Tumbling old surplus ammo?

[Maximcan]

Hey Guys/Gals

I have a probably stupid question. I have a bunch of old surplus 8mm Mauser and it's pretty dirty. dirty enough I don't wanna use it in my k98. Now I was thinking tumbling for an hour or so would clean them off enough.

My question is: Is this dangerous or not?

 

[mudgunner49]

It has the potential to be VERY dangerous. The tumbling can cause the propellant to break down further which can drastically change its burn rate which could prove catastrophic.

If you want to clean them up just to shoot, use some fine steel wool to get the crud off...

 

[ATOM]

It's supposed to be dangerous, but I ran a bunch of .270 in a tumbler to see what would happen. Inspection of the propellant showed no significant breakage of the granules. Sometime I will have to try with a chronograph.

I would agree in any case with mudgunner49. Bit of fine steel wool.

 

[Maximcan]

Ya i was trying to take the lazy way out but Ill just scrub them with steel wool. Thanks guys

 

[trykillthis]

Safe, this comes up regularly and it isn't a problem. I believe some have even chrono'd to see if there was any difference and it was not significant.

 

[m-134]

what type of tumbler is it? ive tumbled my ~120 year old .38RF ammo with no problems. we also always tumble our loaded ammo to keep them nice and clean so the cycle well. ONLY DO IT IF YOU FEAL SAFE but i have never had any problem. just make sure you dont over load you tumbler becouse then you are taking a risk of a tip hitting a primer.

 

[Ganderite]

Tumble to clean. Powder is tumbled for hours to get the graphite coating. does not break the granules. That is an old wives tale.

 

[CanAm]

Tests were done by one of the mags (handloader?); no affect was found.

 

[hk33ka1]

If it was mine I would tumble it. Not all day though just enough to clean.

 

[randas]

Buddy, don't listen to the old wives tails. Tumble it.

I tumble every round I load to clean off any lube

 

[mudgunner49]

Tumble to clean. Powder is tumbled for hours to get the graphite coating. does not break the granules. That is an old wives tale.

It is tumbled in graphire when new. It is not tumbled after years of rumbling around the globe, possibly being stored in less than ideal conditions etc.

I've tumbled new handloads to get rid of lube also. A bit different than tumbling old ammo to get rid of heavy crud and corrosion.

Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

 

[Longshot]

I've tumbled thousands of rounds of surplus and NEVER had 1 issue.

 

[amosfella]

One could always use a sandblaster with really fine sand and low pressure in a plywood cabinet if tumbling was a scary proposition...

 

[BattleRife]

The tumbling can cause the propellant to break down...

More than one test has been done that could find no evidence that this could ever happen. Some of these experimenters tumbled rounds for months straight.

The original poster should have no qualms about tumbling his ammo.

 

[trebor2880]

Buddy, don't listen to the old wives tails. Tumble it.

I tumble every round I load to clean off any lube