A couple of questions about the post below, where I'm tumbling brass in a concrete mixer. Juvat asks:
Just a bit of a question, what is walnut media?
Walnut media is a fine abrasive made from ground walnut shells. I get it at Harbor Freight. It's great for cleaning and polishing brass.
Rob asks:
4,000 rounds? How long will it take you to reload all 4,000? Heck, how long will they last when the shooting starts? I'm just curious...
That's just what I'm cleaning today. I already have 6000 cleaned. This is specialty ammunition used in Cowboy Fast Draw. CFDA rules require that at sanctioned shoots, all competitors use the same ammunition. One rule of thumb is that the host provide 100 rounds for each competitor. All this ammunition will be shot in three days at the Texas State Championship to be held in Richmond, TX on the second weekend of March. Through an inter-club agreement, we are supplying the loaded ammo and they will replace the wax bullets and primers. Then, we will clean all the brass again and reload it for Louisiana State, which will be held in Pineville, LA over Memorial Day weekend.
We're having a club meeting tomorrow night to load ammo. We'll be done in about three hours, then we'll eat gumbo and potato salad.
Everything you might want to know about Cowboy Fast Draw is in the video below.
The sport is a lot of fun. If you are interested, go to Cowboy Fast Draw for more information.
4 comments:
Sam Colt died in January, 1862. The Peacemaker was introduced in 1873, but not by Sam Colt.
You can usually get walnut media at industrial materials places for cheaper if you're willing to buy in bulk. I use it in my sandblaster when working on "fragile" materials like soft metals or wood, so I don't mind buying it in 50 or 100 lb bags.
A 50 lb bag would last me a long time if I was only using it for cleaning brass...but I do use it for that too.
I use it with my vibratory tumbler (which I did get at Harbor Freight) but I don't usually have 4k cases to clean at a time. I'd have never thought of the cement mixer but that's a neat trick. At most, though, I'm usually reloading a couple hundred rounds at a time.
I also used it to fill a set of "sandbag" style rests I bought from Midway USA unfilled a few years ago. I actually like it way better than other options. It's lighter than sand and bigger granules so less chance of leaking out if one of the closures isn't perfectly sealed; It's way cheaper than the plastic or poly filler beads and it's biodegradable so if you do blow a bag open, you don't really even need to worry about cleaning it up...just sweep it into the grass and it'll become fertilizer.
Also: I shot a cowboy fast draw "competition" many years ago. I put it in quotes because it was more of an introduction for beginners than a true competition, although we did do it by the rules and declare winners and losers.
It was an absolute blast but I've never been able to find a place nearby that hosts them.
When I did it, it was hosted by a fellow gun blogger named "Mr. Completely" (his blog name, not his real name) in Washington state. I happened to be there for work and hooked up with him while there.
He provided the wax "bullet" cartridges for the event and I helped him load some of them the night before.
Anyway, I recommend giving it a try, it was a lot of fun.
I use a mortar mixer to clean brass. I wet tumble it with a bit of dawn dish soap, and a little Lemi-shine. NO SS pins, those things get everywhere. Run the mixer 'till the brass is clean and shiny, dump out the solvent (save it if not too nasty), and then ad clean water, mix for a while. Repeat 'till liquid looks good. Spread out the brass on a towel in the sunshine, let it dry for a while. You might have to move it 'round a few times to make sure it's good and dry. Of course I live in Phoenix, so it dries quickly.
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