Tracer was kind enough to send me a bunch of AR brass, mixed lot, range finds. He was also kind enough to clean it very nicely before shipping it off to me. He probably doesn't know he did an experiment in the process.
While sorting the brass last night, I came upon a Winchester case with a live primer and the bullet rattling around inside the case. I pulled the bullet out with a pair of side-cutter pliers and found it was 45 grains, folded HP, flat base, so the round probably was one of the Winchester White Box types.
A bit later I found another Winchester round, nicely cleaned with a noticeable dent and set of scratches on the side of the case, live primer, bullet still seated, and probably quite able to fire except the dent is big enough to make the whole thing a little crooked and it might not chamber.
Upon examining the little bits of cleaning medium in the bag, I noticed a few flattened spheres of powder mixed in. I can only conclude that the round with bullet in the case somehow had the bullet pushed back during the tumbling operation and the powder spilled out. The round with the dent managed to avoid that fate, but obviously neither one fired.
So, it appears that it's safe enough to tumble loaded ammo, but you might want to check the COAL when you get done in case the bullets get pushed back in a bit.
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I've heard the main danger involved in tumbling live ammo is not the round going off in the tumbler, but the risk of increased pressure when you fire the round due to the powder's burn rate being changed during tumbling. The granules of powder tumble and rub together, changing their size and leading to a change in the burn rate.
So I've heard...
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I've always wondered about tumbling primed brass. Not because I have a reason to, but just curiosity. Would the media clog up the primer/flash hole? Would it have an effect on the priming compound? Just curious.
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I've tumbled loaded cartridges and shot them across the chrono and there was no change.I've also pulled the bullet,strained the powder,reseated and tumbled and pulled the bullet and re-strained powder and there was no change.The only difference I ever found was the gunky stuff on the case was removed in the tumbler so the chamber/action in the rifle didn't get as dirty,as quick.I don't give a sh** what anyone else does,I have tumbled loaded ammo for years,benefitted by it,AND WILL CONTINUE TO DO SO! ,,,sam.
I think he meant primed but not charged with powder and bullet.
I can't figure out why a bit of lightweight cleaning medium would disrupt the explosion of the primer. The anvil should be against the case if the primer is properly seated. How in the world could a piece of walnut hull or corncob can get jammed into the flash hole strongly enough to keep the flame from reaching the powder? Or enough to cause pressure problems?
Maybe, just maybe, it might disrupt the flame pattern and make the round act a tiny bit differently than otherwise, but I won't believe it until someone like Sam does an experiment wherein they purposely load some rounds with a bit of medium in the flash hole and compare them to identical loads without the blockage.
All that aside, my habit is to clean the cases with the spent primers in place, then start the loading routine.
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Teach,I never jammed media in the hole on purpose,but some casings I had cleaned with the spent primer removed had media in the flash hole (both rifle and pistol) and without removing it I seated primers,loaded the cartridges,and fired them.I noticed no difference in ignition and the few I fired over the chrono had average FPS.This leads me to believe that a tiny piece of media wedged in an ignition hole can't resist the pressure (possibly 1-2k lbs) created by the primer. ,,,sam.
I tumbled a brunnette last week. And the primer hole...well thats a different story.
I would like to say I do not shoot cases that have dimples or large dents in them. I have found from experence that it is an unhealty thing to do. Especially if it has them on the shoulder of the case if the round has one.
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I tumbled a brunnette last week. And the primer hole...well thats a different story.
I would like to say I do not shoot cases that have dimples or large dents in them. I have found from experence that it is an unhealty thing to do. Especially if it has them on the shoulder of the case if the round has one.
By the time you have fired at least 50 reloads you'll get over that. ,,,sam.
I would like to say I do not shoot cases that have dimples or large dents in them. I have found from experence that it is an unhealty thing to do. Especially if it has them on the shoulder of the case if the round has one.
How do you think you make "improved" wild cats it is called fire forming, which is a lot worse than a small dent...
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I've never done it, but I always thought it was with a full charge for the smaller cartridge. Some fireform to blow the case out to a larger caliber, too.
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Just my take here fellas. I highly doubt a tumbler pushed them projectiles into the case or even dented them. I fired more than 30,000 rounds from a M249 over a time period of 2 years from a M249, one year of training and one of combat. Them rounds saw alot more abuse being rattled around than any tumbler could ever subject a live round to. Never had a projectile ram into the case like that. I have however seen rounds fail to feed that were driven all the way back into the case. THe rounds are cleared and left on the ground. The same thing probably happened to some unlucky shooter with a bad magazine that fed the rounds wrong and got some projectiles driven back because of it. The shooter left them, the person picked them up and tumbled them with out noticing.
It can be easly proven too. All someone here needs to do is go dump some factory rounds into a tumbler and let them tumble for an hour. All that will happen is the ammo will be nice and bright. Nothing more.....
I tumbled a brunnette last week. And the primer hole...well thats a different story.
I would like to say I do not shoot cases that have dimples or large dents in them. I have found from experence that it is an unhealty thing to do. Especially if it has them on the shoulder of the case if the round has one.
I didn't think the dented round was from the tumbler. The pattern and intensity of the marks pretty well preclude that. What Boris says makes sense about the bullet in the case. If not, Winchester is loading some stuff with very little tension on the casenecks. I had to grab the bullet with a pair of sidecutters and lever it out of that case.
A guy at the range at the gun shop I frequent was sorting through range brass one time and came upon a couple of live rounds, so apparently some people are not too concerned about dropping live ammo and not finding it. If I drop a live round while on my range, I always look for it until it's found, but then my range time is free instead of costing me 50 cents a minute or whatever.
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Teach
