Cleaning loaded ammo

[pounder]

What are the potential problems of cleaning loaded ammo in a vibrating case cleaner?

 

[freire]

I don't see any problems....i do it often.

 

[yomomma]

Do it, i did.

 

[Alpheus]

I remember reading a quite detailed study of vibrating loaded ammo a while back. The conventional wisdom at the time was that it was a bad idea, something about the vibrating removing retardants from the powder kernels and causing increased pressures. Well, this fella tumbled 9mm and 223 IIRC for a variety of time periods, I think he stopped at like 100hours. He then looked at the powder kernels under a microscope and shot the rounds over a chrony and used PressureTrace equipment to measure the pressure curve. Can't recall the exact results, but the gist was the tumbling did nothing.

 

[Ganderite]

Tumble as much as you want. Shiny ammo looks nice.

 

[philhut]

the worst thing that can happen....

 

[pounder]

Thanks that is what I thought but just wanted to check here first.

 

[yomomma]

Can't count the number of times I've posted this

 

[inthehizzy]

I tumble live ammo all the time.

 

[Daver_II]

Dishwasher.... then dry them in the oven on a cleaning cycle... remember to use harsh chemicals, and don't bother with PPE.


Or you could just tumble them.

 

[mbogo3]

What about the microwave?

 

[LUTNIT]

I lube all my brass before loading it in the case feeder on my progressive press. As a result the loaded ammo comes out with lube still on it. 30min in walnut media cleans it up. Only issue is I don't like the idea of abrasive dust getting in the barrels of my guns. I put a handful of ammo in an old rag, shake it around a bunch, and pretty much all the dust sticks to the rag and I drop dust-free ammo in a container.

There's markedly less dust when I use Lyman treated corn cob media (the green stuff) but for the price difference (huge) I use untreated ground walnut media now. Empty brass cleaning I wet tumble.

 

[CzyHorse]

I lube all my brass before loading it in the case feeder on my progressive press. As a result the loaded ammo comes out with lube still on it. 30min in walnut media cleans it up. Only issue is I don't like the idea of abrasive dust getting in the barrels of my guns. I put a handful of ammo in an old rag, shake it around a bunch, and pretty much all the dust sticks to the rag and I drop dust-free ammo in a container.

There's markedly less dust when I use Lyman treated corn cob media (the green stuff) but for the price difference (huge) I use untreated ground walnut media now. Empty brass cleaning I wet tumble.

Add a drier sheet, cut in 1 inch strips, to your media. The drier sheet grabs all the fines.