Tumbling Loaded Ammo.

[Reloadron]

I use Nu Finish. It keeps them from tarnishing foe quite a while. My ammo isnt usually around long enough to know just how long.

A few winters back, maybe 10 or 15 cabin fever was killing me. No bike and no outside range so I found myself digging out brass, buckets going back decades. It went in the tumbler, batch after endless batch. Hell, some ran overnight and this went on for months. Once cleaned it went in 1 gallon freezer zip lock bags nice and shiny and pretty. Using NuFinish and today it looks like the day it was cleaned.

We had a thread dealing with this once. Now if you really want to get cool and have more money than common sense you can nitrogen purge the bags and pack your brass away in an N2 atmosphere and another option is vacuum packing with one of those food processing systems. I figure it this way. I am not too worried about long term brass storage at my age.

Ron

 

[FROGO207]

I use Nu Finish thinned with mineral spirits to aid mixing before running the brass for 15 minutes.

 

[exbrit49]

I have been reloading for about 40 years and have always tumbled finished loads. I like my ammo to look as good as it shoots! .Never a problem in thousands and thousands of rounds, Cant be bothered to do the math, but I shoot at least 6000 rounds/yr!
Love the look of highly polished cases sitting on the bench trady to shoot!
THey actually look better than the best factory ammo.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

I agree completely.
I some don't want bothered with making them look as good or better than factory and that's alright.
But when I look at my loaded rounds, that look is just milk for my cookies to me.
I think of my cases as totally reconditioned when I'm done with them and my finished rounds are tailor built to fit my needs and the best I can make them.
I'm proud of the ammo that I build.
And extra steps along the way helps keep me in the reloading room which also make me happy.

 

[wasa]

My $0.02 worth... never had a problem tumbling jacketed rifle ammo, but I once bought two packs of Winchester 22 WMR that had some corrosion on it. Into the tumbler for an hour to clean them off. Out of 100 rounds, 10 would not fire. No idea if it was because they were old, or because I tumbled them, but I will no longer tumble rimfire ammo.

 

[Engineer1911]

If hauling ammo in the bed of a pickup truck doesn't change performance, why should tumbling in media? The "pickup ammo" was 15 years old, and had made multiple 5,000 mile round trips shooting prairie dogs. There were a bunch of bad years for shooting prairie dogs with a large supply of ammo.

 

[Hondo 60]

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

Well, all I can say is I've done it probably over 100x.
No Kabooms!

 

[Hikingman]

Dryer sheet in with the tumbling media eliminates the static issue

It's a good idea, and I started throwing one in there about 15 years ago. Each one stays in until I wear it out.

 

[2ndtimer]

My $0.02 worth... never had a problem tumbling jacketed rifle ammo, but I once bought two packs of Winchester 22 WMR that had some corrosion on it. Into the tumbler for an hour to clean them off. Out of 100 rounds, 10 would not fire. No idea if it was because they were old, or because I tumbled them, but I will no longer tumble rimfire ammo.

Well, it was Winchester rimfire ammo, so 10 misfires out of 100 probably exceeds their quality control standards. If you hadn’t tumbled it, you might have had even more. In my Savage .17 HMR, over half of my Winchester ammo failed to fire on the first try, but most of it went on the second try. My CZ-455 does better, but still experiences far more misfires with Winchester ammo than Hornady, Federal or CCI. I guess it was cheaper for a good reason.

Oh, but if we are taking a poll, I never tumble loaded ammo. Use Hornady Unique lube and wipe it off with a towel after cases have been sized. Cases cleaned with liquid tumbler, water, Dawn and Lemishine. Only use stainless steel pins on really grungy brass. To each his own. I also put a light Lee factory crimp on all my .223/5.56 loads if they are for AR’s. There is another process we can fight over.