Can primed brass be tumbled?

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pilot24

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or live rounds as a matter of fact, I have a few that are still full of sizing lube..
Just don't want the thing to go boom and media being everywhere...:D
 
cleaning

I would not. You could get material in the flash hole and resulting in poor or no ignition. Also, the tumbling action may cause the powder to get finer and change the burning rate. Again not good.
 
brass

The tumbler process should have been done before the sizing/decapping.
Putting primed rounds throught the tumbler can expose the primers to possible cleaning agents in the media and contaminate them. Live rounds in the tumbler is not a very good idea, the chance of a live round going off in your reloading area is a very bad idea.I know there will be some that say the practice is safe, but why chance it. Do the reloading process step by step and be safe.
 
pilot24. I GUESS i AM ONE OF THOSE GUYS not going to say it is safe but I have done it. Had a batch of 44 mag that looked like heck once I got them reloaded, (had tumbled them for an hour before sizing and depriming) but they didn't have the luster to them. My media was getting well used so I changed my media and threw the brass back in forgot about them till the next morning. No none went off or I wouldn't admit to doing it but man did they shine nine hours of tumbling in new walnut shells. They didn't have no lube residue on them either when I was done.
Ken
 
Primed brass isnt a good idea becuase media can get stuck in flasholes. I've done it, but then knocked the media out. Pain in the ass, but it can be done.

Tumbling live rounds isn't a big deal. Even if one went off, nothing much would happen...
 
Every time I tumble brass in walnut or corn cob media, a large percentage of the cases get media stuck in the flash hole. For this reason, I would not tumble primed cases unless they also had a bullet.

The idea that a bullet in a vibratory cleaner could hit a neighbouring primer hard enough to ignite it is laughable.

The internet is full of people advising everyone not to tumble loaded cartridges because this causes the powder to break down and change burning rate. Even some makers of tumblers advise against it. But evidence that there is even the tiniest shard of truth to this is non-existent, and lots of people claim to do it all the time. I have seen a couple of studies "published" online where people have thrown a bunch of loaded rounds into tumblers, and taken out some samples every few days and shot them. The last rounds were in the tumblers for weeks straight, but showed no signs of pressure changes. I say tumble your loaded rounds to your hearts content.
 
BattleRife said:
Every time I tumble brass in walnut or corn cob media, a large percentage of the cases get media stuck in the flash hole. For this reason, I would not tumble primed cases unless they also had a bullet.

The idea that a bullet in a vibratory cleaner could hit a neighbouring primer hard enough to ignite it is laughable.

The Internet is full of people advising everyone not to tumble loaded cartridges because this causes the powder to break down and change burning rate. Even some makers of tumblers advise against it. But evidence that there is even the tiniest shard of truth to this is non-existent, and lots of people claim to do it all the time. I have seen a couple of studies "published" online where people have thrown a bunch of loaded rounds into tumblers, and taken out some samples every few days and shot them. The last rounds were in the tumblers for weeks straight, but showed no signs of pressure changes. I say tumble your loaded rounds to your hearts content.
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+1

It is a pain to tumble primed brass for the above mentioned reasons.

I have also researched the tumbler / powder issue and as BattleRife stated... there is no problem in doing this. One study I read had loaded rifle ammo in a tumbler for a month and then he pulled the powder and tested it.... no problems.
 
i quite reguarly tumble loaded rounds. about a 1000 a week. i find with the 650 if i give my brass a shot of spray lube it runs better. however this leaves lube on the loaded round. so when i am finished a run, i throw them into the the tumbler for anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour. i use to do this with 45 to get the wax off when i used lead bullets. after 15 years i have never had a round go off in the tumbler.
 
As stated by others empty primed cases is not advisable due to some tumbling media getting in to the primer and it "may" cause some type of issues.

Commercial/Factory ammo is routinely tumbled to clean/polish before packaging for sale to you...have no idea for how long its tumbled, but this has been verified on other gun-boards by factory workers.

Have tumbled live ammo for about 5 minutes to get rid of any type of sizeing lube and not experienced any loss of accuracy nor any other problems.
 
I haven't used it yet but a while back I picked up an RCBS Sidewinder. I have a supply of walnut shell dry media and a container of liquid media case cleaner that came with the unit. The plan is to primarily use the walnut shell media but as I haven't used it yet, I have a couple of questions. 1, When is the 'ideal' point in time to tumble the cases, before sizing and depriming or after? I'm guessing after? 2, A small package of white non-toxic abrasive cleaner comes with the walnut shell media to add for cleaning & polishing at the same time. Do any of you guys use it and if so, how? Just mix it all together to start with?
In addition, inside the package of walnut media there is a slip from RCBS that states, Remember, do not tumble loaded ammunition!
 
that is called "liability" because if they tell you to and lightning strikes your house and burns it down, you could sue them and say it was the loaded ammo in your tumbler that did it. do none of you guys use the liquid from Dillon or Midway or Flitz in your media? I use corn cob media that I get from my farm. Add about a teaspoon full and it's good for 5000 rounds or so. Add some more liquid and it's good for another 5000. I also now add water everytime I dump out the brass, to help keep the dust down.
 
Slavex said:
that is called "liability" because if they tell you to and lightning strikes your house and burns it down, you could sue them and say it was the loaded ammo in your tumbler that did it. do none of you guys use the liquid from Dillon or Midway or Flitz in your media? I use corn cob media that I get from my farm. Add about a teaspoon full and it's good for 5000 rounds or so. Add some more liquid and it's good for another 5000. I also now add water everytime I dump out the brass, to help keep the dust down.
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And if they hadn't mentioned 'loaded ammo' at all, would they still liable, you know, if your 'lightning strike' should occur???
 
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