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

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.