OT- cleaning loaded ammo

[pwl44m]

Sit back and listen and save Yourself from asking a seemingly dumb question. Didn't want to steal YKs thread.
I have some older ammo that would look a lot better cleaned up. So I was wondering if U Guys cleaned Yours in Your tumbler ? I questioned it to Myself on the theory that U wouldn't want bullets banging against primers. Someone said it was supposed to be a No No. So what's the Verdict. To Tumble or Not to Tumble- that is the Question.

[OldWin]

I had heard the danger of this was changing the granulation or removing the coating in regards to the powder

[pwl44m]

Now it is more clear, I didn't quite understand in YKs thread. Kinda like 2f and 4f huh.I didn't think about that, I was just thinking on the lines of Primer detonation.

[OldWin]

I heard this years ago and it kind of stayed in the back of my mind cause it sounds like something I would do, haha. I'm sure different powders would react differently/not at all. Probably a call to the manufacturer could clear it up.

[fordwannabe]

I have had this situation on occasion, I usually put the round in a lee case trimmer in my drill and slowly turn the round while holding a cloth to the round, sometimes I even need to put a dab of a cleaner on the cloth, but usually not. Mothers mag wheel polish on a rag is what I use in conguction with the hand drill routine if I want some really nicely polished brass(I only do this to empty brass though). Tom

[OldWin]

Tom,

Funny you mentioned that as I have done that also. I have done it with loaded ammo but spin it slowly with a variable drill. I use a dab of Noxon on a rag.

[J Miller]

I have tumbled live ammo in a vibratory cleaner. There was no unusual occurrences when I fired it off.

If the ammo is just dirty or tarnished I wipe it off and shoot it. Tarnishing and a little dirtiness don't hurt the shooting of it.

Joe

[damienph]

I am not advocating cleaning ammo in your tumbler but... I have cleaned in my Lyman Turbo and shot with no noticeable ill effects (at least by me) 222, 223, 303Brit, 308, 30-06, 44Mag and 45ACP. I don't believe that a primer could be struck hard enough in MY tumbler to detonate. As far as affecting the powder, I honestly had never thought of that. Maybe I've just been lucky, both with primers and powder.

I've also used an electric drill, Lee trimmer shell holder and a 3M green Scotchbrite pad/or steel wool to clean serious tarnish/stains off of cases before tumbling. Saves alot of tumbling time.

[Hobie]

I have two hands and time to wipe the cartridges down if they need it. Might I ask HOW the cartridges got dirty?

[pwl44m]

I have two hands and time to wipe the cartridges down if they need it. Might I ask HOW the cartridges got dirty?

Loose Ammo from here and there. Staying in Ammo Belts too long, routine stuff. Some not so dirty just would look better shiny not that an Animal or the Gun would know the difference, I Just like Purty stuff.lol

[damienph]

All of the ammo that I have tumbled has been older factory stuff that I've aquired from where/whoever.

I have collected alot of old brass over the years, some of which has very dark stains or tarnish (not corrosion). The stuff that I tumble will not come clean wiping down by hand.

What can I say, I like my brass clean and shiney.

[Mike D.]

I have cleaned dirty ammo in my tumbler MANY times with no ill effects of any sort. The worries about cleaning loaded ammunition in a vibrating tumbler is much to do about nothing.

[JB]

I have cleaned dirty ammo in my tumbler MANY times with no ill effects of any sort. The worries about cleaning loaded ammunition in a vibrating tumbler is much to do about nothing.

I agree. I've tumbled quite a bit of old tarnished ammo that I've used for displays.

[earlmck]

A fellow I knew some 15 years ago loaded handgun ammo for sale using cast bullets and fired cases. He finished his loaded rounds off by tumbling in a cement mixer! (I don't know what his tumbler medium was) These obviously were some large batches. They looked good and shot fine.

[damienph]

[quote="earlmck"]A fellow I knew some 15 years ago finished his loaded rounds off by tumbling in a cement mixer! /quote]


Wait... Shouldn't this be posted in the "Best Heard Exaggerations" thread?

[Ben_Rumson]

I posted this in YK's topic
I too have vibe cleaned loaded mil surp ammo and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary on that batch. However I have shied away from doing it because I have read advice not to do it. The advice said some powders have deterrent coatings to slow their burn rate . The coatings retard the initial ignition of the individual powder grains, vibe cleaning the ammo could affect the coating and therefore the burn rate...Also the coatings are supposed to decrease burn temperature to reduce throat erosion.
Vibe cleaning live rounds would sure make it easy to remove lube from cases that needed it..

[mikld]

muved from de udder topic...

Tumbling/vibrating loaded ammo is a much discussed topic on some reloading forums. One side says don't do it; cleaning this way will change the charistics of the powder and may cause over pressure loads. The other side says do it as the manufacturers clean all their ammo this way and the gov't. ships ammo allover the world (subject to hours and hours of vibrating/jostling/bouncing in shipment) with no problems. One member of a forum stated he forgot some rifle ammo in a wobbler cleaner and ran it for overnight. No apperant changes in velocity (over his chrono). I don't have an opinion on this subject 'cause my reloaded ammo is clean, and I don't have any old ammo thay may need cleaning...

[Ysabel Kid]

I had never tried this until last year. I purchased some mil-surp .303 British that had some green funk on it. I asked here, and several people recommended tumbler cleaning it, from personal experience. I was a bit leary as well, but it worked fine with no problems when shooting the rounds. I'm not saying that this would work with every powder; I'm sure some might be sensitive or break down. Still, with mil-surp stuff, you'd hope it would be robust enough to handle a few hours in a tumbler.

I'm not saying it can't happen, but considering how tough primers are, and the lack of momentum a round could build up in a tumbler, the odds of one round causing another to go off have got to be pretty darn small!

[AJMD429]

Probably a call to the manufacturer could clear it up.

In our litigious society, I'd be surprised if they'd say it was 'ok'....

Doesn't mean it isn't OK, but getting them to SAY it is is yet another thing...

[Ysabel Kid]

Probably a call to the manufacturer could clear it up.

In our litigious society, I'd be surprised if they'd say it was 'ok'....

Doesn't mean it isn't OK, but getting them to SAY it is is yet another thing...

In out litigious society, I'd be surprised if the ammunition manufacturing would recommend you actually shoot their ammo!

[Grizzly Adams]

I tumble 44-40 ammo in order to remove the sizing lube. No more than 10 minutes does the job. No problems, and there is no change whatsoever in the performance of the loads.

When cleaning brass only, I use ceramic media and water. I tumbled a couple of 38 spl loads by mistake once, and discovered them when I was spreading the brass out to dry. Figured they where rendered "inert." Out of curiosity, I loaded them in a pistol and they fired normally. They had been submersed and tumbled for at least 4 hours!

[GonnePhishin]

An article in the latest SASS magazine addresses the same problem. To make it short and sweet; it is NOT recommended to tumble loaded rounds due to the fact the tumbling action can cause the granulated power to break down and become very fine like dust and can cause erratic firing characteristics.

[Hook]

Read an article about this many years ago that referred to loading bottlenecked ammo in progressive loaders (think Dillon). To utilize a progressive fully, it's pretty much necessary to run the brass through it without taking it out after sizing to remove the sizing lube. That means the loaded round kicked out the end has lube on it.

Now Mr. Dillon has a fondness for machine guns of every sort and even built his own fighter plane with multiple machine guns to play with on his estate out in the desert. He loads for these guns in increments of hundreds of thousands of rounds and blasts away until they're all gone...then does it again. There used to be videos of his games available, and could still be.

The point was that he emphatically stated that vibratory cleaning of these loaded rounds was perfectly acceptable and that he did it with all his reloads with no issues. I've got a feeling he knows what he's talking about and he would be highly vulnerable to legal action if he advised a faulty process using his machines.

I load only cleaned brass and have never knowingly placed loaded ammo in a vibratory cleaner. I don't think I ever will, either.

[earlmck]

Interesting topic about something I'd never even thought about. But now I can see that maybe several hours in a tumbler could rub some coating off the powder in cartridges with low to medium loading density. Can't see it happening at all with a high loading density. And there's just no way you'd ever set off a primer.

With my loading procedures for most of my life, there would never have been any reason to tumble loaded rounds, but now that I succumbed a couple of years ago to Mr. Hornady's "free bullets if you'll buy the press" deal, I can see that occasionally it will be a nice option for getting the sizing lube off a large batch of progressive-loaded ammo. Between carbide dies, Lee's mandrel-neck dies, and neck-inserts I have so far avoided mixing lubed cases with progressive loading, but there are times when it would be a good labor-saving option. Any good advice for a tumbler medium for removing the lube? I use the old-style tumbler, and would be thinking of something that'd take just a few minutes to remove the lube. I don't need them to be shiny...

[Ben_Rumson]

The up side to removing residual lube by hand is a natural final inspection of the rounds..