Ammo corrosion

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  • DutchV

    Ultimate Member
    Jul 8, 2012
    4,703
    If you have a brass tumbler that uses corncob media or similar, just run it through that, and it'll get shiny again. There's no issue with tumbling live rounds, and it's actually sometimes helpful on older milsurp to get them a little cleaner to do a true corrosion assessment.

    But, really, I'd just shoot it.

    A brief trip to get the big chunks off might be okay. Extended tumbling can break down the powder grains, giving you a faster burn rate, aka Ka-Boom.
     

    Pinecone

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 4, 2013
    28,175
    A brief trip to get the big chunks off might be okay. Extended tumbling can break down the powder grains, giving you a faster burn rate, aka Ka-Boom.

    This is not correct.

    https://www.ar15.com/forums/general...e_test__UPDATE__fired_rounds_in_OP/5-989047/?

    From what I can see, there is no notable change to the powders, no breakdown, no coatings coming off, I see nothing that would tell me the powder has changed. I even noticed some sharp spurs and loops of the silver substance that I would have thought would break off if the tumbling was so damaging.

    This was from 205 HOURS of tumbling.

    And BTW, Lake City Ammunition plant tumbles about a billion rounds per year.

    ...per Hodgdon and Hornady's folks it's not problematic if done for "a reasonable amount of vibration.

    https://www.americanhunter.org/articles/2012/10/10/is-tumbling-loaded-ammo-dangerous/

    I spoke to the Chief Ballistic Scientist at Hornady Manufacturing and the Head Ballistician at Hodgdon Powder and asked for their professional opinions. Both agreed that this is a myth devoid of empirical data.

    "Powder is hard, it doesn’t change shape from any reasonable amount of vibration,” said Hornady’s Dave Emary. “This notion that you can wear deterrent off of the surface of the powder is a myth, it is impregnated into the powder grains. You can’t knock this stuff off."

    And there used to be a report of a guy who forgot and tumbled some loaded rounds for a very long time, and saw no change in performance when fired.
     

    DutchV

    Ultimate Member
    Jul 8, 2012
    4,703
    This is not correct.

    https://www.ar15.com/forums/general...e_test__UPDATE__fired_rounds_in_OP/5-989047/?



    This was from 205 HOURS of tumbling.

    And BTW, Lake City Ammunition plant tumbles about a billion rounds per year.



    https://www.americanhunter.org/articles/2012/10/10/is-tumbling-loaded-ammo-dangerous/



    And there used to be a report of a guy who forgot and tumbled some loaded rounds for a very long time, and saw no change in performance when fired.

    Good to know. It wasn't the sort of thing I wanted to test myself.
     

    Pinecone

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 4, 2013
    28,175
    I tumbled loaded rounds a good bit.

    When I load 5.56, if the brass has been previously processed for the primer pocket swage, I run the 650 fully progressive, so the loaded rounds have lube. I toss them in the tumbler for about 15 minutes per batch.
     

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