Not that I'm any kind of expert, and I certainly didn't spend much time researching the subject, but I remember when I first started reloading about 6 years ago, and someone asked a similar question here or on the other board I frequent, and decided that judicious tumbling couldn't hurt loaded ammo.
Since then, I've run at least 20,000 rounds, both pistol and rifle, through my vibratory tumbler, with no issues, except that I found that if I overloaded the tumbler with too much loaded ammo, the rounds didn't want to 'cycle' properly. I've been using primarily Lyman's walnut media w/ rouge for about 45 minutes per batch to get my cartridges nice and shiny.
I'm thinking Unclenick is correct, and the concern of tumbling live ammo is just a myth.
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