Removing Pull Marks .308 M2

Brad. · June 18, 2007, 11:06 AM

Hey all. Have several thousand .308 bullets here that need cleaning up. They all have pull marks, painted tips and case mouth sealant that need to be removed. I know - shoot them and the marks will disappear, and they don't affect performance much - but these are for testing, and need to be cleaned up. From the few mentions of pull mark removal in posts here it sounds like a tumbler should be able to clean them up a bit. I am not a reloader, can someone suggest the proper media and amount of time tumbling to clean them up, but not remove too much material (they need to maintain the NATO spec weight).

Thanks guys, if anyone has experience cleaning these up, spell it out for me (tumbler, media, duration, etc...).

Thanks again!

DBotkin · June 18, 2007, 11:38 AM

I have a Lyman Turbo 1200 Pro tumbler, which seems to be essentially the same as most others. You can tumble those suckers in crushed walnut for a few hours, they'll look like brand new but not lose any detectable weight. I don't know how well it will remove paint and primer sealant, but some paint thinner and a rag should do that if the walnut shell doesn't. I bought the Lyman red coated walnut media at Scheel's, but have also seen plain crushed walnut in bags at the Wal-Mart pet department for a whole lot less money.

I've been using the same media for almost a year now, when it gets grubby I just take it outside on a windy day and pour it between two tubs to let the dust blow out of it. I've learned SO much from TFL...

rg1 · June 18, 2007, 01:54 PM

Oderless mineral spirits and a rag will remove the tar. I've read that a couple cap fulls of mineral spirits in your media will also remove tar. Some dump bullets in a container of solvent, let them sit, then shake container and finally put bullets in tumbler. The paint won't come off totally by tumbling alone, possible use of fine wire brush or scotch brite pads will remove all the paint.
As for the pull marks, if the pulled bullets have not been resized they should be ran through a resizing die. That's the only way to iron out pull marks and to insure that they are round.

June 18, 2007, 11:06 AM	#1
Brad. Junior Member Join Date: February 24, 2006 Posts: 2	Removing Pull Marks .308 M2 Hey all. Have several thousand .308 bullets here that need cleaning up. They all have pull marks, painted tips and case mouth sealant that need to be removed. I know - shoot them and the marks will disappear, and they don't affect performance much - but these are for testing, and need to be cleaned up. From the few mentions of pull mark removal in posts here it sounds like a tumbler should be able to clean them up a bit. I am not a reloader, can someone suggest the proper media and amount of time tumbling to clean them up, but not remove too much material (they need to maintain the NATO spec weight). Thanks guys, if anyone has experience cleaning these up, spell it out for me (tumbler, media, duration, etc...). Thanks again!

June 18, 2007, 11:38 AM	#2
DBotkin Senior Member Join Date: December 14, 2006 Location: Omaha, NE Posts: 302	I have a Lyman Turbo 1200 Pro tumbler, which seems to be essentially the same as most others. You can tumble those suckers in crushed walnut for a few hours, they'll look like brand new but not lose any detectable weight. I don't know how well it will remove paint and primer sealant, but some paint thinner and a rag should do that if the walnut shell doesn't. I bought the Lyman red coated walnut media at Scheel's, but have also seen plain crushed walnut in bags at the Wal-Mart pet department for a whole lot less money. I've been using the same media for almost a year now, when it gets grubby I just take it outside on a windy day and pour it between two tubs to let the dust blow out of it. I've learned SO much from TFL...

June 18, 2007, 01:54 PM	#3
rg1 Senior Member Join Date: November 6, 2001 Posts: 1,125	Oderless mineral spirits and a rag will remove the tar. I've read that a couple cap fulls of mineral spirits in your media will also remove tar. Some dump bullets in a container of solvent, let them sit, then shake container and finally put bullets in tumbler. The paint won't come off totally by tumbling alone, possible use of fine wire brush or scotch brite pads will remove all the paint. As for the pull marks, if the pulled bullets have not been resized they should be ran through a resizing die. That's the only way to iron out pull marks and to insure that they are round.