Rice, the new cleaning media!!

[mr_will]

well it was said some time ago that rice works good as a medium. So today I picked up a 20lb bag of cheap rice. NEXT TIME a 10lb bag would have been more than enough . Anyway, filled the tumbler and put some Dillon rapid polish 290 in there as well.

These were tumbled for 1.5 hrs in a Dillon 500 with rice with about 3 tablespoons of Dillon 290 Polish. 3 Brass and 2 Nickle just to show.

http://crankgoboom.com/guns/bullets/riceclean.JPG
http://crankgoboom.com/guns/bullets/riceclean1.JPG

[stubbicatt]

Never tried rice in this capacity, as I can get the walnut bird litter at the pet store for pretty cheap, and it almost seems "wrong" to use something I can otherwise eat as a tumbling media.

Looks like it works well, however.

[brandyspaw]

Never tried rice in this capacity, as I can get the walnut bird litter at the pet store for pretty cheap, and it almost seems "wrong" to use something I can otherwise eat as a tumbling media.

Looks like it works well, however.


Hey Stubbi, Is the walnut from the pet shops as good as the stuff you get from the gun sources? I was just about ready to order some walnut media
from Midway and never gave a thought to the pet shops having some. The
rice gig seems a good yet cheap way to go as well.

[w748]

Rice grains look to be about the same diameter as flash holes. Any problems?
I need to pick up something for myself pretty soon and rice is easy to find.

[mr_will]

yea i usually clean stuff with them capped and decap them afterwords, but on the few that was decapped there was a piece of rice in a couple of them, it pops right out though.
I am waiting on a new toy from RCBS is that Electric primer pocket cleaner/sizer/swager

[Scott]

What kind of rice did you get? Japanese short grain, Indian long grain, etc.? Not trying to be a smart ass, I'm really curious since I have a Japanese food store in the family and spilled rice is everywhere.

[mr_will]

i used just plain american long grain stuff. Didnt pay attention I just bought the cheapest stuff on the shelf. I bet short grain would work a little better because its smaller.

[Scott]

Right on, I'll give it a shot and report back.

[Hoser]

Size does matter... Mainly with bottleneck cases. If the grains are the wrong size they will pack themselves inside the cases and are a total pain to remove. Ask me how I know.

Now I just use corn cob bird and hamster bedding stuff. Comes in 25 lb bags for under $15.

[Scott]

Right now, I'm only doing pistol rounds, so I don't have to worry about the necks. I just picked up some walnut blasting material at harbor freight today and some corn cob bird bedding from petco last night, but I can get rice for free.

[mr_will]

Size does matter... Mainly with bottleneck cases. If the grains are the wrong size they will pack themselves inside the cases and are a total pain to remove. Ask me how I know.

Now I just use corn cob bird and hamster bedding stuff. Comes in 25 lb bags for under $15.

where do you get 25lb for 15 bucks I havent seen any that cheap. only corn cob I can find is about a buck a pound

[mr_will]

Man, nothing sucks worse then getting a few .40 cases in with the 45 ACP and a few of them get locked into a .45 with walnut media *somehow* perfectly level with each other. Have to dig out the needlenose to split them apart and retumble. That and flash hole clogging, walnut media isnt very high on my list anymore.
[Rant1]

I seperate all calibers before cleaning.

[stubbicatt]

I seperate all calibers before cleaning.

Yep me too. You have to inspect the cases at some point, either before cleaning or after. If done before it has the added benefit of not having the 40 inside the 45 jamup.

I haven't had the issues with walnut that the one contributor mentioned, or better said, the issue isn't unique to walnut, but with corn as well.

Tom Freeman is right that the corn or walnut litter is inexpensive and it is near as I can tell the same stuff sold by Midway for quite a bit more. A 25 pound bag lasts a couple of years at the rate I shoot anymore. I add the Flitz media polish to it sometimes.

FWIW.

[2ndChildhood]

I tried rice and the first batch came out with tons of nasty black gummy shit stuck to the cases.
Subsequent batches didn't, but they don't get as shiny polished as that first batch.

How do you decide when to dump your media and use a new batch?

Any suggestions on polishing compound? (I bought a bottle of Hornady one-shot)
-2C

[mr_will]

I use the dillon blue stuff. I get about 4 or 5 batches done and I change it. I think it would go alot longer if you wanted it to.

[Wulf202]

Man, nothing sucks worse then getting a few .40 cases in with the 45 ACP and a few of them get locked into a .45 with walnut media *somehow* perfectly level with each other. Have to dig out the needlenose to split them apart and retumble. That and flash hole clogging, walnut media isnt very high on my list anymore.
[Rant1]

Have you tryed the bullet pulling hammer?

[NineHotel]

Thanks for the rice suggestion.

I've been using the same batch of walnut media now for over 2 years, just to see how long it will go. Just started my 3rd winter loading season with it. It has been used to clean oh gosh close to 20,000 cases. I just did 2,000 223s with it. No, they are not a brilliant luster, but they are clean. Doing 1.5 hours for 300 223s in a regular sized Midway vibratory tumbler.

It is gonna get changed though after this batch is done [Coffee]