Vibratory tumbler and loaded ammo..

[H&Hhunter]

The other i was talking to a guy out at the range. He is a high volume competition pistol shooter. I asked him what he is using to polish his brass with. Long story short he told me that he lubes sizes and loads. THEN he tumbles his loaded ammo....

I'd never heard of that before and it kind of raises the hair on the back of my neck a bit. Am I being weird about this or does tumbling loaded ammo seem a bit dodgy to you folks as well?

 

[jwrowland77]

Nope, not dodgy at all. Does absolutely no harm to the round and doesn't break down the powder.

All it takes is 10-15 minutes to get them shiny. I haven't don't it with rifle, but pistol, no issues.

Ammo puts up with more a use being shipped. Same with components.

 

[H&Hhunter]

Nope, not dodgy at all. Does absolutely no harm to the round and doesn't break down the powder.

Cool thanks for the input. If it doesn't harm pistol ammo it should be good for rifle ammo too?

 

[jwrowland77]

I haven't tested it, haven't seen it tested, but most rifle bullets come to a point. Other end has a primer. Granted you probably wouldn't get a hard enough hit on primer to get detonation from primer but why take the chance.

Plus most the rounds I shoot use match bullets which are hollow points. Don't want to damage those.

 

[mdi]

This is an old and often hotly debated subject. Some say don't do it; the motion/tumbling will change the characteristics of the powder and you'll blow up your gun. Some say a round will fire by being hit with another cartridge. I have not read any reliable reports verifying either of these statements.

Some say go ahead and tumble. They say the factory tumbles live ammo for cleaning prior to packaging. Some say the Armed Forces ship their ammo all around the world by various methods and subject the ammo to more jogging and vibration that a tumbler will give and have experienced no problems. I have read reports (by a forum member, not a lab) of some control rounds being fired over a chrony and speeds recorded. Ammo was tumbled for a few days and some were disassembled and compared to the control components. No noticeable difference in powder when compared under a microscope. Tumbled ammo fired over a chrony and compared to control group; no noticeable difference.

I have no need to tumble my reloads 'cause they are clean when I'm done, and have no personal experience either way...

 

[Potatohead]

See Walkalong and Snuffy's legendary testing of this subject. Proved it was positively, most definitely,undoubtedly ok to tumble loaded rounds. I'll try to post link.


I think it may be this one:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=498890

Before I was a member here I was looking at trying to clean up my nasty looking factory brass and came across this thread.

 

[buck460XVR]

Since, even using carbide dies, I need to lube my .460 cases, to resize, I always tumble them after loading to remove the lube. It's generally only for 30 minutes or so with corn cob. I also will tumble other loaded ammo occasionally to remove the oils from my fingers from tarnishing them, if I feel they will not be shot for a substantial amount of time.......but that don't happen often.

 

[GBExpat]

FWIW, I have personally run thousands of round, both old milsurp & new reloads, thru my vibratory case cleaner without problem.

Properly loaded (i.e., not loaded to the point where the cartridges cannot freely move), in the vibratory case cleaner, very little of the vibration is imparted to the heavy cartridges ... the light cleaning/polishing media is what does the vibrating.

 

[medalguy]

Only caution worth mentioning is tumbling lubed lead bullets. You can really pick up some corn cob in the lube grooves. Jacketed bullets clean up fine and I've been doing this for about 40 years now.

 

[345 DeSoto]

I've run thousands of 22-250 finished rounds in my vibratory tumbler, and never had a problem...(but not all at once )

 

[jeeptim]

I am the king of the tumblers. Heck I gots brass in two tumblers right this moment!
When I get back from the range tumble in walnuts hr or so, then in the corn cob hr or so.
After i size and prime in the corn cob hr or so, once I trim and load in the corn cob with some nu finish hr or so for that bling. The nu finish keeps the brass from turning that, well tarnished brown after sitting for a few years.

 

[Hondo 60]

I've accidently tumbled a loaded round with empty brass (several times).
I've had no problems.

But even with all the banter here, (and Walkalong's and Snuffy's tests)
I just don't feel comfortable tumbling loaded rounds on a regular basis.

I'm probably just being overly cautious, but ...

 

[Potatohead]

Anything can happen I guess.

 

[longdayjake]

I put a bunch of loaded .30-06 in my tumbler at the shop and promptly forgot about it for about 48 hours. They came out SUPER shiny and shot great. No issues at all that I could tell.

 

[TenDriver]

I've accidently tumbled a loaded round with empty brass (several times).
I've had no problems.

But even with all the banter here, (and Walkalong's and Snuffy's tests)
I just don't feel comfortable tumbling loaded rounds on a regular basis.

I'm probably just being overly cautious, but ...

You are, but there's nothing wrong with that. You already proved to yourself tumbling loaded ammo is ok, but if it takes you out of your comfort zone, don't do it.

 

[bobinoregon]

I've got a box of 300 winchester magnums in the tumbler now that I found that looked crusty, no big thing tumbling loaded ammo. I do all my rifle ammo for a little while after its loaded to get off fingerprints from handling anyway.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

Am I being weird about this or does tumbling loaded ammo seem a bit dodgy to you folks as well?

I load all my pistol round as you described. I lube them all, run them through my progressive, and tumble them afterwards.

I do this in my rotary tumbler and with the extra weight of the bullet, they seem to clean much faster then if they were empty.

Word of caution, if you are loading XTPs or some bullet with a small hollow point you will not be happy. The hollow point will fill up with tumbling media and with XTPs it really hard to get out. Pissed me off so bad I never ran xtps through a tumbler again.

If I'm using XTPs or other bullet with a small hollow point, I lube and resize, then tumble, then finish my loading process. With big hollow points it's not near so much of a problem.

 

[WestKentucky]

Every round I shoot with the two exceptions of rimfire and shotgun go through my tumbler twice. Once for cleaning before loading, and again after loading to push them up. No matter the type bullet or primer I have never seen a failure or degradation of any sort attributable to tumbling loaded rounds. In fact the only failure I have ever seen was when a bullet pushed back into the case and dumped lots of powder out and filled the case with walnut media. That failure happened once in the bowl, and on the way to the range with the rest of the rounds in an mtm box 8 more fell into the case. Very thin necks caused terrible neck tension which was highlighted by the tumbling. While many debate and worry about tumbling live rounds, I make a pointed effort to make sure it happens.

 

[WestKentucky]

Anybody ever tumble 22lr to clean it up?

 

[tightgroup tiger]

I use a rotary tumble and once put some soft point 243's in it. It beat the crap out of the soft lead tips. I had to resharpen them with file. It wasn't good. Hardcast bullets look like their sand blasted when used in walnut.

 

[ZGunner]

I tumble all my loaded rounds to clean off any excess lube and oils from my fingers. I like shiny brass because it looks nice and is easier to find in the grass after it's shot.

Anybody ever tumble 22lr to clean it up?

That MIGHT cause a bit of barrel leading. I believe 22lr comes from the factory with a hard lube on the bullet. Tumbling it may remove it. I've just come across this in passing, someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[1SOW]

That MIGHT cause a bit of barrel leading. I believe 22lr comes from the factory with a hard lube on the bullet. Tumbling it may remove it. I've just come across this in passing, someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Your not wrong on SOME .22 rimfire ammo. Some are copper coated, some coat with grease and some like CCI have a hard wax coating. Tumbling 'might' not hurt the copper coated, but it's a mighty thin coating. I wouldn't tumble rimfires.
YMMV

 

[bob4]

Pretty is as pretty does. But I have done it just to see and had no holes in my tumbler when done.

 

[gamestalker]

I've do it with handgun ammo now and then, such as when it gets nasty looking from being carried for a long time. No problem really, it takes a bit more to detonate a round than what a vibratory tumbler can produce, IMO.

GS

 

[jmorris]

I post load tumble all the time. My Grandfather post load tumbled rounds for decades (really the first rounds loaded were decades old before thay were shot, if it took more than the first round or two to do the job, "top off" mentality) with the rifle he kept in his truck. I have shot 50 BMG rounds that have been post load tumbled around the world with no problems.