Can you tumble bullets?

[Longshot]

I was in Prince George about 6 weeks ago and there was a guy selling all his firearms at E&I, he told Andre that he tumbled some 45-70 live ammo and went to shoot and it took off part of his hand. From what Andre told me was after tumbling the ammo for a number of hours the powder worked itself down to what he described as FFFF powder and drastically changed the pressure of the cartridge.

Black powder might be different but I've never had an issue with regular rifle ammo.

 

[sunray]

Bullets don't need to be shiney any more than cases.

 

[pats]

i tumble all my rounds for a bit after loading them, gets the oil off, makes life easy when loading mags.

 

[Ga71]

risky business.

tumble live rounds? i’ll pass.

change the composition of the powder the wrong way, just once…….

 

[crazy_davey]

tumble live rounds? i’ll pass.

change the composition of the powder the wrong way, just once…….

Please explain how putting live rounds in a tumbler will change the composition of the powder the wrong way . I must be missing what you are trying to say...

 

[enfield p]

i treat my corn cob with peak paste from canadian tire it works realy well on brass and bullets,

 

[asphalt599]

I was in Prince George about 6 weeks ago and there was a guy selling all his firearms at E&I, he told Andre that he tumbled some 45-70 live ammo and went to shoot and it took off part of his hand. From what Andre told me was after tumbling the ammo for a number of hours the powder worked itself down to what he described as FFFF powder and drastically changed the pressure of the cartridge.

I have heard never to tumble live ammo but never knew a specific reason why. I have some dull ammo I wished I could throw in but never wanted to chance it. Looks like a good reason not too.

 

[denydart]

Tumbling live ammo can cause the powder kernels to bounce off one another and wear or flake off the retardant coatings while inside the case. You end up with a casefull of powder with a different burn rate than the one originally loaded. Same thing can happen with shells left in the glovebox for a decade. I imagine it really only happens when there's a large enough airspace to let things roll around inside the case and it probably effects extruded powders more than ball powders - just guessing though. I can't imagine anyone would try tumbling a 1lb can of powder so why do it 60 grains at a time?

 

[joe-nwt]

................... I can't imagine anyone would try tumbling a 1lb can of powder so why do it 60 grains at a time?

To get shiney powder, silly!