Tumbling AFTER reloading?

[bigedp51]

i lube size then tumble before I load best of both safe and shiny

You can wipe the lube off the cases after sizing or like above use a vibratory tumbler to clean off the lube and then finish loading your cases.

I'm retired with nothing to do and all day to do it, so I wet tumble with stainless steel media first. And then use my vibratory tumbler with untreated "Lizard Litter" walnut media to remove the case lube.

I started wet tumbling my cases after getting firearms that throw perfectly good brass away and make you go look for it. Meaning cases fired in semi-autos will hit the ground and dirt and grit can become embedded in the case. Then the dirt and grit will become embedded in the die and scratch your brass..

Bottom line, it doesn't take any longer to tumble the lube off the cases before or after they are loaded. So why shake and vibrate the crap out of a loaded cartridge case and wear off the deterrent coatings that control the burn rate of the powder.

The purpose of reloading to me is to make ammo that is better than factory ammo and I would never tumble live ammo if it can alter the powder in any way. Especially if you can tumble a lubed case "BEFORE" you load the powder and bullet.

 

[PSOD]

I know I’m a few years late to this thread but was wondering the same thing a few years back before I was on this forum. After I was told by many that tumbling live rounds with some corrosion was dangerous and was asking for disaster.

Welp I took one for the team and found out. Here’s my anecdote:

I inherited a 1000 case of .223 from my late grandfather a few years back. Most of the rounds had some visible corrosion or were otherwise tarnished and dull.

I wasn’t sure if they would chamber properly with the corrosion and figured what the heck, they were free anyways, let’s tumble some and see what happens. I put about 50 in my dry tumbler with cob media for about 10 hours. They came out looking better than new. I took 2 random samples apart for a quick visual inspection and noticed nothing looked different from 2 other random samples I took from the corrosion lot.
I loaded up a 30 mag and dawned my welding helmet and welding gloves and a thick winter jacket and headed to my backyard range. I shot the whole mag and nothing spectacular happened. They all shot fine at 50 yds, one misfire, no weird burn delays or acceleration, no giant fireballs. For 45yo ammo i think 2% misfire is to be expected.

I then went and tumbled 100 more for 10 hours and selected 3 random samples out of the lot, in addition to 3 random samples from the corroded lot. After disassembling and collecting each powder charge in a baggie, I proceeded to call in a favor from a former roommate that works at a biochem lab. I brought him the powder samples from each lot for analysis. Under his labs electron microscope we actually could tell a difference in each lot the tumbled and not tumbled by the microscopic fracture lines in the powder granules. There was some “dust” let’s call it in the tumbled lot and we used some glass tube thing with a 40,000nm screen to try to pass it through and what we figured was that it was approximately 0.0441% of the tumbled lot that passed through the screen where as it was about 0.0038% on the corroded lot that passed through. Everything else in the collection for both lots appeared nearly identical.

Conclusion: while there is some truth to the idea that tumbling live ammo will break down the powder, the reality is that you are talking about hundreds of a percent of the powder that is actually breaking down when tumbling for 10 hours. This is so statistically insignificant that you couldn’t even test it because even going off the muzzle velocity difference you would still be well within one standard deviation of the manufacturer powder tolerance.

I ended up tumbling the rest of the lot and shot through most of it. Absolutely no issues with any of the tumbled ammo. Obviously this is just an anecdote and I’m just some idiot on a forum but I can personally say that I would have no concerns tumbling any caliber for under 24 hours.

Also side comment, I now refer to my tumbled live ammo as rumble rounds cause my niece heard me talking about it with my brother and couldn’t say tumbled

 

[DadSmith]

Age Verification - NRA

www.americanhunter.org

Is Tumbling Loaded Ammo Dangerous?

 

[Trapper Jim]

The question contains the answer….

Wanting to tumble loaded ammo exposes an unorganized work flow in the loading process.

Done right, the process will result in shiny handloads without the danger, mess and time wasted in shaking loose cartridges around.

For Rifle Wet wash fired cases, lube and resize/deprime, trim and scrape primer pocket, and then gently dry tumble to remove lube and shine, prime, charge and seat and crimp to taste.

Enjoy your presentation grade rifle ammo.

See you on the range


Trapper

 

[rb288]

My routine is as follows...
1. Deprive used brass.
2. Wet tumble brass with stainless steel pins and FA detergent packs.
3. Dry in air dryer.
4. Lube, size, trim, clean primer pockets, then dry polish and reload.
I don't think I would ever want to dry tumble after reloading.

 

[DadSmith]

My routine is as follows...
1. Deprive used brass.
2. Wet tumble brass with stainless steel pins and FA detergent packs.
3. Dry in air dryer.
4. Lube, size, trim, clean primer pockets, then dry polish and reload.
I don't think I would ever want to dry tumble after reloading.

As long as you're not depriving me of used brass we'll be okay.

 

[Creedmoor]

The question contains the answer….

Wanting to tumble loaded ammo exposes an unorganized work flow in the loading process.

Done right, the process will result in shiny handloads without the danger, mess and time wasted in shaking loose cartridges around.

For Rifle Wet wash fired cases, lube and resize/deprime, trim and scrape primer pocket, and then gently dry tumble to remove lube and shine, prime, charge and seat and crimp to taste.

Enjoy your presentation grade rifle ammo.

See you on the range


Trapper

So all the manufactures that tumble before final inspection and packaging have an unorganized work flow in the loading process?

 

[Creedmoor]

Why,
most major manufacturers dry tumble just before final inspection and packaging.

My routine is as follows...
1. Deprive used brass.
2. Wet tumble brass with stainless steel pins and FA detergent packs.
3. Dry in air dryer.
4. Lube, size, trim, clean primer pockets, then dry polish and reload.
I don't think I would ever want to dry tumble after reloading.

 

[rb288]

As long as you're not depriving me of used brass we'll be okay.

Ahah, it is to laugh.
Auto correct sucks and I should read the full post before sending.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

I know I’m a few years late to this thread but was wondering the same thing a few years back before I was on this forum. After I was told by many that tumbling live rounds with some corrosion was dangerous and was asking for disaster.

Welp I took one for the team and found out. Here’s my anecdote:

I inherited a 1000 case of .223 from my late grandfather a few years back. Most of the rounds had some visible corrosion or were otherwise tarnished and dull.

I wasn’t sure if they would chamber properly with the corrosion and figured what the heck, they were free anyways, let’s tumble some and see what happens. I put about 50 in my dry tumbler with cob media for about 10 hours. They came out looking better than new. I took 2 random samples apart for a quick visual inspection and noticed nothing looked different from 2 other random samples I took from the corrosion lot.
I loaded up a 30 mag and dawned my welding helmet and welding gloves and a thick winter jacket and headed to my backyard range. I shot the whole mag and nothing spectacular happened. They all shot fine at 50 yds, one misfire, no weird burn delays or acceleration, no giant fireballs. For 45yo ammo i think 2% misfire is to be expected.

I then went and tumbled 100 more for 10 hours and selected 3 random samples out of the lot, in addition to 3 random samples from the corroded lot. After disassembling and collecting each powder charge in a baggie, I proceeded to call in a favor from a former roommate that works at a biochem lab. I brought him the powder samples from each lot for analysis. Under his labs electron microscope we actually could tell a difference in each lot the tumbled and not tumbled by the microscopic fracture lines in the powder granules. There was some “dust” let’s call it in the tumbled lot and we used some glass tube thing with a 40,000nm screen to try to pass it through and what we figured was that it was approximately 0.0441% of the tumbled lot that passed through the screen where as it was about 0.0038% on the corroded lot that passed through. Everything else in the collection for both lots appeared nearly identical.

Conclusion: while there is some truth to the idea that tumbling live ammo will break down the powder, the reality is that you are talking about hundreds of a percent of the powder that is actually breaking down when tumbling for 10 hours. This is so statistically insignificant that you couldn’t even test it because even going off the muzzle velocity difference you would still be well within one standard deviation of the manufacturer powder tolerance.

I ended up tumbling the rest of the lot and shot through most of it. Absolutely no issues with any of the tumbled ammo. Obviously this is just an anecdote and I’m just some idiot on a forum but I can personally say that I would have no concerns tumbling any caliber for under 24 hours.

Also side comment, I now refer to my tumbled live ammo as rumble rounds cause my niece heard me talking about it with my brother and couldn’t say tumbled

I did the same with some similarly aged and corroded surplus .303 Brit rounds and they came out great.

 

[Bill2905]

I wipe rifle brass with a paper towel after sizing and then tumble it for 3 hours. It removes lube from inside the neck and makes them less slimy to handle. I haven't ever tumbled finished rounds but I don't see any problem with doing do.

 

[Trapper Jim]

So all the manufactures that tumble before final inspection and packaging have an unorganized work flow in the loading process?

If that’s how they operate, that’s on them. I Handload to obtain better ammo than production grade cartridges and know what works for me.

 

[Creedmoor]

If that’s how they operate, that’s on them. I Handload to obtain better ammo than production grade cartridges and know what works for me.

I want to thank you for your answer that has absolutely nothing to do with the question that I asked you.

 

[Aszerigan]

I polish all the ammo I load afterward. Customers have that warm, shiny, fuzzy feeling and new ammo smell.

 

[natdscott]

 

[Dentoro]

I wash used brass in the slop sink with soap. When I am prepping the case for loading process I will use a green scratchy pad if the need arises. Otherwise I’m a stuff n puff her and repeat the process. Most of my reloading is obsolete rounds on old rifles so it’s not going to make much difference to put that much more time effort in the round. I will wipe them if I was generous with the lube.

 

[BackFromDC]

Apparently this topic was talked about before and I'm glad some necromancer resurrected it. Just started reloading, and have heard conflicting things. I was told an extra tumble was needed to get the sticky case lube off, but I loaded 9mm so case lube wasn't super important. For bottleneck brass I was told to tumble the case lube off after shaping the brass, but then use a dry mica powder lube for the last stages...that I guess just shakes off?

 

[natdscott]

Apparently this topic was talked about before and I'm glad some necromancer resurrected it. Just started reloading, and have heard conflicting things. I was told an extra tumble was needed to get the sticky case lube off, but I loaded 9mm so case lube wasn't super important. For bottleneck brass I was told to tumble the case lube off after shaping the brass, but then use a dry mica powder lube for the last stages...that I guess just shakes off?

Generally, that could work. Using the correct amount of lube on bottleneck cases, you can just wipe it off with a towel and load...but if doing more than 50 rounds or so, it may be worthwhile to tumble.

What media you use, at that stage, is worth pondering. You want something soft-ish, with no abrasive, since you aren't trying to clean, and are basically immediately pre-seating.
You DON'T want nasty media still on/in your casings going into expensive seating dies, at the same time as you don't want to spend a lot of time on media removal. Unlike after the usual cleaning phase, salad spinning is not always a good idea to remove media, since your necks are maybe ready to go...don't want dings, at this point.

If you're gonna trim the length, and chamfer/rechamfer, now is the time, just AFTER you wipe them down to get the plain corncob or rice dust off.

As you wipe, check all the flash holes for media, and glance in all the necks, to inspect the interior of the cases for junk, shavings, media, etc.

Now, your probly ready to prime.

The mica thing IS an option. With correct tension, and a good chamfer, lube isn't that needed to seat most rifle bullets, but a little probably doesn't hurt.

You can also use a Q-tip to apply LIGHT (light) amounts of non-contaminating lube like One-Shot to the inside of the neck. Some are of the opinion that that may help prevent cold welding as the rounds age. NATO stuff uses "tar" for same.

If you use mica, I'd just wipe it off on mah shirttail (or a terry cloth) real quick before I put each round in the box.

If you're loading high-volume on a progressive and dumping it into a crate...none of this is possible anyway.

 

[Elcardo]

I wet tumble so wouldn't do loaded ammo obviously but I do tumble twice
I tumble to clean the cases then size, trim as needed then tumble again to get the lube off ....then I prime and load
I wear gloves to keep finger oils off the cases when I'm loading ...not that it matters , just don't like them to discolor

 

[Goodcat]

Well let’s see. With factory ammo, the powder tumbles in the trucks on the way to the factories. The loaded rounds are then put in a massive tumbler. The rounds are loaded in little boxes and vibrate around while on the road for hours. The boxes are loaded and shipped across seas to our military. The military drives the ammo, vibrating the powder around across the world. Ya, I’d say you are safe to tumble loaded rounds.

I’ve left loads tumbling for a month at a time just to see, and there was zero recognizable difference, even at 1000 yards.

Now, if you are loading at 0.5 thousandths neck tension…. Maybe not a great idea. But I’ve traveled on bumpy roads for hours with 1/2 thou of neck tension with zero setback as measured on arrival.

Wives tales.