Is it Ok to polish live ammo in a tumbler?

[Smokey Joe]

Accidental detonation

The only accidental detonation of any sort I ever heard of was written up in the American Rifleman many years ago. In a sporting goods store, a box of shotgun shells was dropped, sending the shells all over the floor.

In collecting up the shells, one of them was kicked (apparently pretty hard) and slid across the floor, where its rim hit another of the shells hard enough to detonate the second shell's primer.

There was a "FUFF!" the shell ruptured sideways, and they had a mess of shot on the floor to clean up. That was it.

Doesn't seem like much of a big deal to me. And it's gotta be a one-in-a-zillion kind of occurrance.

The point for this discussion, is that for the incident to happen, the first shell had to be kicked--which gains it more motion energy than it could ever acquire inside a tumbler.

 

[KSoldier]

Things I would address in this thread is that every issue should be evaluated independantly.

If the reason you are tumbling live rounds is to clean off lube, I couldn't imagine any problems.

But if you have surplus (old) or water damaged rounds, you may have problems related to exposure or age.

My concensus, I would go ahead and do it while maintaining extreme caution and examine each round carefully when finished.

The only verified myth I know of is that a .22 round should never be used to replace a fuse in your car.

Hopefully I will never become a footnote in the Darwin awards.

 

[Odd Job]

http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=228339

 

[Hungry Seagull]

Very interesting thread.

ARE YOU NUTZ!!?

Anyhoo. I will continue to think about corroding ammo.

 

[Iron Sight]

I once tumbled some loaded 45 acp rounds that i had lubed the bullets/projectiles with liquid Alox bullet lube. When done the alox was still on the bullets plus the walnut media was stuck all over the area with Alox. I had to clean each round with a towel and solvent.

 

[Floppy_D]

What caliber for zombie thread?

Shiny factory ammo isn't shiny because they use magical dies. I tumble loaded rounds all the time. They don't need long, just 30 minutes or an hour, and they clean up purdy.

 

[rcmodel]

+1

The factorys do it.
I do it and have been for 30 years.

It is perfectly safe and sane to tumble loaded ammo 30 minutes - to an hour to remove sizing lube, and get that factory shine.

As noted by Iron Sight, it doesn't work so hot with cast bullets & bullet lube!

rc

 

[Smokey Joe]

More experience...

How about that! A 3 1/2 year old thread, revived.

Have just had a "tumbling live ammo" incident myself--A loaded round of .357 magnum, target load with lead wadcutter, in front of a charge of Win 231 powder, somehow got in with my latest round of fired cases to clean. Tumbled that set of cases for several hours (didn't keep careful track) as some of them started out pretty messy. At the end, all were clean.

Discovered the loaded round when I tried to resize it and lo & behold, it wouldn't go into the die. Surprise!

The front end of the wadcutter bullet had turned sort of dull brownish-gray, I expect from the dirt tumbling about with the corncob-and-walnut medium being used.

Now there is a dent where the decapping pin hit the center of the front of the wadcutter bullet. Aside from that and the bullet color, the round looks quite normal.

The plan is to take that round to the range and shoot it, carefully noting any abnormalities. Will report on the results.

 

[Mal H]

Smokey Joe - you need to have your eyes recalibrated! You couldn't tell there was a bullet in the case before putting it in the press? I know it was probably a flush set wadcutter, but still!


Several years ago (more that the 3 1/2 that this thread is old), I would have said it wasn't wise to tumble live rounds. It just seemed to me like the powder makeup could change with the continual harsh vibrations. The carbon coating on some stick powders for example could be worn off, but I'm not sure that would cause any noticeable difference. Now that I've heard and read so many accounts of experienced reloaders doing it with no noticeable problems at all, I would have to say it's not a problem.

I'm not sure where I read it, but someone even went to the trouble of chrono'ing some rounds of a batch without tumbling and some with and he got the same results from both sets.

The chance of a round going off during tumbling (unless they are tumbling off a cliff) is nil.

 

[Smokey Joe]

Yep!

Mal H--

Smokey Joe - you need to have your eyes recalibrated! You couldn't tell there was a bullet in the case before putting it in the press? I know it was probably a flush set wadcutter, but still!

Mal, I simply did not look into the case as I put it into the shellholder. They'd all been cleaned, all fired in my own revolver, none dropped or bent or stepped on. What's to look at? Apparently didn't notice the extra "heft" of the loaded round, either. It took the decapping pin stopping on the front of the bullet for me to realize something was amiss. One gets into a rhythm, reloading, and the most efficient thing is to maintain that rhythm.

Yes, it was a wadcutter.

ETA--I'm a careful, deliberate reloader, and fussy with my measuring. Please don't get the impression that I was just slamming cases through the machine as fast as possible--nothing could be further from the truth. BTW, this is pistol ammo going through a single-stage press, here; the rounds will each get handled and inspected at least twice more before being finished.

As to recalibrating eyes, do you know any outfit that does that? If so please publish that info--I and many many other "senior" shooters would eagerly make use of such a service! I use reading glasses (prescribed by my optician) when shooting bullseye indoors with open iron sights, and can remember when the sights were much clearer.

BTW, laser surgery on the lens limits you to exactly ONE focus; you have to use glasses for everything else. So for me, that'd be no improvement. I already use bifocals for everything except indoor bullseye shooting.

 

[Iron Sight]

Cataract surgery has made a world of difference in my eyesight.

 

[<SLV>]

I picked up 10 rounds of surplus 50 BMG. After de-linking it I cleaned off the grease with WD-40, removed the tarnish with Brasso, then tumbled it for 12 hours.

I'm hoping to shoot it in a couple weeks. I'll have my next of kin report back if anything goes wrong.

 

[Smokey Joe]

Range experience...

Shooting off that one tumbled round:

--Report just like normal.

--Recoil just like normal.

--Hit the target just like normal. Within my skill with a revolver, the POI was same as that load, not-tumbled.

--'Zack'ly what I expected.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

My son inherited a bucket of .223 that had been stored in a shed at a friend's mother's house. It got wet and most rounds were noticeably tarnished. My son has been tumbling batches of the rounds in cleaning material as for cleaning brass for reloading and so far all the ammo has fired, functioned my son's M4gery fine, and grouped nicely at 100 yds.

 

[bobotech]

Wow. A free bucketful of 223. Very jealous.

I tumble loaded ammo with no worries.

 

[vjay]

Reading this thread, encourage me to tumble live ammo myself to remove bullet lube. 15min tumbling, no lube!! Works great.

 

[Afy]

If tumbling action breaks up powder... then any vibration would.

So what kind of hremetically sealed, vibration proof containers do you transport your ammo in?

 

[Rollis R. Karvellis]

It wasn't a Fraghtliner with a Detrot in it.

 

[me26245]

tumbeling ammunition

Yes, It is ok to tumble live ammunition.

Munition manufactures tumble their products to remove the lube used during manufacture.

I've tumbled thousands of rounds to remove the lube from reloading. I've also tumbled surplus ammunition to remove tarnish and discolouring, sometimes letting it run for a couple of days.

 

[Walkalong]

Yes it is, just don't leave it for days and days.

 

[SquirrelNuts]

I have some old WWB 9mm and some mil-surp M2 ball .30-06 that I plan to polish once I get a tumbler. For now, I have a coffee can with walnut media. I throw in a couple dog biscuits and let the Chihuahua at it.

 

[Walkalong]

I throw in a couple dog biscuits and let the Chihuahua at it.

Why haven't I thought of that. Our Dachshund should work just as well as a Chihuahua.

 

[TooTaxed]

I've routinely tumbled my freshly reloaded ammunition for years...everything from 9-mm Mak up through 300 Win Mag. I initially tested some batches against a non-tumbled control group for pressure and accuracy changes... found no appreciable difference.

My initial tumbling is with ground walnut hulls just before decapping and resizing...that can take as long as an hour depending on amount of tarnish of the cases. You need clean, but not real shiny, cases to protect your reloading dies. I've tried tumbling after decapping to clean the primer pockets...doesn't work efficiently, and results in an extra operation to clear primer flash holes clogged with tumbling media. I initially used a hand tool to clean the primer pockets after decapping...but found no disadvantage in repriming uncleaned pockets, so I no longer bother. I've never had a problem seating new primers or had a misfire due to uncleaned primer pockets.

My final tumbling after loading is 20 to 30 minutes with ground corn cob media with a couple of sprays of auto polish added (currently Dupont Teflon Spray Wax). That cleans off all oil and gives me shiny ammo indistinguishable from factory ammo, that has not tarnished after two years. I've never had any ammo damaged or "go Boom!" during the process. Think about it...even a fairly heavy, but still less than full, primer strike won't set off ammo.

I don't use auto polish in the initial tumbling for two reasons: (1.) To avoid any possibility that the polish on the inside of the case could react with one or more powders over extended time, and (2.) Polishing the completed ammo also polishes and protects the primer and bullet as sell as the outside of the case.

The only potential problem in final tumbling loaded ammo is that tiny hollow-points on rifle bullets could fill with media. I haven't noticed any of this, but if gummy media (even with a couple of sprays of polish, mine is still virtually dry) was used, the likelihood would increase. However, considering the striking power involved in expanding the bullet, I doubt that there would be an expansion problem even if the tip were jammed with media. I also doubt that the aerodynamic action of tiny hollow pointed target ammo (i.e., Sierra HPBTs) would change...mine seem to shoot as accurately as without the tumbling.

 

[TooTaxed]

In response to what would happen if a round did "go Boom!", not much would happen as the round is not confined by a tight gun chamber and bolt head.

Many years ago I questioned a newspaper report of a .38-Spl bullet wound due to an accidental dropping of a live cartridge in a fire.

I placed a live .357-Mag cartridge on a hot plate, placed a cardboard box over the hot plate, turned on the heat, and took shelter. When the cartridge cooked off, I removed the box and found one fragment of the split case and the primer embedded in the box...nothing penetrated. There was a barely noticeable dent in the box where the bullet hit.

The accident couldn't have occurred as stated in the newspaper account...as I so notified them.

 

[rsilvers]

If ammo does go off, it won't go through the plastic tumbler.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGeJjKnWm9o