Can I tumble live rounds?

Tinman204 said:
I wasnt going to post until I keep seeing "pipe bomb" used.

The reason a pipe bomb goes boom is the pipe used is threaded on both ends manin the pressure builds to such a high level that the pipe comes apart and fragments.

A cartridge say builds 45,000 psi ONLY when in a chamber of a firearm. An unchambered round will maybe build a small fraction of that before the bullet is pushed out and the pressure then bleeds off as the powder enters the air..

Hardly a pipe bomb.

I've tumbled live rounds for years and have never had an issue. But thats just me, the manufactures tumble every loaded round before they box them. Been doing that for longer then any of us have been alive.

But again if you aren't comfortable tumbling live ammo that's fine but saying it's dangerous is kinda silly. :)
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It legitimately CAN BE if not done properly in a tumbler of the incorrect type or, as cited in the article? When done excessive amounts of time? Can degrade the propellants and then when you actually PUT IT INTO A FIREARM? That cartridge then behaves in a manner that CAN be loosely described as a pipe bomb going off in one's hand. So no, what I said wasn't BS.
 
TylerM said:
It legitimately CAN BE if not done properly in a tumbler of the incorrect type or, as cited in the article? When done excessive amounts of time? Can degrade the propellants and then when you actually PUT IT INTO A FIREARM? That cartridge then behaves in a manner that CAN be loosely described as a pipe bomb going off in one's hand. So no, what I said wasn't BS.
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We can agree to disagree. I read your article and that is the opinion of the unamed writer and was written to cover any liability me thinks!

We can agree to disagree I'm good with that.

Cheers
 
What a pile of retarded posts...."pipe bombs" and "tumbler could fall"...where the #### is a tumbler sitting on the floor going to fall to?
 
Hitzy said:
What a pile of retarded posts...."pipe bombs" and "tumbler could fall"...where the #### is a tumbler sitting on the floor going to fall to?
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Mine wasn't sitting on the floor and yes, it fell off and hit the concrete pretty damn hard. I'm dead certain I came to within a hair's breadth of letting at least ONE junk of lead fly. Haven't put live rounds in it SINCE!
 
TylerM said:
Mine wasn't sitting on the floor and yes, it fell off and hit the concrete pretty damn hard. I'm dead certain I came to within a hair's breadth of letting at least ONE junk of lead fly. Haven't put live rounds in it SINCE!
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.... think how much a cartridge is jostled... Bumped, and dropped as it makes it from production to use...

Then think how much more the cartridges the military uses are smacked around, dropped, thrown out of vehicles, loaded into mags, unloaded if they weren't fired, repackaged, and process that over and over....

Never heard of one magically going off...

Never had one go off when dropped,

for a fun experiment could someone live-stream a box of 9mm in a tumbler until one goes off? I have a feeling the brass would literally deteriorate before you had a primer go.
 
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Daver_II said:
.... think how much a cartridge is jostled... Bumped, and dropped as it makes it from production to use...

Then think how much more the cartridges the military uses are smacked around, dropped, thrown out of vehicles, loaded into mags, unloaded if they weren't fired, repackaged, and process that over and over....

Never heard of one magically going off...

Never had one go off when dropped,

for a fun experiment could someone live-stream a box of 9mm in a tumbler until one goes off? I have a feeling the brass would literally deteriorate before you had a primer go.
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Look, I don't have video so I'm only gonna say this: DON'T EFFING BUY CHINESE AMMO. Just don't do it.
 
Have you ever cooked off live ammo outside of a gun?

I have. Several thousands of rounds.

It pops like popcorn. Usually the bullet stays in the neck and the case bursts along the side.

I got curios about how much energy was being expended., so I put a sheet of cardboard over the oil can I was burning the ammo in. Never had a fragment penetrate the cardboard.

So if you are worried about setting off a round in a tumbler, stop worrying. I doubt it has ever happened. If it did, you probably would not hear it or notice.

Worry about things that have happened, like an airplane engine falling off while it passes over your house. That is much more likely....
 
Look? How many times do I have to say it? If you are NOT CAREFUL and end up inadvertently altering the powder itself? Especially if we're talking old corroded ammo? You're gonna change the ballistic properties of the ammunition and that could potentially destroy your gun but DON'T WHATEVER YOU DO LISTEN TO A PERSON WHO HAS EXPERIENCE!!!! Please for the love of God whatever you do!
 
TylerM said:
Look? How many times do I have to say it? If you are NOT CAREFUL and end up inadvertently altering the powder itself? Especially if we're talking old corroded ammo? You're gonna change the ballistic properties of the ammunition and that could potentially destroy your gun but DON'T WHATEVER YOU DO LISTEN TO A PERSON WHO HAS EXPERIENCE!!!! Please for the love of God whatever you do!
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We are listening to someone with experience, that would be Ganderite
 
One more thing.

Imagine the vibration powder is subjected to while it's being shipped in a trailer. If powder broke down that much by vibration then there's no way they would ship it by truck.
 
Maybe it's about time this thread gets put to pasture, I have the answer I set out to get, and it seems TylerM is dead set on being the loudest talker in the room despite having weak arguments. Not sure what chinese made ammo has to do with anything....

CGN, where a simple question can turn into a pissing match weeks after the question was answered.
 
When we make powder one of the steps is to tumble it for a few hours with some graphite. The granules are yellow until the graphite.

It does not take very long for the graphite to coat and embed in the powder; a couple hours.

The edges of extruded powders are sharp. This degrades metering qualities. I once left the machine on over night, hoping that the edges would get very rounded. No luck. the granules are quite tough and we could not do much except take a bit of the edge off.

The thought of tumbling a little bit inside a case causing a change in the powder is quite funny.
 
Ganderite said:
When we make powder one of the steps is to tumble it for a few hours with some graphite. The granules are yellow until the graphite.

It does not take very long for the graphite to coat and embed in the powder; a couple hours.

The edges of extruded powders are sharp. This degrades metering qualities. I once left the machine on over night, hoping that the edges would get very rounded. No luck. the granules are quite tough and we could not do much except take a bit of the edge off.

The thought of tumbling a little bit inside a case causing a change in the powder is quite funny.
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I agree with your analysis Ganderite, makes good sense to me.
 
hawk-i said:
I never tried it but I'd be worried about the powder breaking into smaller pieces and maybe changing the burn rating....don't know if that is possible but just a thought.
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^^^This and I would never use someone else's reloads. If grit is in the case mouth, it will be riding the bullet down the barrel.
 
I've had enough. I'm a gonna end this feudin' once and for all. Tonight I'm loading up one of my 3 tumblers with a box full of Win. white box 9mm loaded cartridges.
I'll be switching out tumblers every 12 hours, so as not to overheat the unit and causing detonation. I'll be doing a full month of tumbling. Non-stop.
At the end, I will go out to the club and fire off these rounds. If you don't hear from me on 4/18/2017, assume the worst.
 
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Potshot21 said:
Maybe it's about time this thread gets put to pasture, I have the answer I set out to get, and it seems TylerM is dead set on being the loudest talker in the room despite having weak arguments. Not sure what chinese made ammo has to do with anything....

CGN, where a simple question can turn into a pissing match weeks after the question was answered.
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That's the reason why I rarely start threads here anymore. I find 99% of cgn'ers are good folks but theres always one or two who chime in to every thread and post hearsay or 6th hand knowkedge and refuse to listen or learn anything.

Learning is the soul reason why I'm on here to start with.

Ganderites sig line sums up my feeling about firearms.....theres always a guy who knows way more then me and those are the posts I read VERY carefully. I'll never live long enough to make everyone's mistakes.
 
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