SS wet tumbling jacketed bullets

[dale2242]

I was gifted several hundred jacketed bullets from 22 to 30 caliber.
I am assuming they had been wet since the paper boxes are slightly damp and coming apart.
The exposed lead tips have some oxidation and the jackets are stained with some light corrosion.
I`m not sure that using my Turbo 1200 with walnut shell will work.
They may be too heavy to circulate around in the media with just the vibration.
Have any of you tried wet tumbling jacketed bullets to clean them?
I don`t think it will do them any harm as I feel they are already damp.
I can dry them completely in my dehydrator.
They will only be used for plinking ammo....dale

[NyFirefighter357]

They will clean up just fine. I tumble many things & have done both lead & jacketed bullets as well.

[jimb16]

Toss them in and have at it! They will clean up fine just don't try to do a thousand at a time! I've cleaned up as many as a hundred at once without any problems.

[poppy42]

I didn’t know about wet tumbling, only cause I don’t have a wet tumbler. But I’ve dry tumbled, in corn cob, 50 at a time, really crusty 150 grain 30 caliber bullets! They came out great!

[Love Life]

A citric acid soak should remove the tarnish without the need to tumble.

[Dieselhorses]

Just got finished tumbling 2250 .22 long rifle in walnut media (not all at once!). They came out looking like new!

[mdi]

Haven't tried wet tumbling jacketed bullets but have done quite a few dry tumbling in my rotary. I used corn cob blast media with a few resin pyramids and the FMJs came out great. I did some 9mm JHP but I had to dig media out of the HP. I found some boxes of 22 lr that had gotten wet and some of the bullets had some white fuzz on them but after dry tumbling they looked pretty good. BTW I dip lubed the ammo/bullets in 45-45-10 and they shot as good as new (better?)...

[Conditor22]

OK, are we talking bullets as in the projectile that is fired through the barrel?
or cartridge the combination of brass, primer, powder, and bullet -- a loaded round?


I would never wet tumble loaded rounds, especially not jacketed spire points

I do dry tumble freshly loaded rounds briefly in course dry media to remove the case lube.

[David2011]

In this forum we do tend to use component terms accurately. I would expect that the OP is referring to bullets, especially considering how he described them. Dale is a long time member and contributor.

[osteodoc08]

I’ve wet tumbled several thousands cruddy and tarnished pulls to have them sparkle like new. Any minor pings in the finish have not been noticed on target.

[dale2242]

I tumbled a number of tarnished bullets with citric acid and Dawn .
Exactly like I do my brass.
It worked great.
I dried them in my dehydrator...dale