Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Tumble cleaning loaded rounds?

I've heard of others doing this but always wondered if this would break down the powder granules. Do any of you have more info on this practice?

Have you ever disassembled a loaded round after tumbling to compare the powder with fresh powder from the canister?

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/98...re_test__UPDATE__fired_rounds_in_OP.html

Long read, but very well executed.

I would not tumble loaded rounds!

Seriously?...........

Fu cking stupid and you don't have to be a gunwriter to know that...

Thanks, your answer (and the article) addressed the exact issue I was wondering about.

The myth of negative effects of vibrating loaded ammunition has been debunked many times. Tumbling may add a minuscule chance for a detonation from a primer strike inside the tumbler, but I doubt you could make it happen if you tried.

If vibration did deteriorate powder, you would have to ship factory ammunition like Nitro Glycerin due to the vibration of hours and hours of handling and trucking the ammunition...

My first thought was that you would lose any bullet to case concentricity (SP?). Mudddy

I like a guy that gets right to the point!

Why?

Can't think of an upside.
On the other hand, there are several possible downsides.
With that, I would pass.

been doing it for 30+ years to remove sizing lube. never a problem.

if anybody here can point me to a link where tumbling reloads ever caused a problem I'm all ears. I've looked and can't fine one. I did find out all commercial reloaders tumble their loaded ammo. one guy said his company tumbled their ammo in cement mixers.

you can also read the link Vic posted or just listen to the guessers here...

I tumble after I re-size. Cant see the benefit to doing it after I load. That aint guessing.
Seems to me that fine abrasive left on bukkets can;t do the bore any good.
But hey, if it works for you, by all means carry on.

Tumble brass?

the benefit is press priming while resizing, thus eliminating handling the brass for a separate step.

tell me more about this left over abrasive that the corncob won't pick up,

One powder company executive pointed out a few years ago that the powder they received had been “tumbled” for days or even weeks before they received it, by trains, trucks and even ships. Then they repackaged the powder in smaller containers and tumbled it even more by sending it around the country in more trains and trucks. And it’s going to break down further by spending an hour or two in some handloader’s tumbler?

As for the possibility of a primer going off, the classic Lee Loader primes cases by essentially hammering the bottom of the case over a primer. If this is done reasonably carefully, with the primer centered in the case pocket, it’s perfectly safe. Otherwise Lee would have been sued into oblivion years ago. And somehow the relatively gentle action of a case tumbler is going to make a primer go bang?

All the rifle ammo I load on my Dillon gets tumbled to get the lube off.

223 loaded on my Dillon gets about 15 minutes in corncob to take off the lube (Dillon spray lube and carbide 223 FL die). Never had an issue...

I loaded some 223 with two different powders years ago. I tumbled a few of each powder type for about an hour and then shot 10 or each for comparison. Average velocity wasn't significantly different but the edge in variation went to the tumbled stuff. (Perhaps the mild 'peening' action relieved stress in the brass. )

I rather suspect there would be substantial reports of rifle blow-ups from the far north where ammo sometimes gets transported for hundreds of miles across rock-hard snow via unsuspensioned sleds. Soft point bullets sometimes have 'pancake' noses if you put them in common plastic ammo boxes. If the action which hammers those lead noses flat isn't hurting the powder, I serious doubt a brief run in a tumbler could.

Tumbler grit - if you're using anything other than plain cob- is probably a lesser concern than the courser grit which lube might attract. And lube on cases probably has greater potential to damage a rifle than the really fine grit found in cases polish anyway.

If you worry about tumbling, this works great. Polish while you watch TV.

It would take a mini-series for me. It's not unusual to have close to 200 .30-06 for my Garand, about the same or more 5.56, and now a bunch of .30 Carbine.

Throw sporting ammo into the mix. But that could probably be done by your method. I usually shoot 50 or so of them before I process the brass.

I wouldn't be astounded to find a difference between tumbler and vibrator in the field despite our confounding them in current usage.

I've done it in a tumbler with no ill effects. In the old days I used actual chads - from a TWX machine - to remove lube and for a final cleanup - especially greasy cast loads. The chads were free and so replaced often, could use a dab of mineral spirits and keep the pricey walnut and rouge mix cleaner.

On the other hand, there is at least one, and it only takes one, inadvertent very long term test that resulted in a kaboom and remaining loads when torn down had more or less powdered an originally log powder. Reports I saw did not mention ether small or other signs of powder chemical decomposition - they may have been there.

Lackadaisical efforts to repeat it within a reasonable time frame found no effect. I suspect but do not know that it may take a long time to start and then go to completion in a hurry. Then again it may have been simply a long term storage at varying temperatures and conditions leading to a normal chemical rather than mechanical breakdown with the conclusion that because the cartridges had been shaken a very long time the shaking was responsible.

There was a filler in an old American Rifleman reprinted in one of the compilations about building a tumbler with a barrel and a washing machine motor that emphasized tumbling the barrel end over end rather than rotating for faster results.

I'd suggest that the powder being transported is at worst being vibrated into settling down - like a cereal box label that says some settling may occur - and not being turned end for end with lots of air space. I'm not sure considered as tests they are in fact valid for other conditions.

When I've seen cement mixers used it was fairly slow and the ammunition was not carried very far up the side before rolling back down - there was plenty of corn cob to cushion.

Bottom line I do tumble - and would vibrate - I have both. I don't get too violent about it. I don't do it very long.

was shooting with a young fella and he asked if I wanted some surplus ammo. 1000 rounds. someone had told him that all the shipping over the years had probably made it unstable. tried to explain reality to him(not very hard) and he insisted so I accepted the gift. nice FA ammo. won a few matches with it.
I have tumbled loaded ammo for close to fifty years and have seen no bad.

we are not sure why.. IE I ate a ham sandwich and it rained 15 mintues later Steelhead thing...

But surplus tarnished ammo we had a guy tumble it for a couple of days until it was clean enough to work in an AR. Had 2 overpressure rounds.. one blew a mag out of the well..

I'm not at all sure that it wasn't possibly the bullet welded to the neck more than anything though...

And the same guy tumbled stuff so long he even had a round go off somehow...

Thats what you get for trying to save a dime... IMHO.

I don't worry much, but I have pulled down a couple boxes of ammo I fou nd in my glove box that were there for 20 years or so of driving... and I knew it was not a full charge density load... there was some "flour" in those cases....

I would think if you have 100% load density or a compressed load, no problem. If you have air space and tumble the stuff for days on end you could have a problem.

If the granules of propellant are ground down into a fine powder, they will burn faster than when in their original shape, or if a ball powders with a deterrent coating is rubbed off it will burn faster. The question is how much tumbling would be required to alter the powder enough to cause a pressure spike?

Seems like a waste of money when you're sitting on several yards of high quality material.

I interviewed Dave Emery from Hornady on this subject a few years ago, his answer mirrored what JB posted. Powder comes on a ship from Australia or Sweden. Powder loaded in ammo flying around in military helicopters gets vibrated to death. It won't "break down the granules" or any other BS.

If you want to do it, do it.

Walnut media will sometimes get into HP or Barnes mono metal open tip bullets. Other than that, no worries.