Tumbling ammo?

[age_ranger]

I was talknig to a man about reloads and he commented about how he will tumble his ammo AFTER it's reloaded. I guess from what I gather, he reloads them and THEN puts the entire round into the tumbler and does a bunch at a time. Sounds great.....that'd make it all pretty, but is there any concerns about this? I just don't see a bunch of my reloads sporting Federal primers bouncing around in my tumbler.......

[KD5NRH]

Well, I tend to tumble anything with jacketed bullets for about 30min after loading just to take off any excess sizing lube and skin oils, especially if I'm just boxing it up for storage. (as opposed to stuff that I've loaded specially for a range trip in the next day or two)

Cast bullets may or may not get the tumbling; it just depends on my mood, but since I use cheap rice for cleaning media, it doesn't appear to hurt them a bit. YMMV, especially if you use harsher media.

[KBCraig]

Tumbling loaded ammo can powderize the propellant. NOT recommended if you want to keep your hands and face intact.

[HighVelocity]

I used to do it but it wears out the tumbler faster since it's not designed to have that much weight in it.

[age_ranger]

When I reload, I wear those rubber gloves to keep away the nasties from my skin. Helps keep the brass oil free and the ammo looking new. I didn;'t think of the effect it might have on the powder. I'm going to load up a case with a spent primer and tumble it to see what effect it has on the powder....this should be a neat experiment.

[jhutto]

"Smokeless powder burns only on the surfaces of the granules, flakes or cylinders - described as granules for short. Larger granules burn more slowly, and the burn rate is further controlled by flame-deterrent coatings which retard burning slightly. The intent is to regulate the burn rate so that a more or less constant pressure is exerted on the propelled projectile as long as it is in the barrel so as to obtain the highest velocity. Cannon powder has the largest granules, up to thumb-sized cylinders with seven perforations (one central and the other six in a circle halfway to the outside of the cylinder's end faces). The perforations stabilize the burn rate because as the outside burns inward (thus shrinking the burning surface area) the inside is burning outward (thus increasing the burning surface area, but faster, so as to fill up the increasing volume of barrel presented by the departing projectile). Fast-burning pistol powders are made by extruding shapes with more area such as flakes or by flattening the spherical granules. Drying is usually performed under a vacuum. The solvents are condensed and recycled. The granules are also coated with graphite to prevent static electricity sparks from causing undesired ignitions." -Wikipedia

Not only does the size of the powder affect the burn rate, other coatings or burn stabilizers also control burn rate. These coatings will most certainly be damaged from vibratory case cleaners or tumbelers. Not to mention the coating that reduces static electricity...

At best you will make your amunition less accurate, and shiny.
Just don't do it, keep your OCD focused on making more precice and exact rounds. :)

[nuparadigm]

Tumbling loaded ammo can powderize the propellant. NOT recommended if you want to keep your hands and face intact.

+1 !

[phddan]

There was a great big thread on this subject in the reloading section on AR15.com, and by far the general consensus is that tumbling finished cartridges has absolutely no effect on the powder or accuracy. And this was coming from people in the ammo manufacturing, and powder manufacturing businesses, as well as reloaders who tumbled rounds for different amount of times, and then pulled some apart and compared the powder, and tested for accuracy. No difference was found.
There are some logical concerns, but no one has ever proved that tumbling rounds causes any detrimental affects to the powder.
I do it all the time to my stored ammo.

Dan

[DonP]

Thanks, phddan. I feel better about what I do. I tumble for about 15 minutes and use CCI or WSP primers - not Federal.

It cleans off the case lube and any brass whiskers making case gauging MUCH quicker. Before I started doing this I would have to wipe out the case gauge every 10 or so rounds to keep the rounds from sticking or having to push them in rather than just dropping them in.

Don P

[KD5NRH]

Tumbling loaded ammo can powderize the propellant. NOT recommended if you want to keep your hands and face intact.

As far as the powder is concerned, that 30min of tumbling is only going to be equivalent to a few weeks of being shipped, handled, and carried. Given that there aren't any special processes in place to keep the ammo from being jostled otherwise, I can't see the manufacturers considering it worth worrying about, and we all know how lawsuit-shy they are.

[age_ranger]

Thanks for the info. I don`t foresee myself tumbling my ammo, but its good info nonetheless. I do have some ammo I stashed and its definitely not as shiny aymore but I`m not concerned with its appearance, only its performance. Still, if I wanted to knock off the oxidation, its good to know its an option. I was more concerned that I might touch off a round with it bouncing around.