Do you clean/tumble loaded rounds?

[dmftoy1]

I'm talking straight walled pistol cases.

I've been reading all the various posts (here and on other sites) on tumbling, kerosene, mineral spirits, etc. and there appear to be some people who clean loaded rounds? I've always just cleaned my brass before reloading and when done stuffed it in ammo boxes. Do any of you actually tumble your loaded rounds? (or am I just misreading things?)

Just curious.

Regards,
Dave

 

[Car Knocker]

Yes.

 

[Rockstar]

More-than-likely, you're reading posts by people who are lubing their brass. They're tumbling the loading rounds to remove the lube.

 

[Ross]

Yes. I clean .38 wadcutters loaded with a waxy lube in a tumbler (Sidewinder) with paper from a ring binder punch, with enough paper to cushion the load. An hour cleans and imparts a great luster. No solvent is necessary.
Ask your local friendly printer to save you some.
I've never tried it, but would suppose that paper shredder debris might work also.
I have not ever been able to detect breakdown of the Bullseye or Red Dot powder.
By the way, this medium must never be used with empty brass.
Cheers from Darkest California,
Ross

 

[oscar]

The only pistol cases I have tumbled were some 9mm that I loaded with some really greasy swc's. They left lube all over the cases after loading. I tumbled for less than 10 minutes.

 

[joshlm]

I tumble some of my lead rounds that have a somewhat dirty lube on them. It only takes a few minutes in the tumbler and the lube is gone.

 

[Standing Wolf]

I've been cleaning finished rounds in vibrating bins and tumblers for three decades and longer without ill effects. I like the brass to shine.

 

[cropcirclewalker]

I'm with Mr. Wolf.

That shiny brass looks like gold.

I love it.

 

[Black Snowman]

I had some pretty dingy looking IMI surplus .308. I chronoed a batch that was tumbled and another that was not. No change in velocity between the two groups. It was loaded with a ball powder.

None of the rounds went off. Tumbled for 8 hours or so.

 

[Jeeper]

Factory ammo is tumbled in a machine that makes your tumbler look pathetic. Tumbling doesnt hurt and is a good way to remove excess lube.

 

[taliv]

Standing Wolf:

I've been cleaning finished rounds in vibrating bins and tumblers for three decades and longer without ill effects. I like the brass to shine.

holy crap, 30+ years in a tumbler?? i'll bet that is some shiny brass!!

 

[BluesBear]

Using a tumbler with standard walnut or corncob media to clean the lube from cases is a quick way to ruin your media.

I use corncob with a tablespoon of kerosene in my Tumblers Model B to clean loaded ammo.
This WILL work OK if you used a spray lube such as One Shot. Is you use a traditional case lube* and a lube pad this will just ruin your media. That kind of lube needs to be wiped off.

Yeah I ruined 25 pounds of Walnut proving this to myself 25 years ago.
That's why I sitched to pure silicone spray. back then we didn't have One Shot.




*Pam cooking spray ruins your media too, and WD-40 WILL result in a stuck case! :banghead:

 

[happy old sailor]

i dont, but would if i needed to. i deprime my brass and tumble it. cleans primer pockets too. i take the lid off my vibrating tumbler and fish out the brass with it running. i bought a scooper thingy that is used to clean cat litter boxes. yes, it was new. the brass is so slick it is difficult to pick up otherwise. a few jiggles and the media all falls back in the tumbler, saving me from cleaning up another mess. there are numerous ways to do this, this is what works for me. YMMV

 

[Smokey Joe]

Ruined media??

Bluesbear—In what way is the polishing medium ruined if you tumble loaded rounds? Have done this to a few lots myself, pistol rounds where the bullet lube got all over the cases while bullets were seated.

Haven't seen any difference in the medium—corncob in this instance—afterward, and the cases were all nice and clean and shiny. Got a gallon of corncob and a gallon of walnut with my tumbler, bought in 2003. The walnut has never been used because the corncob has worked for everything I've tried it on. Am still on that first batch. (Batch is, however, getting a bit dusty.)

I defer to your longer experience with tumbling brass, though. (I'm a slow learner; cleaned brass the hard way for years and years.) What is there to look for that is different when the medium is ruined?

BTW, good to see that you're back on line!

 

[BluesBear]

Confession

No, no, no.

Tumbling LOADED ammo is OK. I am sorry if I implied it wasn't.


BUT...


If you take 250 .30-06 cases, roll them over a lube pad, resize and de-prime them...


And then toss them in the tumbler to remove the lube...


You'll end up with 250 .30-06 cases with walnut sprinkles...



and big dark CLUMPS of usless walnut hulls. :banghead:




Well... It seemed like a good idea at the timeâ„¢.

 

[kimbernut]

BluesBear

I think that's part of the reason so many folks have gotten away from lube pads. Didn't take long for me to figure there had to be a better way. The light spray lubes and Imperial Wax are much cleaner and easier to use and a quick tumble will remove all traces of the lube and doesn't seem to affect the tumbling media. I'm sure over time it will but it will need replacing by then anyway.

Edit: What do you guys/gals think of tumbling 200-300 rounds of 1941-1945 milsurp .30 carbine loaded ammo? I've heard tales of breakdown of powder granules and over pressure resulting.

 

[Deavis]

How did anyone ever think a lube pad was a good idea?

Here is a list of things I used 1 time (ok for a very short time period!) and immediately replaced with something better.

1) Lube Pad -> Spray lube (Dillon first, now Hornady)
2) Single stage press -> Progressive (Pro2000 first, now 650XL)

If you are still using those two things, you are a patient person!

I toss 400-500 loaded rounds in my tumbler, shot 'o kerosene (thanks Fitz!), and 15 minutes later I'm done!

 

[BluesBear]

Nope I never liked the lube pad but that was SOP back in the early 1970s when I got started in reloading.
Which is why I had discarded the lube pad and switched to pure silicon spray by 1975.

If you use a separate media, with a solvent such as kerosene, to clean your loaded ammo it will last a long time.

Personally I use walnut with rouge/polish for cleaning before loading and corn cob with kerosene for final cleaning.

As for tumbling your milsurp ammo you'd have to tumble it for an obscenly long time for there to be any powder breakdown problems.

Around 1980 I tumbled 200 rounds of assorted reloaded calibers loaded with about a dozen different powders and factory ammo for TEN DAYS in a Thumblers Model B.

After 10 days I pulled the bullets and inspected the powder.
There was no noticable difference in appearance.
There was no breakdown.
No mysterious "pixie dust" had appeared.
Nothing.

Now the ten rounds that had the small aquaruim gravel mixed in with the powder DID show much finer powder granules, as well as "Pixie Dust".
But unless you use aquarium gravel as a filler you should be good to go.



Those "Mythbusters" guys have nothing on me.

 

[Smokey Joe]

Tumbling loaded ammo; powder breakdown

Thanx much for that last report, BB, and thanx also for conducting the experiment of tumbling loaded ammo for 10 days. Your results should put the powder-breakdown myth out of its misery, once and for all.

That's what we scientists love—hard data!

 

[BluesBear]

it wasn't just the data that was hard. Using my trusty red Pacific Kinetic Bullet Puller I did the first 100 in one session. Idid the first couple of dozen sitting on the concrete floor of my basement. Then I put a 12" section of WWI (1917) railroad rail on my workbench and sat on a stool.

The final 100 didn't get done for over a week.

Well, I found out that all of my crimp dies worked really really well.

 

[neolithic hunter]

tumbling live ammo

guy's if you are using a real tumbler, bad idea. if your using a vibrator much smarter. had a tumbler with 200 rnd's of 243 go kaboom on me, guess i didn't have enough corn cob in it and some sensitive primers oh well. well i vibrate now with alot of corn cob so no problem. blues you say you put a petrolem product in with the rounds your cleaning. very bad idea, any petrolem based product can kill a loaded round in a heart beat. this is especcally true with reloads that don't have a sealer around the primer or bullet. but if you must go ahead and clean them with wd-40 it would be faster and it evaporates really quick, (only kidding about the wd-40).

 

[BluesBear]

I've tumbled over a million (1,000,000) rounds in Thumblers Model B tumblers,
using ¾-1 tablespoon kerosene per cycle in corn cob media. I am sorry but I cannot dilvulge the name of one of the world's largest small arms ammunition manufacturers from which I learned this trick.

I'd guess 90% was handgun ammmo but the rest was pointy bullet rifle ammo in .223, .308 & 30-06.

Never had a kaboom OR a Misfire. I had a 20-1 or 50-1 guarantee and never had to pay up.


Now I know people who do so, but the idea of using a vibratory cleaner with loaded rifle ammo does worry me slightly.

any petrolem based product can kill a loaded round in a heart beat.

HORSEHOCKEY!

I have never been able to prove that any normal amount of readily available lubrication has the ability to seep into and premanently deactivate a modern primer.

 

[Shweboner]

A couple years ago I got some .308 from Century for around $90/1000 all nato stuff... I was shocked when it arrived. My best guess was that it was retrieved from the bottom of the sea, because it looked like crap.

I tumbled all of them without any problems what-so-ever ( I tumbled them for 8 hours )


~Brian

 

[alex-v.]

I have never been able to prove that any normal amount of readily available lubrication has the ability to seep into and premanently deactivate a modern primer.

I have not been able to kill a modern primer with petroleum products either and I ran an experiment trying to do it. But, I have the feeling that if there was to much kerosene or whatever in the tumbling media it could possibily wick past the crimp and deactivate the powder. The media and the loaded rounds would have to be swimming in the petroleum product though for this to happen.

 

[Sam Adams]

Putting 1 TBSP of kerosene in with a several pounds of corncob, then tumbling it without the rounds for 5-10 minutes (to assure good distribution of the kerosene throughout the corncob) wouldn't do a thing to a modern primer, nor would there be any meaningful to seep around a bad crimp and into the powder. Bluesbear and Paul "Fitz" Jones have both seen this done to millions of rounds without problems, and I see no reason to doubt that the results would be the same for anyone doing this at home. I will be doing it this weekend to some .45s and 9s that I'm in the process or reloading, and I'll report the results back to everyone.