Tumbling final assembled cartage

[hogcowboy]

I have read several posts that talk about tumbling the final assembled rounds when reloading. Is there a good reason to do this or is it a waste of time. I would like your opinion.

 

[troy_mclure]

many people do so to remove any sizing lube that can grab grit and jam the gun or scar the chamber. they also do it to "pretty up" the ammo too.

 

[PA-Joe]

I tumble once before sizing to remove dirt. Then I tumble a second time after sizing to remove lube.

 

[hornady]

I have read most of the can and should not post on the Internet. But also read in Hand loader the main reason not too is that the powder in the cases will brake down from the tumbling and loads will not be consistent.

 

[Uncle Buck]

Several members here on the board have done test of this. Basically, they tumbled the ammo for X amount of hours and then shot it over a chronograph with no differences. (Snuffy and/or Old Grump are two I believe that did this test.)

I tumble loaded rounds for a few reasons. It pretties them up, it cleans any lube off of them and I think I get a pretty good seal on the primer and crimp when I do it. (With the car wax that I put in my tumbler.)

I dropped a round in a coffee cup full of water and waited a week, then I shot it. Worked fine. (But then I have read about people doing the water test on regular rounds and they still fire after a week.)

For me, it is a personal preference. I think the fired rounds extract better and they clean up better with an after loading tumble.

 

[CrustyFN]

I tumble loaded rifle ammo to remove the case lube. I don't tumble pistol ammo.

 

[dikko]

The standard wisdom is that tumbling loaded rounds risks breaking up the powder granules and dangerously altering the burning rate. That some tests have not shown it still makes it bad practice in my opinion. At the least its pointless. Cleaning loaded cartridges? Each to his own, but it makes more sense to me to clean the components before loading them. And if you like 'em nice and shiny, shine 'em before loading. I just wash mine. Sure they get dull, but its clean, not shiny, that makes them feed and extract.

 

[hogcowboy]

I think I'll just stick to tumbling before resizing. I'm not hearing a good argument for doing it after final product. I was just wonder if I was missing out on something. Thanks for the responses.

 

[buck460XVR]

Ammo companies do it to make their ammo nice and shiny. Guess they are just taking unnecessary risks.

 

[snuffy]

Since you have this posted over on THR, you saw the test walkalong and I did back 01 2010. For those that didn't see that thread, here's the link to the thread where walkalong an my test is;

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthrea...=498890&page=3

To summarize, it does NO harm to the loaded round to tumble it even for 2 DAYS!

I routinely tumble .223 rounds that come out of my dillon with lube on them. It makes NO sense to remove brass after sizing to clean lube from them, then put them back in. Just run 'em through then tumble the lube off.

 

[CrustyFN]

I saw it. Thanks again for taking the time to do the testing.