Tumbling Loaded Ammo.

It is how all the factory ammunition comes...

My finished rounds are already polished and I like to leave the lube on.
I have tried to clean some neglected cartridges, but instead elected to toss them. Old cartridges have old powder in them...

I don't get the point, just clean the brass before you load it. For me, putting loaded rounds into something designed to vibrate it, just isn't going to happen.

The point is to clean corrosive salts from the surface and apply a coating of protectant for long term storage.

If you've ever found a piece of media stuck in a hollow point of a loaded factory round you have found an artifact of this process.

Gun powder is tumbled by the ton to coat it with graphite and deterants.
Primers require magnitudes more force to ignite than found in a vibrating bowl cleaner.

whughett said:

Pretty Ammo doesn’t shoot any better than not so pretty Ammo.

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But it may keep your chambers from being scarred and embedded with dirt, which is then scraped by the next round and blown down the bore.

I tumble all my loaded pistol ammo except hollowpoints. I don't like cleaning the tumbling media out of the hollowpoints. I go to the extra step of retumbling the cases that get hollowpoint bullets so when I load them they are done.
Plated bullets all get tumbled after they are loaded, if for no other reason, to get some polish on the finished product so it doesn't tarnish right away.

I tumble them in a rotary tumbler, it doesn't take very long to put a spitshine on them and get the resizing lube off.

That powder you're loading with has been jostled around during shipping. That doesn't cause a problem. 10 minutes in the tumbler isn't either.

There's actually someone who has myth busted this. He tumbled various rounds for WEEKS. He found no difference in the powder under a microscope, and no change in velocity of the rounds.

https://www.americanhunter.org/articles/2012/10/10/is-tumbling-loaded-ammo-dangerous/ Read to the end.
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...h-results-from-tumbling-loaded-rounds.498890/

whughett said:

And if it’s in the net, must be true. You can’t equate powder jostled around in shipment to powder moving around inside a loaded shell casings in a vibrating machine.

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Yes you can. The vibratory machine being much more gentle than normal military shipment, especially delivery by machine gun...

whughett said:

Still not going to do it.

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Nobody is trying to convince you to, you asked.
I don't.
But Speer, Fedral, Hornady, Geco, and Remington do. I am just stating that fact, because you asked...

Just hanging out at home with the kids and not really into the movie.

Since you don't want any more opposing viewpoints I'll leave you to your thread. I meant no disrespect when I shared the truth and hope you have a nice day.

Myself, the Wipe out is about done soaking after a day of bunny hunting with my son and shooting with my friends, so I guess I better get to it!

Demi-human said:

Yes you can. The vibratory machine being much more gentle than normal military shipment, especially delivery by machine gun...

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I am not advocate of tumbling loaded ammunition. I do know that vehicle vibrational frequencies and magnitudes are much higher in tracked vehicles, or in vehicles off road, than in your tumbler. And, I talked with logistics guys who ensured that on board ammunition was periodically removed, because it would cause problems if left in a vehicle too long.

Slamfire said:

would cause problems if left in a vehicle too long.

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I agree with rotating vehicle ammunition as heat degradation to the gunpowder is accelerated...Ha! Dang! You got me. Ok, now I'll keep my trap shut!

I don't,,, because I don't have a vibratory tumbler!!! LOL!

My vibratory case cleaner seems to create a lot of static electricity. I get kernels of walnut hulls sticking to the sides of the separator every time I use them.

I doubt there would be enough static to set off a primer loaded in a cartridge case, but I prefer not to try.

YMMV.
Stay safe.

I used to do it when I was younger and wanted to have "pretty" ammo at the range when anyone looked at it. One day I realized that since I put all of my ammo in 50 or 100 round ammo boxes, that no one really gets to look at it and even if they did, no one would really care unless it looked really nasty. I have a shooting buddy who is anal about tumbling his loaded ammo. Shoots a lot of semi autos and swears it helps the feeding when he tumbles with a lot of metal polish in the media. Maybe it does, but I shoot mostly revolvers, so if the inside of the case is clean when I load it, I don't give a rats ass about the outside.

whughett said:

And of course nobodies forgotten a machine and left it on overnight.

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Sorry but this myth has been busted already.

Has any of you been on a military transport? It will make vibration from vibratory tumblers seem like nothing. And how many days and weeks do military transport trucks drive with supply of ammo offroad?

Back in 2010, Walkalong and snuffy did some range/chrono testing of rounds tumbled for 48 hours!

Result? No significant difference - http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=6210696#post6210696

Tumbling loaded rounds myth was forever BUSTED!

whughett said:

Yep and I’ve noticed there are a couple of responders just lurking waiting to refute any idea not there own

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I see this in a lot of post on about every forum out there.

Does the tumbling effect the concentricity or shape of the bullets? I shoot a lot of lead, and wonder if it would round off the edges of a SWC.

I was surprised to see the concern with rumblings effect on powder.

It periodically crosses my mind to treat some freshly-minted cartridges to a short run in the vibratory case cleaner (VCC) to remove any excess lube and/or, perhaps, provide more consistent longer-term tarnish protection. If neither of those is a concern to you, save yourself a step and don't do it.

A couple of decades ago, after reading internet-based claims about tumbling ammo removing the graphite coating from propellant kernels and causing KABOOMS, I ran some tests (including velocity tests with a Chrony) and inspections for myself on both new and old cartridges. I saw nothing to suggest that that was true.

Since then I have used my VCCs to clean thousands of rounds a nasty, grimy, yucky old milsurp ammo and a few hundred rounds of relatively new-but-dirty/tarnished commercial ammo. Never a problem.

FWIW

EDIT: Do not tumble cartridges topped by classic lubed-lead bullets!

Usually I will not post much when that starts taking place.

Riomouse911 said:

My vibratory case cleaner seems to create a lot of static electricity. I get kernels of walnut hulls sticking to the sides of the separator every time I use them.

I doubt there would be enough static to set off a primer loaded in a cartridge case, but I prefer not to try.

YMMV.
Stay safe.

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Dryer sheet in with the tumbling media eliminates the static issue