May think I'm crazy for asking...

[tkmech21]

Anyone ever tumbled Live rounds, Say if you purchased some surplus and it was a bit corroded, Would you consider tumbling it to clean it up? Leave it alone? or try to clean round by round?

[Jicko]

Tumbling live rounds are ok. Safe.

[popeye4]

Not what I've heard

Tumbling live rounds are ok. Safe.

Tumbling live rounds for a brief period of time (say, to get the case lube off after loading in a progressive press) may be OK, but tumbling them long enough to get corrosion off of a brass case is rolling the dice. Smokeless powders have their burning speed controlled by particle size, shape, and inhibitor coatings. Tumbling for extended periods of time can alter this form, changing the burning rate characteristics in an unknown manner (probably making it faster). Can you get away with it? Perhaps, but the consequences of screwing up could be rather severe. Do you want to bet your fingers/eyes/face/life?

[QuarterBoreGunner]

^ This.

A little corrosion on your ammo won't mean a thing when you fire it.

[gunboat]

Any links to injuries caused by tumbling/vibrating ammo? Aircraft, armoured vehicles shake the bejesus out of ammo --

[westcoastr]

guys at dillion said no problem they do it all the time. but i would heed popeye's advice and keep it short

[Beelzy]

Waste of time and good media, IMO.

[Jonathan Doe]

Anyone ever tumbled Live rounds, Say if you purchased some surplus and it was a bit corroded, Would you consider tumbling it to clean it up? Leave it alone? or try to clean round by round?

Just wipe it off with fine steel wool.

[maxicon]

You'd definitely change the powder characteristics if you tumble long enough, especially with extruded or flake powder. Ball would be less susceptible, I'd guess. I don't think anybody's tested the tumbling theory to figure out how long it takes to make a difference, but it would be easy enough to do.

Load 100 rounds with the same charge, seating depth, etc. Keep 10 as-loaded. Tumble 10 of them for 4 hours, 10 for 8 hours, 10 for 24 hours, 10 for 48 hours.

Take them out and chronograph them, and it would be pretty obvious if anything changed in the burn characteristics.

Often, this type of testing raises as many questions as it answers, and you'd have another 50 rounds to gather data with.

[Agustav]

Waste of time and good media, IMO.

But shinny ammo looked soooo sweet!

[Southpaw45]

I heard it will change the burn speed on the powder if it breaks the powder down. Don't know if this a myth or not.

[xxdabroxx]

i have polished live ammo before. It just looks so much better when it shines!

really, an hour or two in walnut with some chrome polish cant hurt the powder that much...