Ever accidently tumble a live round, or two??

[carexpert]

Well, I just did. Scared the **** out of me after I pulled them out of the media separater. Was cleaning up some 38 brass for the K38 with some corn cob lizard litter i decided to try, heard from some of you that it works as well - it did.
I looked and said oh s**t when i found two live rounds in the mix but they didn't go off.
Should i fire them or pull the bullets?

[Sebago Son]

I've never accidentally tumbled a live round but I have indeed INTENTIONALLY tumbled live rounds... no ill effect.

[squidsix]

I know a guy who used to do it DELIBERATELY. Yeah. HE SAID ID MADE THEM SHINY!!
I was a little unsettled by this.

[cgt4570]

I've tumbled WW2 mil-surp on purpose to remove corrosion. A few rounds at a time, and not for much time. Too much time will make smaller powder grains which will increase pressure.

[gbrady]

we load a lot of rounds and tumble most of them a short time to remove oil from handling them

[kennyb]

i have several times...no big deal..

[Titegroups]

Done it by accident many times, not much chance of it going off. When I was a kid I used to set live rounds up and shoot the primers with a pellet gun, took many shots, and set them off, not what you'd think, a firecracker pop and the case would go flying a ways but the bullet(heavier) would only go a few feet. Nothing like when it is contained in a gun barrel.

[Mike, SC Hunter]

Originally Posted by kennyb

i have several times...no big deal..

Me too. To remove lube and dirt.

[Beerjman]

Originally Posted by cgt4570

I've tumbled WW2 mil-surp on purpose to remove corrosion. A few rounds at a time, and not for much time. Too much time will make smaller powder grains which will increase pressure.

If tumbled long enough resulting in changed granulation size it will change burn rate . Potentially dangerous .
Tumbling for a short time -a few minutes- to remove sizing lubricant most likely ok .

[shotslow]

Did it a lot by accident. No problems. Shot just fine. All have been handgun rounds.

[carexpert]

Thanks for the input guys!!

[sw282]

si--------

[GyMac]

Just pulled a couple out of the media today.

[Protected]

Originally Posted by Titegroups

Done it by accident many times, not much chance of it going off. When I was a kid I used to set live rounds up and shoot the primers with a pellet gun, took many shots, and set them off, not what you'd think, a firecracker pop and the case would go flying a ways but the bullet(heavier) would only go a few feet. Nothing like when it is contained in a gun barrel.

we used to do even dumber stuff like tape a BB to the primer of a .22 round and slam it by hand on the concrete... i was much younger and obviously much dumber then

[Fishslayer]

Originally Posted by Sebago Son

I've never accidentally tumbled a live round but I have indeed INTENTIONALLY tumbled live rounds... no ill effect.

I've done both. No problems.
One live 9mm round found it's way in with the brass last night. I found it this AM. That is one shiny cartridge!

I've heard that tumbling certain types of powders can break up the powder making it faster.

[papajohn428]

I have a cartridge collection, and often tumble old tarnished rounds to clean them up. I wouldn't tumble rimfire ammo, but with centerfires I don't worry about it. If one was to go off, inside the tumbler barrel, what would happen? Not much. The brass case would rupture, and the expanding gases would raise pressure inside the drum for a second, until it bled out the seals. That's it. No big deal.

As for tumbling ammo and grinding the powder into smaller bits, thus changing the burning rate..........I'm not convinced. We used to keep extra ammo in the trunks of our patrol cars, some of it for a couple of years, and when we shot it up there was NO apparent difference. A chronograph might have showed a change, but it fired just fine, and shot to the same point of impact.

Ten years ago I loaded a bunch of ammo (two lots) for off-duty and backup use, and one lot of it wound up sitting on my floorboards for about five years, I just forgot it was there. When I got a chronograph I compared the car ammo to the other half of the same batch, and there was NO discernable difference. I pull out five rounds once a year and re-test it, and there has been no change, despite the fact that the car ammo is bounced all over creation on bumpy roads and subjected to temperature ranges that would break a rock.

The ammo in question was loaded with WST, a small-flake shotgun powder, so maybe other powder types would be affected more. But ball powder can't change much, and I can't see high-density rifle ammo having its powder ground into corn meal, either. It sounds good in theory, but I have yet to see anything close to proof that such a change actually occurs.

I'd be more inclined to believe that high temperatures would have a detrimental effect on the ammo, but that doesn't seem to be the case either.

[dickttx]

A few months ago I tumbled for several hours about a dozen old .458 Win Mag's that I had bought at an estate sale, just to try to clean them up.
There are several threads on this (both the danger and the powder break down) on the various forums. General agreement seems to be that there are no ill effects.

[Maximumbob54]

Some guy on ARFCOM did a pretty lengthy but of course unofficial study on this. He found no degradation in powder, no primers were ignited, and no bullets became unseated. I forget how long he left them in the tumbler but it was for quite a while. If the theory was shifter to black powder then you would have some serious issues I would think. But modern nitrocellulose in its many forms doesn’t simply turn to dust in a tumbler and change to nitroglycerin. And primers need a pretty big whack to ignite. I would worry the most about the bullet unseating and moving around on you but that appeared to be a non-issue. I just use a blue shop towel to remove oils or anything from ammo. It isn’t very often that I worry about it.

[SP45]

tumbled 10s of thousands. no problem. tumbled in a standard vibratory tumbler with the type of media we use almost impossible to generate enough energy to set one off. if it did go off the media would absorb the energy as it is non directional.

[growr]

Same as SP45....tumbled thousands of them with NO PROBLEM whatsoever.
Randy

[Overdrawn]

The powder break down was more of a concern of mine than a bullet going off in the tumbler. Tumbled thousands of live rounds over the last forty some years, sometimes tumbled for hours. Occassionally would pull a bullet to check the powder, it would be as it was when put in the case. However anything can happen, don't take anything for granted, my loadings were most cylindrical H/IMR powders, other powders might break down & cause higher pressures but I never had any in mine. I have old loaded steel jacket military cartridges in the tumbler now that have to come out, hope the paint is still on the bullets.

[bnz43]

I have tumbled quite a few rounds over the years to remove dirt, oil, and other comtaminates with no ill effects. I don't usually tumble them for a long period of time just long enough to cleam them up. If the round has corrosion in the brass that does not clean up with light tumbling I discard the round.

[gwalchmai]

I was watching Mythbusters the other day and they were testing a MaGuyver thing in which he blew a door up by emptying six .38 SPL rounds into the lock and then whacking the empty case to set it off. They beat the living **** out of cases with gun butts trying to set them off but couldn't do it. They headstamps were beaten off but not primers went off because they were seated properly.

The internet myth about powder characteristics being changed comes up a lot and, as noted, has been thoroughly debunked.

[Wee Hooker]

Just 10 min ago. Not the first tiem either ;-)

[EricInAZ]

Originally Posted by carexpert

Well, I just did. Scared the **** out of me after I pulled them out of the media separater. Was cleaning up some 38 brass for the K38 with some corn cob lizard litter i decided to try, heard from some of you that it works as well - it did.
I looked and said oh s**t when i found two live rounds in the mix but they didn't go off.
Should i fire them or pull the bullets?

So, what handloads do you feed your K38?

Last weekend, my Dad relinquished his model 14-3 to me, having switched to a model 52 about the time the K38 trigger wore out a few years ago.

Deal was that if I get it fixed, it's mine. A trip across town to a well respected & competent Smith 'smith & it functions as new.

[EricInAZ]

Originally Posted by carexpert

Well, I just did. Scared the **** out of me after I pulled them out of the media separater. Was cleaning up some 38 brass for the K38 with some corn cob lizard litter i decided to try, heard from some of you that it works as well - it did.
I looked and said oh s**t when i found two live rounds in the mix but they didn't go off.
Should i fire them or pull the bullets?

So, what handloads do you feed your K38?

Last weekend, my Dad relinquished his model 14-3 to me, having switched to a model 52 about the time the K38 trigger wore out a few years ago.

Deal was that if I get it fixed, it's mine. A trip across town to a well respected & competent Smith 'smith & it now functions as new.

[MKT]

Originally Posted by Sebago Son

I've never accidentally tumbled a live round but I have indeed INTENTIONALLY tumbled live rounds... no ill effect.

Exactly what I was gonna say.

[LTC]

I have unintensionally, occasionally put a live round in the tumbler from range brass pick ups. No ill effect to report.

LTC

[Snowbandit]

I tumble all my rifle rounds after reloading to remove case lube. Never had a problem and I've done thousands.

[Last of the Mohicans]

Happened to me recently. Tumbled a whack of 9mm brass and found a live round in the mix after having let it run for a few hours. That round has since been fired.

[grub348]

My storm and strife tumbled two of my loaded speedloaders in the gas dryer for quite some time. Both had also gone through the wash machine. I decided to try to fire them in a model 686. I'm happy to report ALL 12 went bang and hit the target, although I know I was flinching in anticipation of my gun blowing up. I also clean my reloaded rifle rounds in my tumbler, no problems....

[Mike, SC Hunter]

Yep..........do it all the time.

[Max2005]

Have done it a lot with old 455 Dominion rounds to clean up - up to a couple hours at a time; no ill effects at all, and again, have done this for years!