Gents,

Have some bullets that are not clean. Can they be cleaned by tumbling?
Some have large areas of lead exposed at the tip, will this affect anything?

Roger QSL

Rodger, yes I have cleaned tarished bullets by tumbling/vibrating in media. There would be two things to consider thou: first the jacket could become hardened by excessive work hardening, and second the core might be quicker to seperate. Both of these worries are not based on anything but supposition on my part. Not scientific, just thought. I would think that possible immersing them in a Dawn dishwashing detergent solution and then drying them could work as well. Good luck.

Seeing as how bullets are tumbled cleaned and polished by the manufacturors I doubt if you will do any damage. You might try adding a little Bon Ami. roger

This can be a touchy subject and soon there will be people chiming in saying DON'T DO IT.
I won't say either way but the argument against it is that you can break down the kernels of powder and rub off coatings that were designed to control the burn speed. Then people will counter act that there are those that leave ammo in their trucks for months and even years where it is subject to constant jiggling and vibration.
What I usually do is clean the bullet itself with a rag with a little polish like flitz or other cleaner. I figure the bullet seated below the case mouth is probably still clean is it most likely isn't exposed to air.
ONE LAST COMMENT...and I've never experimented but have found this. Just for fun take that old ammo and put it in your seater die and pretend you want to seat it a little deeper. You might be surprised at how much effort it takes to "break that bullet free" after alot of storage. Do you think this could affect accuracy?? Some day I'm gonna take old ammo and leave about 10 as is and "break free" about 10 bullets and see if they chrono different or have the same accuracy.

oops see you're not talking loaded ammo..yes I tumble just the projectile to clean. Watch hollow points--they can fill up with media.

Tumble the projectile only. Not the loaded cartridge. Tumbling media will clean tarnish from bullets really well.

I've done it with lead tipped spitzers. I thought that the tips might be slighty rounded by the tumbling, but there was no noticeable difference.

I have never had any problem tumbling bullets only. But I would add some rags soaked in mineral oil to media to keep lead dust down and dispose of media after using because it will have a lot of lead dust in it. Use good ventaltion when handling because of dust. Also clean out bowl good after tumbling.
JMHO
James

quote:

a little Bon Ami.

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:

quote:

a little Bon Ami.

Ed, 'Bon Ami' is the brand name of a kitchen and bathroom cleaning powder (calcium carbonate).