Got a question. I had a large box with about 700 rounds of 22lr in it dump out all over the ground. To make matters worse I was in a lake bottom where the water was down but still muddy as heck. I threw all the rounds in a few zip lock bags and now I have a bunch of 22lr covered in mud, dirt, and clay.

Can I tumble them clean?

I have done some searching and gotten mixed results on tumbling loaded ammo. I have yet to find anything on tumbling loaded .22lr rimfire. Is it safe? How hard does the rim need to be struck before it goes off? Anything else I need to be aware of?

Thanks

In my experience with empty cases picked up off a muddy range, you cannot get brass clean with a tumbler when it is coverd with "mud, dirt, and clay."
I had to wash and dry the empty brass before it was possible to put them in a tumbler and finish the job.

If it were mine, I'd spread it out on pavement and clean it as gently as possible with a soft water spray, then get a soft rag and start wiping.

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Science plus Art

The problem with .22lr is the bullets are outside lubricated. Tumble them, and that lube will get removed. More importantly though, the bullets will have small bits of debris embedded in them, even after tumbling. That's not going to be nice going down your barrel.

700 rounds of .22 will cost about $25 to replace. That's a much easier and safer way to fix this situation.

This is what I was going to stress. It's going to be a punch in the gut to scrap that ammo, but I would rather just scrap it that risk scoring the steel in my barrel with a single grain of sand that you miss. CCI and some others use a really thick wax while some of them use a dry lube. The CCI would be the worst one for sticking crud. The dry lube would be the best chance of cleaning but would remove most or all of the dry lube. The various copper washed bullets usually still have some kind of dry lube on them. I have dropped the one or two .22LR's and brushed them off, but not a few hundred of them.

There are always going to be people who don't feel safe tumbling live ammo and I'm fine with that. I do it every now and then. The primers don't fall out, the bullets don't move at all, and the bullets don't whack into the primers nearly hard enough to set one off. If it were that bad then the bullets would deform the nose, the cases would be dented, and a visual would show all this. And rimfire is even harder to ignite. But again, it would rub the lube off the bullets so I don't bother.

I always keep my 22 ammo in their original contgainers that would have mitigated your problem.

Actually, I find that most of the .22LR boxes fall apart pretty fast unless you use them in one or two sittings. I have a Federal bulk 550 box that is taped up. I pour the nex box into that one for use. I guess they save that nickel per box for a box that isn't made to last getting moved around too much. I still save the box from the ammo in use just in case I need lot number info or something like that.

I wouldn't even try to clean those rounds not worth the trouble or damage they cause to your firearm.

What I started doing to keep the rounds clean and easy to use at the range or when traveling is to buy some of the small plastic faux tupperware at the dollar store. Each one holds about 200 rounds the lid stays on reasonably well but most of all you don't have to worry about broken boxes or dirty ammo.

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Mike
USMCR 84-87, USAF 87-07

That is a darn good idea. I'm going to use that one.

I just use the clear plastic 100 round boxes that people trash. Take the label off, re label and put the bulk ammo in while watching TV. Drives my wife crazy cause I am so slow, she grabs them and "files them in minutes" (I plan it that way)

Slide the cover back and dispense 10 at a time.

"Hints from Heloise"

OH, buy new ammo. Not worth the hassle and possible damage and I am cheap! Thrifty.

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Still Running Against the Wind

After you clean. you can relube with dry film motorcycle chain lube, with teflon, from "some'' wally worlds. $6.96 a can. pretty cool stuff. I am now also using it to lube my cases during resizing and depriming. I was amazed at how much slicker it is than lyman case lube. it will clean off with engine degreaser which might work pretty fast on your .22's. for cleaning the factory lube ( and sand) off.
Mike

I also reuse the 100 round plastic boxes others toss, but I get rid of the tray with the 100 holes in it. Never counted, but they easily hold a couple hundred loose rounds.
The top slide too easy without the tray, but re-purposed rubber bands used to hold stalks of Broccoli together does the trick.

I supplementally lube a few .22LR with diluted alox occasionally.
I put them in the aforementioned trays with a 100 holes in them and dip the tip of the nose (~1/8") in a shallow pan of a 50/50 mix of warm LLA and mineral spirits.
A little messy and they are dirt magnets, but putting a few "doctored" rounds down a thoroughly scrubbed barrel, seems to minimize leading.

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Age + Treachery = JohnnieB

Seen it done for years. I started doing it the minute I learned to reload on my own. I add a bit of Nu Finish to polish everything up and leave a film so they don't tarnish nearly as fast. Just did some .223 a day ago and some .300 Win Mag last night. Doesn't do anything but make them look good and give that slight coat of polish.

I wouldn't worry about tumbling loaded ammo,but I would worry about taking the lube off.They won't group well and you'll end up with a leaded barrel.How about just wiping individual rounds clean as you use them up?

What if they're copper washed bullets? I guess then that makes this conversation null & void, doesn't it?

I have tumbled loaded rounds many times. Have never seen any problem
in the ammo or leading what ever....
Maybe I'm just lucky for the last 25 years.

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Only difference Fool/Mule-ears

You can lead a horse to water...

Yep and seven years latter this is important somehow?

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Still Running Against the Wind

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

And just why did someone resurrect this thread that had been mercifully, and properly, dead since 2011???

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Gunsmithing since 1961

I have used Johnson's Paste Wax to lube .22 bullets. It's also a good case resizing lube if you don't have anything else. But I normally use STP for that purpose.

The information is still good...

Good? Good for what? For all those who dump 22 lr in a muddy lake bottom ?

Tumbling 22 lr is probably going to bend up the soft lead bullets remove the lube and mess up feeding.

Sit in comfy chair and wipe each one off with a soft rag and say I will not drop my 22 lr ammo 500 times.

I suppose it could lead to another what is the best media to clean 22lr thread.

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Still Running Against the Wind

Actually much of it is not because many of the posters didn't read the OPs question! Many of them were referring to center-fire cartridges with (apparently) jacketed bullets instead of his question specific to outside lubricated .22 rim-fire ammunition! One even said .22 rim-fire ammunition is inside-lubricated! Boy, is that a surprise!

Real answer, rinse** them in a bucket of clear water and lay them out to dry! Tumbling, especially .22 rim-fire, should never be done with loaded ammunition, for several reasons, in spite of people often doing it!

** Changed from "wash" because I was afraid someone may think I meant to use soap!!!

Now, why in he!! did I post this?????????????????? Even more to the point, why did I waste my time reading the first 22 posts?

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Gunsmithing since 1961

$35 average price, pitch it safely and move on. Problem solved.

This topic is still on point and posters are still contributing towards providing useful relevant info. Moving forward.....

I don't shoot a 22 autoloader, I shoot revolver. I use range pickups all the time. But I do toss them in my tumbler and never had any issues whatsoever.

It's still relevant to anyone with the same problem.

The guys that complain about old threads and tell
you "it's been covered in other threads" when ya
start a new one...

I'd clean them with water w/o immersing them, throw them on a towel and tumble them with plenty of media for cushion in small batches. Actually I use a vibrator cleaner. I've never seen a case rim get bent/smashed in a tumbler and if one were to 'go off' it wouldn't hurt anything.

I always thought this wa s reloading forum and not a cleaning 22 rimfire ammo forum.

It's relevant for just how many folks here have dumped 500 rounds of 22 RF in a lake bottom full of mud??

I do not see the anyone had this issue to bring the thread back to life?

Lets see a show of hands??

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Still Running Against the Wind