Stainless Pin Tumbling "too clean"?

I apologize because I am sure this has been covered before, however after two days of searching the the forums I thought I would just ask .....
Have any of you had issue with the wet stainless pin tumbling causing problems with consistent ES or SD, "cold welding", etc.
Looking at previous posts, I saw a number of theories but no definitive conclusions. I am not really interested in pretty brass, mostly just accurate/consistent loads.
My theory is that clean cases would have a more consistent grip on the bullet than a dirty case. Clean is clean, but there are various degrees of dirty.
Thanks for any input.

Many people complain about it peening the neck. Some have even shown pictures of it. I SS clean mine after every firing. I also anneal after every firing. As far as the peening I believe that comes from tumbling them too long. As to the clean neck I use Imperial Dry Neck Lube (graphite) to seat and prevent a cold weld. They also seat a lot easier with the Imperial neck lube. You will find a lot of theories and conclusions. To me as with all do what you feel works best for you. One person will say do it another will say don't . None of the theories have been proven to me and I like clean brass. My info and opinion is worth exactly what you paid for it .

I've had some issues with "too clean" brass when loading handgun calibers on a progressive press. The powder funnel/belling can really stick when the brass is squeaky clean. I started using vehicle wash & wax soap rather than Dawn detergent and it helps a lot. The powder die doesn't stick and the bullets seat easier. I'm not sure if this would be enough to prevent cold weld, but it sure makes the brass run smoother on my Dillon.

Look at some discussions in this site and use the member Alex Wheeler as a search name. He's covered this topic and leaves carbon in the necks always. I am early on in trying this process and cannot state it improved my ES/SD issues yet. Alex has a lot of street cred, if you will, so I am running tests for my own info.

Thank you for the info! So far it looks like I will be switching to stainless pin tumbling.
Any more info anyone?
Thanks, Larry

After you tumble and rinse and dry ---- rerinse with some no-wax auto shampoo in distilled water. No sticking and no tarnishing.

Sounds like too much equipment and time for little or no gain. Tumblers and sifters and dryers. Making sure your brass is dry before loading. No thanks. A quick tumble in some treated media , quick shot of compressed air and it's ready to load

Okie, once you see REALLY clean cases, you'll never go back to dry media.

archer441 said:

Have any of you had issue with the wet stainless pin tumbling causing problems with consistent ES or SD, "cold welding", etc.

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Absolutely!

I have had it with both SS pin tumbling & with US cleaning trying to seat projectiles.

I also had to dip my projectile bases into imperial graphite to get them to load properly.

I don't have to load a heap of rounds a year otherwise yes I would be looking at a fix.

I personally fail to see any benefit to SS pin tumbling except looks. Lets see you tumble for 1-2 hrs, separate the pins from brass then you rinse twice then you have to clean up the pins and tumbler. Now you have to dry your brass in a dryer or spread it out in the sun. Now I can see a person using range brass for pistol competition or maybe a person selling once fired brass. But for precision rifle shooting I see lots of problems as has been stated in this forum many times. And water and brass just don't seem right. Just last week I read that someone didn't get every case completely dry and had miss fires and hang fires.
I certainly don't want my precision brass that I have carefully prepped tumbling around in a tumbler with SS pins which are much harder than the brass peening the heck out of it. Once I get brass stable with the right amount of carbon in the neck I don't want to disturb it. I would think that if there was a benefit to SS pin tumbling the accuracy nuts among us would all be using it and they are not.

Never had a problem with inconsistency, but my process is 100% religiously consistent and turn necks on all my brass.
- I SS tumble for 1 hour for 50 cases, 1.25 hours for 100 (the only issue I find is the rim of the case mouth will get bent over a bit to the inside of the mouth from the pins beating them in).
- After tumbling and drying, I anneal, FL resize (with expander removed), trim to length (if needed), 7 turns light pressure with VLD chamfer tool to inside of case mouth to remove the tumbling iniquity, 2 turns light pressure to deburr outside of mouths, lube mouths with Imperial Dry Neck Lube, expand mouths thru TiN turning mandrel, prime, powder, seat, beer.
My 10-round string SDs are single digit, TIR is 0.001, and bullet seating pressure is always consistent.

6.5-300 BEE said:

Okie, once you see REALLY clean cases, you'll never go back to dry media.

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they are when they come out of the original package!

I should probably clarify: my shorter tumbler times ensures a slight carbon residue remains in the necks, but leaves the primer pockets spotless.

I shoot 1000 yard compatition and went through the whole clean brass deal. Let me tell you it made my guns suck. I tried adding lube back in the necks. Still sucked. Used hbn on bullets. Still sucked. Now I'm back to where I started. Wipe my brass off with rag and load them. I clean primer pockets but that is it. I dry brush my necks real quick and I leave all the carbon in there. Bullets seat easier and loads are much lower es/sd. Guns started shooting great again. I will never clean my brass ever again. Do I want shiny pretty brass or small groups. I will take the small groups every day. Listen to Alex he is one of the 1000 yard gurus. Leave that carbon alone.
Shep