TexasSeaRay
New member
I've been doing this experiment on "To tumble or not to tumble . . ."
For the most part and the majority of the time, I do not tumble my loaded ammo. Instead, I make sure my brass is polished and clean before I load it up.
But, over the past few years I've been reading about all the ills, evils and catastrophic world-ending probabilities that are just waiting to happen if you tumble your loaded ammo.
So I decided to start doing a little experimenting. There are already a few threads on this in the Handloading and Reloading area of TFL--what I'm posting now is simply a continuation of what happens when you have too much time on your hands and way too curious of a mind.
For this latest round, I loaded 52 rounds of .38 Special 158 gr Lead Round Nose (LRN) with 4.3 grains of Accurate Arms #2 and used Winchester Small Pistol primers. The cases are mixed.
I chose AA#2 because it is an extremely fine powder in terms of makeup and grade. It's a ball powder and my thinking was that a fine, small ball powder would be less affected by a long tumbling session (if it would be affected at all) than would a flake or extruded powder.
The previous portion of this ongoing experiment had an unexpected incident. The lead bullets took on a dark luster from the tumbling. At first glance, they appeared to have lost some metal compared to the untumbled rounds.
The tumbler I use is a Thumler's Tumbler and it is a rotary-style tumbler as opposed to a vibratory tumbler. For this round of experimenting, I tumbled 24 rounds for six hours in treated walnut media, then another six hours in untreated walnut media. This is my standard cleaning process for brass before I reload it. I like clean, shiny, like-new looking brass.
Here are the untumbled .38 Spcl 158 gr LRN rounds.
And here are the tumbled rounds. Note the darker color of the bullet itself.
Prior to heading to the range, I pulled a bullet after the tumbling was complete and put the calipers to it in order to compare it with the untumbled bullet. They were identical at both the base of the bullet and the front of the bullet. I then weighed the tumbled bullet and compared it with the untumbled bullet. Identical.
At the range, I shot several cylinders of normal wadcutters just to get a little powder and fouling in the barrel to level the playing field.
Next, I taped up two 3"x5" blank notecards to my target, then ran the target to 75 feet instead of my normal 50 feet. I wanted the extra 25 feet to help expose any differences there might be between the tumbled and untumbled rounds.
I alternated cylinders between tumbled and untumbled. I started with six rounds of untumbled, firing handheld at one notecard, then switched to six rounds of tumbled loads and fired at the opposing notecard.
Here are the results.
The untumbled rounds at 75 feet handheld.
And the tumbled rounds at 75 feet handheld.
Quite honestly, I couldn't feel or tell any difference in how one set of rounds fired over the other. The gun I used was my Smith & Wesson Model 686 with a 6-inch barrel.
Next phase in this thing, I guess I'm gonna start trying flake powders and see if the tumbling process affects the large powders. It sure didn't affect the AA#2.
Not sure what to make of all this, and I'm NOT recommending anyone tumble their loaded ammo, nor am I discouraging anyone. Just trying to draw some conclusions based on firsthand experience rather than third-person reports.
Jeff
For the most part and the majority of the time, I do not tumble my loaded ammo. Instead, I make sure my brass is polished and clean before I load it up.
But, over the past few years I've been reading about all the ills, evils and catastrophic world-ending probabilities that are just waiting to happen if you tumble your loaded ammo.
So I decided to start doing a little experimenting. There are already a few threads on this in the Handloading and Reloading area of TFL--what I'm posting now is simply a continuation of what happens when you have too much time on your hands and way too curious of a mind.
For this latest round, I loaded 52 rounds of .38 Special 158 gr Lead Round Nose (LRN) with 4.3 grains of Accurate Arms #2 and used Winchester Small Pistol primers. The cases are mixed.
I chose AA#2 because it is an extremely fine powder in terms of makeup and grade. It's a ball powder and my thinking was that a fine, small ball powder would be less affected by a long tumbling session (if it would be affected at all) than would a flake or extruded powder.
The previous portion of this ongoing experiment had an unexpected incident. The lead bullets took on a dark luster from the tumbling. At first glance, they appeared to have lost some metal compared to the untumbled rounds.
The tumbler I use is a Thumler's Tumbler and it is a rotary-style tumbler as opposed to a vibratory tumbler. For this round of experimenting, I tumbled 24 rounds for six hours in treated walnut media, then another six hours in untreated walnut media. This is my standard cleaning process for brass before I reload it. I like clean, shiny, like-new looking brass.
Here are the untumbled .38 Spcl 158 gr LRN rounds.
And here are the tumbled rounds. Note the darker color of the bullet itself.
Prior to heading to the range, I pulled a bullet after the tumbling was complete and put the calipers to it in order to compare it with the untumbled bullet. They were identical at both the base of the bullet and the front of the bullet. I then weighed the tumbled bullet and compared it with the untumbled bullet. Identical.
At the range, I shot several cylinders of normal wadcutters just to get a little powder and fouling in the barrel to level the playing field.
Next, I taped up two 3"x5" blank notecards to my target, then ran the target to 75 feet instead of my normal 50 feet. I wanted the extra 25 feet to help expose any differences there might be between the tumbled and untumbled rounds.
I alternated cylinders between tumbled and untumbled. I started with six rounds of untumbled, firing handheld at one notecard, then switched to six rounds of tumbled loads and fired at the opposing notecard.
Here are the results.
The untumbled rounds at 75 feet handheld.
And the tumbled rounds at 75 feet handheld.
Quite honestly, I couldn't feel or tell any difference in how one set of rounds fired over the other. The gun I used was my Smith & Wesson Model 686 with a 6-inch barrel.
Next phase in this thing, I guess I'm gonna start trying flake powders and see if the tumbling process affects the large powders. It sure didn't affect the AA#2.
Not sure what to make of all this, and I'm NOT recommending anyone tumble their loaded ammo, nor am I discouraging anyone. Just trying to draw some conclusions based on firsthand experience rather than third-person reports.
Jeff
