Stainless steel pin media

[skin]

 For those of us who use stainless steel pins to clean our brass, you always seem to get a pin stuck inside a case.
 Well, I've found the solution. I have found that a magnetized piece of metal smaller than the flash hole works great. Push it through the primer pocket and pull out slowly and wallah! Stuck pin comes out. Easy. What I used is an old firing pin. If you look on the very end, you'll see the offending pin.

[M1A4ME]

Isn't if "funny" how badly a pin can get jammed into the flash hole just by bouncing around in a drum of brass and pins?  I hate the ones that come out with two pins jammed side by side in the hole (rifle cases).  I bought a pair of hobby needlenosed pliers to pull the pins out and still fight with them at times.

[George16]

Or just quit using pins altogether and use lemishine and dawn dish soap or Armor All wash and wax.

[Andres B]

 Lemishine aint nothing more than citric acid, which is probly much cheaper also. And, yeah, ultrasound cleaner works ok with no fooling around with stainless needles and corn cob media and such. Pinch of acid, drop of dishwashing liquid, half an hour of buzzing. Rinse, dry, oil, that's it.

[Togmaster]

I just keep the de-capping pin in my sizing die.  I can always feel if there is a pin in there. Doesn't happen very often because I visually inspect the brass before reloading.  Unfortunately I'm not perfect (don't tell my wife) so it does happen.

[JBruns]

Or just quit using pins altogether and use lemishine and dawn dish soap or Armor All wash and wax.

But then the inside of the cases don't get cleaned, which is the whole reason I went to wet cleaning. If I didn't use pins, I'd just go back to dry tumbling overnight.

[George16]

But then the inside of the cases don't get cleaned, which is the whole reason I went to wet cleaning. If I didn't use pins, I'd just go back to dry tumbling overnight.

It’ll get cleaned. I don’t use the pins and still get them as clean like this.

[SoCal]

I don't know why but I never have a problem with pins in the flash hole.  Different size of pins, heavy flushing of brass or ?

[tdogg]

It's a real time saver eliminating the pins.  I too have eliminated stainless media from my brass processing.  I don't think my process gets the inside of the case as clean as George's does but it's far superior than dry tumbling.  No pins and only processing a single caliber at a time is really easy to finish.  Just a quick rinse and toss into the dehydrator to dry.

Cheers,
Toby

[M1A4ME]

I don't know why but I never have a problem with pins in the flash hole.  Different size of pins, heavy flushing of brass or ?

Might be different diameter pins?  I see big variation sometimes in the flash holes.  I've seen .45 brass with huge flash holes.  I've had surplus 5.56 brass that had flash holes so small it would hang up/pull out the primer punch pin from my RCBS dies.

I wonder if some of the pins are different diameters?  I sometimes get two pins stuck in the flash holes.  I've never bothered to measure them when I pull them out with those hobby needlenosed pliers.  I need to do that to see if I've got one "big" pin and one "small" pin.  Then again, it could be a flash hole that's a little bigger than the rest of the brass.

[david s]

In the past pins have lodged in the flash holes of my brass. Hornady made a run of 22 Hornet brass with small flash holes that was a sizing die de-capping pin puller. The pins I use also lodge crosswise in 25 caliber brasses necks. George16, does your ratio of Lemi Shine to Dawn change when you go pin less? I'm still using a Thumblers Tumbler nothing high speed here.

[Wobbly]

In the past pins have lodged in the flash holes of my brass.

IMHO this points to a poor brass cleaning process rather than any fault with tumbling pins.

[SoCal]

It's a real time saver eliminating the pins.
Cheers,
Toby

For me, by the time I rinse the brass the pins have fallen thru the grate that holds the brass.  Any extra time, for me, is minimal. YMMV.

M14, yes I am sure the pins and flash holes varies a lot.  I mostly load 9 MM and 38/357 so no rifle brass.

[skin]

 I've tried about all of the different methods. I still use the stainless steel pins. Works best for me. Out of 600 223 brass, I had only 4 with pins in the brass.