I actually wash & dry bullets first
Absolutely a requirement, even more so with hollow points, due to the lube still left inside from seating the cores. If you don't, eventually everything will become contaminated, with zero chance of proper coating.....BTDT......
I use a dozen liberal squirts of Orange Glow/GOJO hand cleaner & a generous dose of Dawn in a quart yogurt container, dissolved in hot water. Using a 2nd container, pour them back & forth a couple three dozen times, then do it under the running faucet till the water runs clear.
I then dump them in a strainer to drain, then on a towel, and hit them with a blow dryer. A couple minutes of that, they're dry and too hot to handle.
Then off to the tumbler, drop 'em in, and walk away for an hour and a half or so.
One other thing, the number of bullets done at a time is based on the case capacity of the vibrator. If it says it'll hold X amount of whatever brass, weigh a few of those to determine what an average weight is, times their max number, and convert it to grains for bullet capacity, minus the weight of the SS balls. My smaller Midway vibrator I dedicate just for moly plating, I run 25-30,000 grains of bullets, so I dump in two 250 count boxes of 50 gr Ballistic Tips.
