tumbling live shells

[Sevens]

*raises hand*

I will use Imperial on 9mm, 10mm and .44 Mag resizing in my CARBIDE sizing dies.
Typically, I grab a small handful... maybe a quarter or a fifth of the entire load and lube them very lightly... so light, nothing like a piece of rifle brass and also not so much that you want or need to wipe off the lube after sizing.

With my small collection of lightly lubed pieces, I typically do 3 or 4 unlubed pieces, then grab a lubed piece, and the entire operation is smoother, with less effort, and there's a tiny piece of "warm and fuzzy" in me that hopes my brass will last 15 minutes longer than it otherwise would.

If you've never lubed a piece of pistol brass before sizing, you might not believe the difference. It's colossal. The effort to resize is slashed.

Mechanical advantage, leverage? I'm using a Lee Classic Cast, I've got quite a sturdy press. It's an animal.

Hey, I quit cleaner primer pockets some time ago, so I've got to use up some of that free time. I use it lubing a few pieces of brass!

(try it, even if all it makes you do is come back to this thread and tell me it's stoopid)

[CrustyFN]

I am new to this reloading stuff are you messing with me or is this a real question? I was spraying a little lube on about every 20th round just to make the cases go through the resizing die easier.

I was joking with you, that's why I had the smile at the end of the post. You will find a few that will lube pistol cases but not very many, most of them progressive loaders. I use carbide dies and tumble with Nu Finish car polish which I think helps make sizing a little easier. To me the cleaning of the brass never seemed worth lubing pistol brass. Now rifle is a whole different PITA. Welcome to reloading.
Rusty

[CrustyFN]

Hey, I quit cleaner primer pockets some time ago, so I've got to use up some of that free time. I use it lubing a few pieces of brass!

I guess it is hard to quit cold turkey.
Rusty

[Nnobby45]

I am new to this reloading stuff are you messing with me or is this a real question? I was spraying a little lube on about every 20th round just to make the cases go through the resizing die easier.

It isn't necessary to lube straightwalled pistol cases when using a carbide sizer.

HOWEVER: On Brian Enos's site, he said that he lubed his pistol cases with Hornady One Shot to make the sizing process so much easier. He was right. I've been doing it every since, and wish I'd started years ago.

Can't speak about other types of spray lubes, but One Shot is non greasy, and doesn't have to be wiped off--very little extra work involved. Have noticed no gunking up the chamber when using these loads.

Just put all your cases in a big box, and hit 'em with some spray. You'll also get a little lube in some case mouths so they don't stick when pulling the expander out of the case mouth after belling.

Easy with the lube. Doesn't take much. The stuff will dry on the case and you'll hardly know it's there when you go to load.

Again: He specified One Shot. You can try other stuff, but I wouldn't use anything I had to clean off.

Worst case scenario: A round detonates in the tumbler. Well, as soon as the bullet separates from the case, the burning powder energy dissipates into thin air and pressure can't build up. If either the case or bullet hit you, it might make a welt on your skin, but we aren't talking about a bullet at lethal velocity here. Never the less, if rounds tended to detonate in the tumbler, I wouldn't tumble them. Wouldn't want to get hit in the eye with case or bullet. Good news: They don't.

[Whisper 300]

+1 on Nnobody's use of One Shot with the progressive and straight walled pistol cases. It DOES make things smoother but do let the stuff dry completely to get the benefit.
I have used it on bottlenecked cases and it works but if not totally, completely dry remember to have your stuck case remover kit handy as you will need it.
Really never should have strayed from Imperial lube but you never know what else works until you try(and fail).

Gary

[protectedbyglock]

I use a carbide sizer on my progressive for .45ACP, and I figured I'd try lubing to make things smoother. Glad I did.
I just take an old coffee can full of cases, spray 'em a few times, put the lid on, and shake 'em up. It takes me maybe 15secs and is soooo worth it. It's like night and day. Smooths it right out to the point that you barely even have to push to size. I'd recommend that anyone try it. I use Dillon Case Lube. It was on sale for $5 for a big spray bottle.

[RickV]

I had ordered a tumbler in early January. I just received it Thursday. I cleaned all my cases with it, I added the included polish and it made a big difference. Prior to getting the tumbler I cleaned all cases with the old Kool-Aid method. I think that was most of my problem. I have a Lee Pro 1000 and since I tumbled the cases everything is smooth. Like I said in a earlier post I originally started loading 40 S&W only and the brass I was using I bought from Once Fired Brass and it was cleaned and polished. My problems started when I cleaned the brass with the Kool-Aid.

[That'll Do]

Originally Posted by sevens

*raises hand*

I will use Imperial on 9mm, 10mm and .44 Mag resizing in my CARBIDE sizing dies.
Typically, I grab a small handful... maybe a quarter or a fifth of the entire load and lube them very lightly... so light, nothing like a piece of rifle brass and also not so much that you want or need to wipe off the lube after sizing.

With my small collection of lightly lubed pieces, I typically do 3 or 4 unlubed pieces, then grab a lubed piece, and the entire operation is smoother, with less effort, and there's a tiny piece of "warm and fuzzy" in me that hopes my brass will last 15 minutes longer than it otherwise would.

If you've never lubed a piece of pistol brass before sizing, you might not believe the difference. It's colossal. The effort to resize is slashed.

Mechanical advantage, leverage? I'm using a Lee Classic Cast, I've got quite a sturdy press. It's an animal.

Hey, I quit cleaner primer pockets some time ago, so I've got to use up some of that free time. I use it lubing a few pieces of brass!

(try it, even if all it makes you do is come back to this thread and tell me it's stoopid)

I do the same in regards lubing the cases–and it does make big difference.

I give credit on not cleaning the primer pockets–I still haven't made that jump. Baby steps...

[Sevens]

Hey, I still clean 'em on rifle rounds.
Even rifle rounds I shoot out of a 14-inch barreled pistol.
But not rifle rounds I shoot out of a 7.5 inch barreled revolver.
But on rifle rounds I shoot out of a bolt-action rifle.
But not on handgun rounds out of handguns.

Anyway, I've got some loaded rounds that I need to tumble... just because I can!

[pacomdiver]

i just as snuffy has stated use the dillon spray on lube and a dillon progressive press and do 500+ at a sitting and dont want to wipe the lube off, so i put them in my tumbler for 30 minutes to get the lube off

[James R. Burke]

I would not do it. If you need to clean them by hand. Just seems safer not to do it.

[Sixer]

It's probably fine... until it's not... then your screwed

[cgaengineer]

I have done it with some old .308 rounds I had loaded for hunting and never used...they were in there for over an hour and came out looking fine and not a single one fired while in tumbler.

[TEDDY]

I have a large number of collectable cartridges and samples.they have got stained and I put them in the tumbler until shining.sprayed them with clear spray paint.I have been tumbling live since tumblers came out.about 1968.
any one ever wonder whether military ammo gets rattled around.from factory to truck to warehouse to truck to boat to truck to dump to front. man you guys must be kidding.they may have taught you in school but did they teach you to think.if some one cant figure how many bullets in a lb.
and I am old enuf to be your grandfather.

[Steviewonder1]

Should'nt be an issue, have done so with small batches (200 rounds or less) for IPSC, also chamber checked all of them (CCQC).

[PCJim]

RickV, where did you obtain the pure lanolin?

[luis7]

Hello guys.
I do sometimes because I had one or two live brass in a lot of used brass to a good friend and I tumblered all at same time during 4 hours but never shooted one.
Greetings at all.

[protectedbyglock]

I just tumbled a couple hundred live .223 rounds yesterday for about 4hrs.
They came out nice and shiny! I shot 30 of them, and found no difference between them and the others.
I also tumble live rounds to get the lube off, but only for about 30mins at a time max. I just wanted to do it for several hours just to see.
I don't think I'll hesitate to tumble live ones in the future, but that's just me. I'm such a risk-taker!

[Oldfalguy]

Several years ago I acquired about 3000 rounds of ugly 50bmg-
I hand cleaned then best I could but the cases were well stained- not corroded. While at the Wikieup MG shoot in AZ We pulled a bullet and checked inside the case and it was clean and then poured the powder out and lit it-burned fine-
Linked it up and it ran fine in the M2.
Well I still didn't like the "looks" of it much at all and had always heard not to tumble it.
Well the fella that owns Thunderbird Cartridges in AZ ran a bunch of it through his polishing process. Stuff came out great-
The catch is he had armory equipment to do this-
Instead of the cases being tumbled with moving media his machine MOVEs the cases through the media so they are not shaken or stirred too much.
While I would like to tumble what I have left I'm too chicken doing it with a 50bmg but I can certainly see doing it for a little while on the other stuff, especially to remove lube from rifle loads.
Mark