Cleaning

[MN Rifleman]

Steel wool if it’s only 10 rds or so works great with a little elbow grease

 

[Lt.Donn]

Wow! I must be the ONLY handloader on this forum that has ever dropped a live round into the tumbler with my empties for cleaning! Sometimes even more than one round!! I have even done this with old CMP 30-06 ammunition! Funny thing was.....
NOTHING! The rounds didn't explode in my vibratory tumbler and they still went off properly in my firearms. Now I admit the cases weren't all tarnished and moldy looking as they had been properly stored, but the ammunition was old and yet still worked as it should after being tumbled. I even noticed no difference in speed thru a chronograph. The first time this happened many years ago I was concerned, but I didn't think the sky was falling, I just had to make a decision to take the rounds apart or shoot them. I shot them to no ill effect.

If you doubt your ammunition don't shoot it! I sometimes think we get all crazy about stuff we shouldn't worry about. Is tumbling a loaded round the end of the earth? Not in my experience, but it was only a couple of loaded rounds not a case of them. Maybe one day I will take a box of old surplus CMP ammo and dump it in the tumbler and see what happens. If my tumbler doesn't go BOOM after a few hours I will report it here. Who knows, if I survive the tumbling session I may even shoot the ammo and chronograph it just for posterity and research, if I am still here and able to type. Heck I may even go outside and take a drink of water from my garden hose!!

Rick H.

Noooo. Not the dreaded garden hose!!

 

[rockquarry]

Many years ago there was a Guy on AR15.COM that tumbled 100 handloads of .233 ammo in a Lapidary tumbler for 12 hours straight. He shot them through a chronograph with no change in velocity. No problems at all.

I tried this myself once and had the same results. Now I tumble them all after loading.

Sounds pretty scientific and in a controlled laboratory setting.

 

[rockquarry]

Noooo. Not the dreaded garden hose!!

Are you not supposed to drink from a garden hose? I thought that was okay but I also thought this thread was about tumbling ammo.

 

[Lt.Donn]

Are you not supposed to drink from a garden hose? I thought that was okay but I also thought this thread was about tumbling ammo.

I was being sarcastic...in my 72yrs I have done every single one of the things the Nanny state said we should Never let our kids do: garden hose, no seatbelts, ride in back of pickup trucks, eat homemade Halloween treats, hitchhiked all over town, made homemade fire crackers, and many more...how did we ever survive?...miracle

 

[JimFr]

I found some old ammo in a box. It is .308 round nose corlock and is old and cruddy. Is it safe to put in into a tumbler to clean? There are 10 rounds.

With only 10 rounds, #0000 steel wool and elbow grease would be my suggestion!

 

[Igiveup]

JimFr, that is exactly what I did! I was in the process of cleaning a few bunches of brass and thot maybe I could just throw in the loaded ammo with it. After reading some of the great answers, I don't think I would now hesitate to put some in the tumbler. Thank you all for the comments.

 

[Alk8944]

Absolutely not! If the brass is corroded it will take hours to clean it in a tumbler and can damage both the charge and the primer compound, and you will never know until you get a failed case or mis-fire. Only 10 rounds should only take a few minutes to clean by hand. "Really cruddy" is a quite relative term, it will be far different from me to you! Use fine steel wool, with or without a liquid polish, or fine grit Scotchbrite. Just be sure to NOT use any polish containing ammonia, it will embrittle the brass.

 

[cracker57]

I don't have it handy for a picture but I have a thing that holds a round and chucks in the drill. 10 rounds would take about 5 minutes to put in the drill and use steel wool to polish shinny clean.
This guy uses something like I have. He shows it around 4 minutes into the video.

 

[HamBoneZ]

I also use my dry tumbler to remove any leftover lube. I drop about 100 rounds in, let go for about 10 minutes or less, all good. Works well specially if you use lanolin based lube. This is the only thing I use my dry tumbler for.

Case prep i use a wet tumbler and steel rods, at least with my cases it gets the insides cleaned out much better than the dry method. I'm in the middle of doing a complete strip down and clean of my dillon 750xl because I over lubed a batch of 223 cases with dillon case lube and stuff is sticking. After a while lanolin seems to get where you don't want it.

 

[gwpercle]

I found some old ammo in a box. It is .308 round nose corlock and is old and cruddy. Is it safe to put in into a tumbler to clean? There are 10 rounds.

Don,t tumble loaded ammo ... it can change powder granule size !
The powder can be broken down into finer particles ... pressures can change dramatically ... Just Don,t Tumble them ...
10 rounds ... Scotch Brite pad or 0000 steel wool ... is your best bet !
Better Safe Than Sorry !
Gary