Tractor Supply Corp offers crushed Walnut shells @ $12.99/10 Lbs.: they offer Corase or Fine grit; I assume coarse is best (won't stick in flash holes), The coarse grit is 12/20 mesh; the fine is 35/60 mesh....it is used as blasting media and the mesh is important for its application. They also offer a medium grit 18/40 mesh but it costs more. I would guess it's better than lizard bedding as the later is not screened and one would get particles of all different sizes....can anyone offer me some advice before I buy ten lbs please?
Best crushed Walnut Grit to clean cases?
- Thread starter Wallyl
- Start date
I think 14/20 is the most common, but massreloading.com recommends 10/14 and some like 20/40 (see this THR thread). It seems to me that smaller cleans more slowly, but is least likely to stick in a flash hole.
If you use coarse grit like lizard bedding, it will tend to stick inside 223 cases and is a huge pain to get out with a piece of stiff wire. DAMHIK
I buy 25# boxes for walnut blasting media from Horrible Fright and, with a little MS, it works great and is fine enough to flow out of small bottle neck cases.
I buy 25# boxes for walnut blasting media from Horrible Fright and, with a little MS, it works great and is fine enough to flow out of small bottle neck cases.
Mineral Spirits (MS) is a good cleaner, but the polish is faster. I've made my own slow polish by mixing MS with diatomaceous earth from the garden supply. It's one of the polishes used in toothpaste and usually comes in food grade for garden applications. For something faster, mix white automotive buffing compound with MS. For faster still, the red compound. There are still occasions where that is quicker or more appropriate than running stainless pins.
Dead-Nuts-Zero
New member
Slightly off topic, but I use walnut lizard bedding from pet store, it's a small uniform size & does plug flash holes but has never been an issue for me.
Problem is, it eventually wears out takes forever to clean brass.
I do all my brass cleaning outside. One day I forgot to put everything away & had left my Lyman bowl filled with worn out walnut shells outside in a 2 day rain.
So I poured off the water, dumped wet shells on a cookie sheet, placed it in the sun to dry.
I tried using it, it worked as good or maybe better than the fresh new shells from the store.
I'm now on my 2nd water cleaning of the same shells, so far it's working well.
However, YMMV!!!
Problem is, it eventually wears out takes forever to clean brass.
I do all my brass cleaning outside. One day I forgot to put everything away & had left my Lyman bowl filled with worn out walnut shells outside in a 2 day rain.
So I poured off the water, dumped wet shells on a cookie sheet, placed it in the sun to dry.
I tried using it, it worked as good or maybe better than the fresh new shells from the store.
I'm now on my 2nd water cleaning of the same shells, so far it's working well.
However, YMMV!!!
When I clean cases, I use the cheap (around $13 for 10 quarts) Lizard Litter too (the bags says Zilla Desert Blend on it. I have 20qt of the stuff.... Lasts me a long time... Solving the flash hole problem is to leave the spent primer in place. Then resizing kicks out the primer and makes sure the flash hole is clear at the same time.
jetinteriorguy
New member
Not sure what grit it is, but the stuff from Harbor Freight works great.
Media
This won't get stuck in the flash hole.
www.amazon.com/dp/B001OVGPH6/ref=twister_B008XF6OU4?_encoding=UTF8&th=1
This won't get stuck in the flash hole.
www.amazon.com/dp/B001OVGPH6/ref=twister_B008XF6OU4?_encoding=UTF8&th=1