Tumbling fresh reloaded ammo

For removing the lube, try Varsol in the media. I have 2 tubes of media, one with Dillon or Flitz polish in it for dirty brass, the other I add 3-4 capfuls of Varsol just before turning it on. An hour or so is all you need.

In 20 years, I've cleaned at least 100K of 9mm and a few thou .38 Spec. Still have all my fingers, both eyes, fewer feed issues, and guns are easier to clean.
 
When I used my dry tumbler I did it, and never had a single issue, well until my tumbler broke.... Now I use a wet tumbler with SS media and I would strongly advise against tumbling live rounds in a wet tumbler :D
 
All my reloads get dry tumbled when finish, i like a clean dry round... JP.
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I never had a reason to tumble live ammo but I guess I would not be worried about it if I had to.

If loading ammo there is no reason it should not be clean after Ive seated the bullet.
 
Last year I was watching one of those "How that is made" shows where they take you to the factory and show you how a toaster, car or a fax machine is made.

One episode showed an arms factory that made 5.56 Nato ammo. Showed each step and the final step, wait for it, wait for it ...............................................................the ammo was vibrate tumbled in a huge bowl with what looked like ceramic media. Then the announcer said that after a short while the bowl was emptied and the ammo slid down a ramp onto a conveyor belt to be packaged.
 
Unregistered_ said:
http://forums.accuratereloading.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/2511043/m/602103723

You can read through that!
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I'll save everyone the bother and post what I think is a highlight.

BS! Some jamoke on another forum was aguing that it would NOT cause any powder deterioration, the paranoid people insisted it would. So he set out to do an experiment. He loaded a bunch of shells with a fast powder in a large case so as to be like an 85% load density. Plenty of room for the powder to move around inside the case. IIRC it was WW ball powder. he kept some out of the tumbler for a control, then proceeded to tumble the rest. A vibratory tumbler was used. He removed shells after a week, and so on till he tested the last ones after 1 MONTH! They were shot over a chronograph and at a target for groups, then the control shells were tested alongside. NO DIFFERENCE in either velocity or group size.

Ah ha! I found the forum afor mentioned.
tumbler test
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Guaranteed this will not be good enough for some.
 
Pathfinder said:
I never had a reason to tumble live ammo but I guess I would not be worried about it if I had to.

If loading ammo there is no reason it should not be clean after Ive seated the bullet.
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Whenloading high volumes a lot of people lube the cases, especially in progressive presses. The lube remains on the case after the projectile is seated and crimped, hense why some people tumble.

I've never tumbled any of my single stage loaded rifle rounds, but everything that comes off the progressive presses gets tossed into the tumbler for awhile.
 
Wade Kirk said:
For removing the lube, try Varsol in the media. I have 2 tubes of media, one with Dillon or Flitz polish in it for dirty brass, the other I add 3-4 capfuls of Varsol just before turning it on. An hour or so is all you need.

In 20 years, I've cleaned at least 100K of 9mm and a few thou .38 Spec. Still have all my fingers, both eyes, fewer feed issues, and guns are easier to clean.
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That's a great idea! thanks
 
Not sure about the Varsol idea. I have a Lyman Turbo Pro 1200, wouldn`t the varsol have an effect on the plastic tub??? And what about the effects of varsol on the Hornady V-max bullets with the plastic tips?
 
darcy32171 said:
Not sure about the Varsol idea. I have a Lyman Turbo Pro 1200, wouldn`t the varsol have an effect on the plastic tub??? And what about the effects of varsol on the Hornady V-max bullets with the plastic tips?
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Varsol is pretty friendly with a number of plastics, especially those designed for chemical contact.
 
randas said:
Some grumpy old bugger will be along soon to lecture you on the old wives tale how tumbling loaded ammo is dangerous,

But the reality is it is fine to do. I tumble every round I load, I've done thousands
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Right another Urban Myth debunked here on the WWW.
What possibly could go wrong??
But, I am sure you will be the first to tell us after the first accidental primer strike, right?
Rob
 
Ok So I just tumbled a batch of freshly loaded of 303 rounds topped with 165gr cast bullets. Came out fine... I have all digits and my garage is still standing. After 2 hrs of vibrating in corn cob media the cases came out clean (no surprise there) and the boolits are mostly lube free! I like!

The only down side is that the lead bullets come out a dull and dark grey (almost exactly like the wheel weights looked before I smelted them down). On the other hand when I rub the lube off with a rag, they come out a shinny silver. Oh well, its a small price to pay for my savings in elbow grease.
 
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This is good to know, as my reloading manual had me afraid to try it. I have some surplus 7.62x25 ammo that is filthy and cleaning it by hand would be more work than I wanted to do.
 
Gonna try tumbling my lead bullets cast with Lee TL molds, lubed with alox. Makes a mess of my 1911 after about 200 rnds. Cleaning is a b!tch.

Anyone else with experience tumbling alox Lee TL lead cast bullets.
 
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