Yesterday's Weapons Forums

This was transplanted from the old YW site:


yockey5
Do you do it?

If not, then why not?

millwright39
I have before because you told me too try it a few year's back

yockey5
I know that I do, just wanting some other imput.

mikmarjon
Are you talking about loaded ammo or just the brass???

yockey5
Tumbling ammo

gschwertley
The major manufacturers do it. Just look at the base of just about any Winchester factory cartridge and you can see traces of media in the groove around the primer where the sealant is. They do it to spruce up the product after manufacture so it looks sparkly. Flash and glitter always impress the consumer.

M14man
I have reloaded for 35 years, and I have never, ever tumbled cases or ammo. I rag wipe-em and load them. Don't even have a tumbler. Really!!

mikmarjon
I have a tumbler but I just use it on certain rounds. I load 44 magnum and it seems like the factory stuff is very nasty, and turns the brass black. Corncob media works wonders on it.

txpete
I have never tumbled loaded ammo.I was told by my mentor in handloading that it breaks down the powder inside the case and can cause pressure changes.I have never seen this in print so just take it for what it's worth.
pete

mikmarjon
I believe this subject was brought up on the parallax board a year or two ago and I believe that someone there mentioned reading the same thing about the powder breaking down.

yockey5
I do not believe that the powder will break down at all. Maybe if we were to tumble them for extended periods of time.

5thDragoons
If I have grungy bullets, I tumble them separately. Same for the brass - I don't tumble loaded ammo for the reasons Pete mentions. SW

crunchman
I don't think the powder would break down, but, I would worry about the bullet tips hitting on the primers. When I started loading, my mentor strongly advised against such a practice for safety reasons.

yockey5
If you were to have enough force to indent a primer, you would have crumpled brass. Thanks for your thoughts.

gschwertley
In at least one of the reloading books I have read, I believe the Speer book, they advise against tumbling ammo due to the possible wear-down of propellant coatings. They also caution against carrying ammo in a vehicle for extended periods for the same reason.

Like I said above, Winchester tumbles their finished product. Also, think about how some propellants are transported. Some of these powders come from as far away as Australia and Czech Republic. After they get here, they travel around on trucks to points of sale. Surely the grains get rubbed around a bit on these long trips.

I don't routinely tumble loaded ammo, nor do I intentionally transport it long distances just for laughs. I have tumbled ammo on occasion that was dirty when given to me, and when I used it I didn't notice any ill effects. Some of it was used in autoloaders, and if something is going to go wrong with it, you might notice it first in an autoloader's failure to do what it's supposed to do.

I don't think tumbling vibration and movement would generate enough force in the form of a striking blow to detonate a primer.

Walnuthead
I do. I only leave it in for a few minutes to get off any lube and to spruce it up a little. Never heard about the pressure changing thing.

The thing is in a truck it's more of a knocking around so the powder kernals would be doing more of a sliding motion back and forth. In a vibrator the powder is getting knocked around much quicker, vibrating.

Some say this vibrating and the powder rubbing together can cause the outer coating to get beaten off changing the burn rate of the powder. I don't think vibrating them for 5-10 minutes is going to do anything.

With that said I did change the way I clean cases. Now I vibrate cases for a 1/2 hour, before maybe 5 minutes, before loading and don't vibrate after the powders in. Hey, why take a chance you only get one face.

What I've seen of fire extinguishers the powder is more like flour. I can see this type of powder settling and getting packed in. I don't think gun powder would pack the same way.

as long as we are drawing work comparisons - we vibrate conmcrete - it consolidates it - probably the reverse of what you are trying to achieve ?