tumbling loaded rifle bullets without damaging bullets

[tightgroup tiger]

I respect your opinion the same as others and factor it into the mix.

You won't have to tell me you told me so, because I won't be tumbling loaded rifle shells in my rotary tumbler any more because it is just to ruinous to the tips.

I will continue to put my 9mm loads through it for 15 minutes or so to get the lube off of them because of two recomendation from:

RC model: quote: "your gun will thank your for it" in a previous question I had about cleaning off lube on 9mm shells in a straight blow back action.

and
Walkalong; who provided this excellent post from years ago about He and Snuffy tumbling pistol loaded pistol loads for 48 hours continuously with no problems and proving that it had no effect on the outcome of pressure problems from powder breakdown or bullet setback.

I am an "Industrial Electrical and Controls" guy, and have been in engineering my whole life in Electrical and Mechanical both and I also understand faraday
principles,

I know that the new tumblers are mostly plastic with no static guard built into them, I built the rotary tumbler I use 25 yrs ago and have static guard built into it because I am using a steel drum on insulated rollers.

I also tumble in my garage here in hot and humid North Carolina which in itself is a static guard vs an air conditioned dry enviroment that spawns static.

I heed your warnings as I do everyones but I don't think I'm in jeopardy by tumbling loaded shells under these conditions, short of beating up my bullet tips. I will have to get a vibratory tumbler to minimize this.

Under different conditions, such as super dry environments, poor electrical grounding and the like, I would go by the old addage that "anything can and will happen, and will adversly affect the outcome" therum.

I feel tumbling pistol shells in my rotary tumbler for only 15 minutes or so is safe for me under my conditions. Rifle shells I will pass on in the future in this tumbler.

I appreciate your concerns and it's what I would expect to see on this forum from concerned members.

thank you.
TT

 

[EddieNFL]

I don't want to start a war here, as the advisability of tumbling loaded rounds has been debated as hotly as 5.56 vs. .223, etc. I see no problem tumbling fairly new factory ammo or recent reloads. Tumbling surplus ammo, though, can cause problems- if you have ever opened up a .303 and seen the cordite "sticks", for example, that can break down or seen extremely old surplus' cartridge powdery contents after a few seasons of hot/cold exposure and some shaking, it may give you pause. There have been a few reports of unusually extreme recoil or muzzle flash, and some signs of high pressure, in cases like these.

Again, just sayin'. Stay safe.

If you can post links to factual cases, not just internet lore, you will be a hero. This argument has been around longer than the internet and nothing more than rumor has materialized, so far.

More than a few (such as Walkalong above) have tried to breakdown powder using vibratory tumblers; no joy, yet.

 

[FROGO207]

For my part how can anyone possibly shoot that bling in their firearm after all the care to get to shine like the sun anyway! I would feel the guilt for weeks to come if I did that. I polish mine slightly to put a film on the brass to prevent corrosion/tarnish for long term storage of ammo only. No real need otherwise unless to remove lube in this way as opposed to wiping it down with a cleaner. Those are the crown jewels of the 9MM world IMHO

 

[tightgroup tiger]

Those came out of my homemade rotary tumbler that way after 20 minutes to get the lube off . I just wiped off the dust.

I clean my brass in a sonic cleaner before I load them, to keep the dirt out of my dies, then tumble them right after they're loaded to get the rest of the lube off.

I have to admit they are still setting on my counter where I can see them everytime I walk out there.

They do shoot very well and for SD purposes, I hope they will be here a long time.

 

[Sport45]

Tumbling surplus ammo, though, can cause problems- if you have ever opened up a .303 and seen the cordite "sticks", for example, that can break down or seen extremely old surplus' cartridge powdery contents after a few seasons of hot/cold exposure and some shaking, it may give you pause. There have been a few reports of unusually extreme recoil or muzzle flash, and some signs of high pressure, in cases like these.

Sounds to me like those would have been bad with or without tumbling. Nobody is saying tumbling will make bad ammo better.

 

[shooter_from_show-me]

Is it time for me to upgrade my tumbler and what would be a good choice in the vibrating type?

I bought a Cabela's brand unit, it is made by Berry's MFG in Utah for them. Have had it for 3 years now and still running strong.

 

[dragon813gt]

I have a Frankford Arsenal. It's a few years old and still going strong. There are days(in a row) where it runs continuously with the only breaks being to empty it. I can't recommend their media separator. It throws the media all over. The enclosed units are a better option.


Brought to you by TapaTalk.

 

[FROGO207]

^^^^^If you SLOWLY rotate the separator a few turns then rock it back and forth 1/4 turn each way from the bottom about 7 times the media will stay mostly inside the bucket with little mess and not any media left in the brass save some of the primer pockets if using large size media. This is my experience with mine. Spinning it fast just made a large mess on the floor.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

My home made tumbler uses a one gallon steel can with a lid, it doesn't leak, granted, it may spin to fast and that also isn't helping my cause. I will take another picture of it and post it here if I can get the photo to up load.

For pistol rounds and empty cases of any kind it works superb and has been for around 20 years now.

I could slow it down more by putting a larger driven pulley on it but it works really well for what I built it for.

I would sooner buy a second one and leave that one the way it is.

As RC Model said, the act of the cartridges falling from top to bottom is what is beating up my tips even when 2/3 full of media.
The 30-06 shells have to much mass and fall to hard, 9mms are much lighter and just don't have enough impact from falling to do any damage.

I've seen vidios of the vibratory tumblers in action and the shells move all over the place but don't fall as in a rotary.

I'd like to polish up some of my older hunting rounds but don't want to damage them either. I don't want or expect them to look like "Crown Jewels" for hunting, but the cases are starting to look rough.

I uploaded pics of my tumbler, you will see why it's so agressive.

 

[bowyer19]

The NRA has had warnings against tumbling loaded ammunition as the tumbling can change the powder granule size or mess with deterrent coatings changing the powder burning rate and making the ammunition DANGEROUS!

 

[tightgroup tiger]

Well, I'm not using my rotory any more for tumbling anything but newly made pistol rounds to get the lube off of them.

They are only in there for about 10 minutes. My rotory is a little to violent for my rifle shells. I could just hand polish them to get the scunge off of them if they get to bad, but I'll probaly just put them back in the cabinet and not worry about them.