shouldazagged
Absent Comrade
I don't clean loaded ammo at all. Am I missing
something? I don't see the need to clean ammo
but if I should let me know. Don
I'm with you. The cosmetics aren't important to me if it goes bang every time.
Cleaning tarnished ammo
- Thread starter skeeterbait
- Start date
I'm with you. The cosmetics aren't important to me if it goes bang every time.
But then you read "I just got my new XX pistol, and can't load the last xx round(s) in the magazine?"...and ten responses say "load up as many as you can fit, and leave it sit for ___days. Then you'll be able to fully load it."
Something's obviously going on...
rck281
Member
Tumbling loaded ammo is potentially dangerous. The burning rate of many kinds of powder is controlled by size of the individual grains or flakes. The powder companies add flakes of different size to standardize the burning rate. With spherical powder, inhibitors are added to the mix. Tumbling loaded ammo can cause flake powder to break into smaller pieces resulting in faster burning powder. I'm not sure if it would do anything to spherical powder. I just wouldn't do it. Use Flitz or Semichrome polish on a cloth or paper towel.
There is absolutly no proof of it changeing the burn rate, the powder is not exposed
to any change on the brass and bullits get polished. 40 years and perfect ammo everytime. Dont believe what does not make common sense unless there is real
documented evedense of this. ive seen no proof of this and ive been tumbling loaded ammo since 1973.
to any change on the brass and bullits get polished. 40 years and perfect ammo everytime. Dont believe what does not make common sense unless there is real
documented evedense of this. ive seen no proof of this and ive been tumbling loaded ammo since 1973.
Alk8944
US Veteran
Reposting on a 7 year old thread doesn't make sense, but since this has been resurrected I will.
Your remarks are absolutely incorrect! You are 180 degrees off. The correct way to look at this is to "Heed such advice unless there is documentable evidence that it is incorrect." You will never have an issue by not doing something you have been advised against, but you could well come to grief by doing what you have been advised against. Contrary to your assumption it does make perfect sense that polishing loaded ammunition by either vibratory methods or tumbling could, and likely will, cause unseen damage to either the powder charge or primer. It probably will not make the ammunition dangerous, but could result in irregular/erratic performance including mis-fires and squibs if the primer is damaged by the vibrations.
This reminds me of the situation years ago, of which you may have no knowledge, concerning H-110/296. Guns were being blown up, squibs, etc. from reduced charges! Counter-intuitive, isn't it!!! But it was happening. Eventually Winchester only published Maximum loads, and advised to not reduce more than 3%. Hodgdon continued to pooh-pooh the idea that reduced charges could cause problems, but after several years Hodgdon finally acknowledged that there was a problem and began publishing only Maximum charges, and to not reduce more than 5%!
Do you really want to be the first, or one of the few, that discovers there really is a problem with tumbling loaded ammunition????????? Anecdotal tales of "I've been doing it for years and haven't had a problem", are just that, tales that always leave off the most important word at the end, YET!
Do what you want, when something goes wrong you probably won't admit it could be the result of tumbling loaded ammunition, after all "It doesn't make sense to you!"
BTW, I really didn't "Like" your post, just did it in hopes you would come back to see what was said.
Last edited:
I don't worry about "tarnished" casings. Now pitting and verdigris is something that I will clean of and examine with a loupe. Pitting is NOT good. Verdigris can conceal pitting underneath the "green".
I bought some 250 rnd boxes of Speer Gold dot 124 gr HPs a coupla years back. A good price because they were only tarnished. Tarnishing is NOT pitting. At least not at a level we need to worry about. (Yeah, ok, on a microscopic level. I'll give you engineer gurus that one.)
These Gold dots are what I train with and use for SD.
I will pull and toss any cases with pitting.
And no, I don't tumble loaded rounds for any reason.
My reloads get walnut hull tumbled and as long as they are clean and smooth, I don't care how pretty they are.
But that's just me.
YMMV.
And I've been reloading since the late 70's. Rifle, handgun. and even LR precision.
I bought some 250 rnd boxes of Speer Gold dot 124 gr HPs a coupla years back. A good price because they were only tarnished. Tarnishing is NOT pitting. At least not at a level we need to worry about. (Yeah, ok, on a microscopic level. I'll give you engineer gurus that one.)
These Gold dots are what I train with and use for SD.
I will pull and toss any cases with pitting.
And no, I don't tumble loaded rounds for any reason.
My reloads get walnut hull tumbled and as long as they are clean and smooth, I don't care how pretty they are.
But that's just me.
YMMV.
And I've been reloading since the late 70's. Rifle, handgun. and even LR precision.
cleaning ammo
since i have been tumbling loaded ammo since 1973, with 100 percent success, i do believe that proves to me, that your myth is just that a myth. but people believe what they want to believe, so if you believe that, then
dont tumble your loaded ammo, but with as much success as i have had with it, i will non stop because of internet rummers. I haave found that there are people on gun forums that think they have expert advice on things that they have absolutly no experience in. I have been building high end custom 1911s for 30 years now and i still have these internet experts giving me advice. its just the way the gun world is.
since i have been tumbling loaded ammo since 1973, with 100 percent success, i do believe that proves to me, that your myth is just that a myth. but people believe what they want to believe, so if you believe that, then
dont tumble your loaded ammo, but with as much success as i have had with it, i will non stop because of internet rummers. I haave found that there are people on gun forums that think they have expert advice on things that they have absolutly no experience in. I have been building high end custom 1911s for 30 years now and i still have these internet experts giving me advice. its just the way the gun world is.
ArchAngelCD
Moderator, SWCA Member, Absent Comrade
Facts:
1. Ammo manufacturers tumble their loaded ammo before they package it for sale.
2. Magazine springs will not set by being left loaded. They will be effected more by constant loading and unloading than being left loaded.
It is not dangerous to tumble loaded ammo and not bad to leave magazines loaded. It u2s just as true now as when this thread was started 7 years ago.
1. Ammo manufacturers tumble their loaded ammo before they package it for sale.
2. Magazine springs will not set by being left loaded. They will be effected more by constant loading and unloading than being left loaded.
It is not dangerous to tumble loaded ammo and not bad to leave magazines loaded. It u2s just as true now as when this thread was started 7 years ago.
Last edited:
Eddie Southgate
Member
That is not true. Tumbling will not harm loaded ammo and will not change the burning rate of the powder.
^^^ BS gets half way around the world before the truth gets its shoes on.
Oh, and smokeless powder does not make good fertilizer.
Oh, and smokeless powder does not make good fertilizer.
I'm just going to walk away!
What's going on is initial creep (deformation); give it enough time under the same compressive load and it will surely fail.But then you read "I just got my new XX pistol, and can't load the last xx round(s) in the magazine?"...and ten responses say "load up as many as you can fit, and leave it sit for ___days. Then you'll be able to fully load it."
Something's obviously going on...
MichiganScott
Member
Some people just don't think logically. If they did they would realize that no ammunition box comes with a warning about not leaving it in your truck. The vibrations from some of the dirt roads and fire trails that I have been down has got to be worse than a couple of hours in a tumbler.
The subject of tumbling ammo comes up frequently.
Geoff Beneze, a former employee at Dillon Reloading did a test on tumbling rounds. Some were tumbled for as long as 6 months, running 24-7. He found no degradation in the powder or performance.
I would never advocate that kind of tumbling, but it proves to me that tumbling loaded rounds for 10 minutes to remove case lube, in the case of reloading, or to polish dull brass isn't going to cause any problems. As for claims that all manufactures tumble rounds after assembly, that is NOT true. Some do, some do not. However during the manufacturing process, the loaded rounds do go through processes that tumble them about, such as during boxing. And they also go through a lot of shaking and bouncing around during transport, certainly more than 10 minutes in a tumbler.
Geoff Beneze, a former employee at Dillon Reloading did a test on tumbling rounds. Some were tumbled for as long as 6 months, running 24-7. He found no degradation in the powder or performance.
I would never advocate that kind of tumbling, but it proves to me that tumbling loaded rounds for 10 minutes to remove case lube, in the case of reloading, or to polish dull brass isn't going to cause any problems. As for claims that all manufactures tumble rounds after assembly, that is NOT true. Some do, some do not. However during the manufacturing process, the loaded rounds do go through processes that tumble them about, such as during boxing. And they also go through a lot of shaking and bouncing around during transport, certainly more than 10 minutes in a tumbler.
ChiefStealth
US Veteran
The OP, from many years ago, was about SD ammo becoming tarnished over time. IME , all of the good quality SD ammo I've ever bought had shiny nickel cases. I can't remember ever seeing tarnished SD ammo. EVER! Never thought about polishing SD ammo. I cycle through it maybe every two years or so.
Arik
Member
Magazine springs should be/are designed to be cycled, not indefinitely compressed. Either way, imperfections in crystal lattice structure of economical steel used for manufacture of magazine springs limits the useful life of practical springs -- certainly those used in $30 magazines.
Similar threads
