Tumbling bullets to reshine them

[Potashminer]

Some years ago I sold my walnut media vibrating tumbler. I replaced that with a rotary stainless pin tumbler - which works just excellent for cleaning up brass, I think.

I pulled some hand loads - bullets looked pretty grungy - tossed those lead tip spitzer bullets in a cycle with stainless pins, Dawn dish soap and lemi-shine with some brass - I thought about nothing to loose if the exposed lead tips got wiped out - did not appear to - bullets looked fine.

Now I am looking at similar with nylon tipped bullets - there are Ballistic Tip - I think like Accubond - and was wondering what will happen if I repeat that move - will water get behind those tips and get silly?

Or can I polish bullets in a rotary tumbler with just a dry media and no water?

I am pretty sure I saw a picture in a main line bullet maker's manual - Hornady? Sierra? Nosler? - where they had like a cement mixer machine with media and bullets getting polished - is sort of what I am thinking to try - but maybe only 100 bullets in total of various calibers - some are "tarnished", but some have definite "corrosion" showing. If I can clean them, I thought to stow in zip-loc type sealed plastic bags so air and air-borne moisture can not get at them.

Any experience at this appreciated to hear about.

 

[yomomma]

1. I wouldn't have a second thought about wet tumbling them. Might be inclined to leave them on a heat register for a day or two c.y.a

2. If you are going to stick them in a seal bag I would throw in some desicant...

 

[I Dont Care About You]

Now I am looking at similar with nylon tipped bullets - there are Ballistic Tip - I think like Accubond - and was wondering what will happen if I repeat that move - will water get behind those tips and get silly.

What do you expect water is going to do to elemental lead?

 

[Potashminer]

What do you expect water is going to do to elemental lead?

What I see on some of the bullets - at the end of the jacket where it nominally contacts that nylon tip - is what appears to be swelled corrosion. Several have that most all the way around that contact joint between jacket and that tip - I presume elemental lead plus water creates a different kind of lead compound? I do not know. On the cross section drawings on the Nosler boxes - shows an air space between the tip, the jacket and the leading surface of the lead, and then the hole that is bored into the front of the lead is shown to be deeper than that nylon tip - so if water can get in there - it can at least freeze and expand, which I presume would push that tip forward, if not push outward on the bullet? But I have not yet sawed through any of them to see for myself how they were made - just going from that Nosler drawing.

In picture below, should be able to see that cross section drawing on the Nosler bullet box:



The sketch of cross section of that bullet from Nosler Reloading Guide, 5th Edition - page 9 also shows those "air spaces".

 

[kamlooky]

I taws'd in four bullets with the last load of 300 Savage.
Tern'd owt shiney like the brass...........once I gawt the gawl darn things owt the brass.
Couldn't pull them out.
Had to yewse the hammer sort bullet remover.
Oww the fruck'in things gartzs in there is beyawnd me kawmpreehenshun.

 

[Potashminer]

Yep - I did a batch perhaps last summer or summer before - perhaps 100 x 308 Win and about 30 bullets pulled from someone's hand-loaded 300 Weatherby Mag - I think they were all Hornady brand bullets, but of at least three weights - and at least half of them took up residence inside a casing - and several took in a few steel pins and was NO WAY they were coming out, until I resorted to an inertial hammer one by one to pound them out - my lesson to watch out what gets mixed into same load - DO NOT want one thing that can go inside another thing in the same load, especially a close fit that a single stainless pin can wedge it in there. I presume that a fired 308 Win had expended its neck enough to let go of a .308" bullet, so therefore was smidgeon enough room for another .308" bullet to go back inside.

 

[FLHTCUI]

I taws'd in four bullets with the last load of 300 Savage.
Tern'd owt shiney like the brass...........once I gawt the gawl darn things owt the brass.
Couldn't pull them out.
Had to yewse the hammer sort bullet remover.
Oww the fruck'in things gartzs in there is beyawnd me kawmpreehenshun.

Why dint you uze the wooden spoons or forks ?
Wonder if they will be any easier to run through the die after a shinning in the tumbler too?
Rob

 

[Raton57]

For interest sake toss one after being wet in the freezer see what happens.

 

[I Dont Care About You]

What I see on some of the bullets - at the end of the jacket where it nominally contacts that nylon tip - is what appears to be swelled corrosion. Several have that most all the way around that contact joint between jacket and that tip - I presume elemental lead plus water creates a different kind of lead compound? I do not know. On the cross section drawings on the Nosler boxes - shows an air space between the tip, the jacket and the leading surface of the lead, and then the hole that is bored into the front of the lead is shown to be deeper than that nylon tip - so if water can get in there - it can at least freeze and expand, which I presume would push that tip forward, if not push outward on the bullet? But I have not yet sawed through any of them to see for myself how they were made - just going from that Nosler drawing.

Did you skip high-school chemistry? Water + lead = water + lead. The worst that could happen would be oxidation of lead to lead-oxide, but that won't penetrate past any exposed surface and realistically the amount of dissolved O2 in the teeny tiny amount of water that could get into the space between the hollow point and the poly tip would be minimal.

Freezing? Where the hell are you storing your bullets? Or conversely, don't store your bullets outside in freezing weather. That would seem to be a pretty simple way to avoid any problems.

Has it occurred that you are WILDLY overthinking the issue?

 

[Potashminer]

For sure it is possible / probable that I am "over thinking" this - it happens. As far as freezing, about 4 to 6 months here in Manitoba is below freezing temp, at least for part of the day or night - just taking the rifle out for a walk is about guaranteed to have everything frozen, including the ammo in the rifle, for a good part of the year.

Two pictures below:

This is the bullets I want to clean up - on left are 3 "new" ones that I do not find anything odd about them - on right are three that show that "crap" that might be oozing out from under the nylon tip - laying centre below is about the worst one. The colour lead me to think some lead corrosion - maybe is some glue coming out?

There are about 25 or so that were pulled - tarnished - not shiny. And about 80 plus that have that "crap" to some extent or another around the base of the tip. I do not know how or where they were stored - I received them, as they are, earlier this week.



Below are a few .338" 225 Accubond - likely earlier (older) ones - various Internet says they had troubles to keep the tips in, but Nosler claimed to since resolve that issue. In the four in centre, the tips were laying in the plastic liner in the box of bullets - losing those tips is what I was trying to avoid happening on the Ballistic Tip bullets - or maybe they make no difference at all.

There was perhaps a dozen Accubond bullets in some boxes that had lost their tips in shipment (I presume). I used a lot of them to "walk" bullet holes to aiming point at 100 yards - could not see any evidence that they flew to different place at that distance, with or without the tip. Is several more sealed boxes here - I do not know what I will find when I finally get to open them.



As mentioned in my OP - I am wondering how I might remove that crap from those Ballistic Tip bullets - I was thinking to use my system for tumbling cases - just not certain if doing so "wet", with stainless pins, is a good plan or not.

 

[Butcherbill]

I’d probably try some in a vibratory tumbler, or chuck one up in a cordless drill and use some 0000 steel wool or a green scotch brite pad to clean off whatever is at the tip. Vibratory tumbling shouldn’t do anything bad to them provided you aren’t loading it to the nines with bullets or casings as well, I’d worry about damage if there was a lot of things for them to come in contact with.

 

[Potashminer]

Butcherbill - that may be what happens here. I might have to re-acquire a vibratory tumbler, media, etc. if I want shiny, clean bullets - if that media stuff will not work in a rotary tumbler for bullets with that nylon ("polycarbonate") tip. Something that I do not know. Why I asked if others had done so, or not, or knew of a reason why not to try it.

 

[Butcherbill]

Butcherbill - that may be what happens here. I might have to re-acquire a vibratory tumbler, media, etc. if I want shiny, clean bullets - if that media stuff will not work in a rotary tumbler for bullets with that nylon ("polycarbonate") tip. Something that I do not know. Why I asked if others had done so, or not, or knew of a reason why not to try it.

I bet walnut media in a rotary tumbler would work just as well, that’s pretty much what those small tumblers are that they sell for lapidary purposes. I have one I plan on using for cast buckshot etc, it’s just a much smaller version of a Frankford Arsenal wet tumbler. Came with a couple different polishing compounds, a friend was getting rid of it. Her kid wasn’t all that interested in tumbling rocks anymore.

Oh by the way, I’m pretty sure I just saw that Princess Auto has a vibratory tumbler in their last sale flyer. Worth looking at if it’s reasonably priced, used the flyer to light the wood stove the other day so I can’t price check it lol.

 

[B]

I have stainless tumbled thousands upon thousands of bullets. I bought a ton of .357 plated bullets, they were cheap as dirt but were covered in nasty grime. 5 minutes in the tumbler and they looked better than new. Beyond that I have also done it to shine up all the pulled bullets from "scrap" ammo I used to buy. It works great.

Lead tips, poly, whatever. I just tossed it all in and ran the tumbler for 5 minutes. I never needed any longer. If you are worried about water in the wrong place just give them time to dry somewhere air is usually moving or help it along as yomomma suggested.

I have done it with loaded ammo too. I have never run into any issues but since it still makes me a bit apprehensive, I tend to only do it to stuff that would just not be fit to chamber otherwise.

 

[Potashminer]

I ran into some issues by forgetting to "unlock" my VISA card at the bank - when I attempted to order some crushed walnut media from Amazon.ca. Was none available to buy at three stores in town - so have to get that figured out how to get some. In mean time, that "worst" bullet from Post #10 - I could feel that "stuff" was rough on its surface - so invented a holder and spun it in a drill with fine steel wool - that made it smooth. but did not remove it - left fine scratch marks on the bullet jacket. Then tried to "dissolve" it with acetone - did not melt the "polycarbonate" tip, which was good, but did nothing for that "stuff" at all. A picture of that same bullet as from Post #10, after my attention:

 

[Butcherbill]

I take it you don’t have a Princess Auto nearby or they were one of the places that was out of walnut media? The other place I’ve seen it is at pet supply stores, crushed walnut is used for reptile bedding. Smaller bags so not as cost effective as PA but if you only need a bit it would work in a pinch.

Odd that steel wool did nothing, can you pick it off? I’d try some fine grit wet dry paper while in the drill to get it smoothed out, if it’s on there that well stainless pins might be the winner.

 

[Biologist]

I have never had this bullet corrosion problem, so just guessing here with a suggestion:

I was initially wondering if chucking in a drill would dent the bullet jacket? But it sounds like you have a drill holder that works good for spinning the bullet, so....what about spinning it with a rag soaked in CLR? If the rag alone does not work, maybe let the CLR soak in for for a period, then spin with a fine scotchbrite.

If it works, rinse the bullets in hot water to make sure that CLR is washed out of the tip. CLR as I understand is acid, so if its stays in there under the tip its maybe going to keep corroding lead and copper.

Once rinsed, maybe soak in 99.9% isopropyl to drive out the water, then dry bullets on rack, or hit it lightly with a heat gun. Maybe spray and wipe with Ballistol to get it into the gap under the tip.

 

[sharp shooter]

I've cleaned many bullets in corn cob media and it worked really well. Only problem is that bigger bullets will really grind up your medial.

 

[Potashminer]

My wife was in to a local "city" today that had a "pet shop" - came home with some crushed walnut shell stuff - brand name is "Zilla" - "Desert Blend Ground English Walnut Shells" - appears to be made to be used as bedding or litter for reptiles in a terrarium. Somebody on Internet suggested 75% fill is best for polishing in a rotary tumbler, so I filled the barrel on my rotary tumbler about that full and dumped in about 100 of those Ballistic Tip bullets that had various issues - tarnish, spots, that grunge coming out from under the tip. After going for an hour, bullets that I checked appear to be getting shinier - those that I picked out that had that grunge, still have it, although it is smoother than it was - so is back to go for another couple hours now.

 

[Potashminer]

So, my "tale of woe" continues. In total, the bullets in picture below have gone through 4 x 3 hour cycles in rotary tumbler with that "Zilla" brand ground walnut shell - and the grunge oozing out from under the "polycarbonate tip" has not been removed on 55 of them - has been made much smoother, but not removed. So, is to be seen by shooting some of them, what difference they now produce on targets. My "head" says the weight should be different, the balance should be altered - but I do not know if my made-in-1983 rifle and my 67 year old shooting ability can show that the difference matters.

Besides these 55 shown in picture, there are 24 that I think are "new", 22 that I can identify as "pulled", 15 that have "spots" on the body but nothing coming out from the tips, and 16 that appear to be cleaned - no spots, and no grunge - so 77 total of those. I made the mistake of mixing two batches together that came from two sources - that turned out to be not a smart thing to do, as I am no longer certain that I have got them all re-sorted back to their original batches.

The last 55 that came out of the rotary drum this morning: I still do not know what that dark crap is.