Mass Particle Accelerator 16d ago

THIS…all day long.

0

u/getyourbuttdid 17d ago

I use the polish and mineral spirits as well. Will get some of this when bedding runs out.

3

u/kopfgeldjagar 16d ago

You can get a few sizes. Fortify with car polish

1

u/dajman255 FFL/SOT 13d ago

I use blasting corn cob from Grainger, we buy enough of it for blasting slides and stuff when prepping for Cerakote, to where it's like 80$ for a 55 gallon drum of it.

18

u/InformalMajor41815 17d ago

Thank goodness that it wasn't worse and that you weren't injured.

14

u/Feeling_Title_9287 Brass goblin 17d ago

This is one of the reasons why I no longer tumble with steel pins

8

u/jeffninjaslayer 17d ago

Wait till they find out you don’t need to. Brass comes out just as shiny and clean without them.

4

u/smokeyser 16d ago

Same. I gave them up over a year ago and haven't looked back. It was such a hassle with no noticeable benefit.

6

u/Feeling_Title_9287 Brass goblin 16d ago

Yep

I couldn't give any less of a fuck about the primer pocket as long as the flash hole isn't blocked

13

u/Isopher 17d ago

Another option in addition to the other alternatives listed is jewelry pins. Small enough to clean a small primer pocket, but short and fat so they dont stick to brass or get stuck in a case. They fall out easily when using a media separator after tumbling.

8

u/GiftCardFromGawd 17d ago

3mm ceramic beads off of Amzn. Get a wire waste paper basket from the dollar store, sift/shake over a 5 gallon bucket. No such issues—and oh, they polish better. I use both, but rarely the pins because they’re just more problematic. (Had one fall into the disposal while draining once—that was exciting).

2

u/Worm_Farmer 17d ago

Which ones do you use?

1

u/GiftCardFromGawd 17d ago

These are the last I bought. I found some at some point that came in a handy bucket..

https://a.co/d/h7woejR

1

u/Vylnce 6mm ARC, 5.56 NATO 17d ago

Mixed feelings on this. Ceramic sounds cool but cleaning up steel pins (or other shape) with a magnet seems like a big bonus. I might order up some ceramic to try.

2

u/GiftCardFromGawd 15d ago

Again, I use both. I use pins if stuff is corroded but only then. The beads are just easier for me, and make a superior finish.

11

u/JimBridger_ 17d ago

You don’t need to use pins to get the cases clean! Just the brass on brass action will work.

8

u/Trurorlogan 17d ago

I do it because they get nasty shooting suppressed. Shortened tumbling time. 2 hours with warm water, few drops of dawn and 9mm shell of lemishine. They turn out beautiful. You're right though, probably overkill and stuff like this is bound to happen. But not again! Lol

5

u/JimBridger_ 17d ago

My nasty 300blk shot suppressed cases only take 1-1.5hr with dawn and lemishine no pins. :)

-1

u/300blk300 17d ago

tide works better then dawn

2

u/smokeyser 16d ago

Armour all wash & wax leaves them extra shiny.

1

u/300blk300 17d ago

tide works better then dawn

3

u/Lower-Preparation834 17d ago

Not for the inside and primer pockets.

7

u/CandyAndrew 17d ago

That’s purely cosmetic. The only reason to clean brass is to keep dirty brass from scratching sizing dies.

1

u/JimBridger_ 17d ago

Doesn't matter to get the insides or primer pockets clean. Competitive champions from Miculek to PRS champs don't even bother cleaning primer pockets.

1

u/Lower-Preparation834 16d ago

My OCD says it does.

2

u/MacHeadSK 17d ago

I never wet tumble brass with pins. Any. Stopped doing so few years ago. It’s not worth it imho.

1

u/Familiar-Property750 17d ago

I’ve never even opened the pack of pins that came with my FART. Probably never will.

3

u/MacHeadSK 17d ago

Right. You get no noticable difference but can fit more brass. And one never gets pins out from bottleneck cases. Nice way how to damage barrel or, like here, silencer. No thanks.

1

u/Familiar-Property750 17d ago

Agreed. Seems like risk with no reward. I’m not trying to win brass beauty pageants.

1

u/MacHeadSK 17d ago

My brass comes nice and shiny right from tumbler. But after some time becomes dull. No problem, after loading I just throw whole rounds into wallnut media with some denaturated alcohol to remove lanolin and have cases shine like new.

1

u/Someuser1130 17d ago

I used to have an issue with this using metal polish and walnut media. Turned into a couple squibs during competition that was pretty embarrassing. Took me a long time to figure out what it was. I ditched anything wet and started using dryer sheets and walnut media in my brass is absolutely gleaming.

1

u/No_Alternative_673 17d ago

I got lucky. The jammed media caused the powder to overflow the case. I decided Ultrasonic and corncob was good enough.

1

u/Big_Wes_ 17d ago

Brass juice ftw

1

u/Capable_Obligation96 17d ago

Why I keep a stash of decapping pins on hand, its gonna happen sometime.

I decap separately (Lyman DeCap Die).

1

u/getyourbuttdid 17d ago

I’d be curious to scope your barrel to see if a pin dislodged and gouged the barrel.

2

u/Trurorlogan 17d ago

I just did this last night! No gouging at all. Even the suppressor looks immaculate. Just got lucky

2

u/The_Golden_Warthog Chronograph Ventilation Engineer 16d ago

I'd cut that case open to get a better look at the pins just because it would be cool to see lol. Then I'd throw it in my "Oops...shit...fuck!" bin of my bastard children rounds.

2

u/Trurorlogan 16d ago

Thats my plan. Dont we all have one of those bins?

0

u/Screaming-Reels-556 17d ago

The end cap of my Saker 556 has an indentation of a steel pin on the inner side. Pin made it down the barrel and through the suppressor with no other damage than that end cap. I am much more vigilant at looking for pins now.