Cleaning Bullets?

[Pistole+Parabellum]

Anyone have any experience in cleaning old bullets like these?

[Pistole+Parabellum]

here's some advice on other forums, any comments or recommendations otherwise?

Acetone works best for cleaning as it flashes off almost instantly. For polymer tipped bullets, mineral spirits works nicely and won't harm the tips.

After the moly removal - by way of tumbling...I decided to rinse them off as I did not want any residual dust on them - specifically to prevent the walnut dust getting into my dies and my barrels.
I rinsed them in laqueur thinner - easy, quick and dries in a few seconds.
As a curiosity - I rinsed some new Hornandy, Sierra, Berger and JLK's - each batch separately and in clean solvent.

[Sergio Natali]

Many years ago I remember that I cleaned old cartridges with "Sidol" an Henkel product, I suppose in the States you must have something similar (Brasso ?) its some sort of yellowish creamy liquid to rub with a cloth on the brass, let it dry for a few minutes, then clean your brass with another (clean) cloth. If in he bullets there is still the gunpowder do not use the tumble cleaner.
My 2 cents.

[mrerick]

Be very careful about getting anything that is liquid based near the primers or the case mouth. Anything that could travel up those channels by capilary action might ruin the primer compound or contaminate the powder.

People warn about tumbling ammo because of physical changes that can affect the powder inside the case. For example, if ball powder or flake powder should turn into a powder, the burn rate will be affected, changing the pressure curve.

If you're going to shoot it, try dry polishing by hand with brass wool. Don't worry about appearance, but rather inspect for a smooth surface that isn't pitted and is likely to extract cleanly.

Marc

[DavidJayUden]

I frequently put freshly loaded ammo into the vibrating tumbler to get the excess case lube off and to shine them up a bit after handling.
I know some say that is not safe, but if you are concerned put the tumbler behind the garage.
I've never had a problem, nor can I tell any difference with it vs. non-tumbled ammo.
Changing the burn rate of the powder? That's a new one to me.
Tumbler may, or may not, get at the corrosion.
dju

[Ron Wood]

Looks like that might be old "punch crimped" 7.63mm D.W.M./KK/403 ammo?

[rhuff]

Marc,

That old myth that tumbling cartridges will change the internal powder/burn rate has pretty much been proven incorrect. At least that is my understanding .Some folks took some freshly loaded ammo and tumbled it for 48 hours and then ran it over a chrono against identical, non-tumbled ammo, and the velocity was identical. No pressure spikes.

If those old cartridges were mine, I would put them into my tumbler with corncob and brass polish and give them a good cleaning. Some handloader use a liquid car wax, like NuFinish(cheap to buy) in their corncob media, and they feel that it not only cleans the brass, but it deposits a coating on the brass that help keep it from tarnishing so quick.

I have tumbled loaded ammo for many many years with no deleterious effects to me or my ammo. YMMV

[LU1900]

Originally Posted by Ron Wood

Looks like that might be old "punch crimped" 7.63mm D.W.M./KK/403 ammo?

/
Nambu ?
But never use tumbler for cleaning : this increases the power load !!

[Pistole+Parabellum]

Originally Posted by LU1900

/
Nambu ?
But never use tumbler for cleaning : this increases the power load !!

yes correct; 8mm Nambu bullets

[Pistole+Parabellum]

Originally Posted by luger.parabellum

Many years ago I remember that I cleaned old cartridges with "Sidol" an Henkel product, I suppose in the States you must have something similar (Brasso ?) its some sort of yellowish creamy liquid to rub with a cloth on the brass, let it dry for a few minutes, then clean your brass with another (clean) cloth. If in he bullets there is still the gunpowder do not use the tumble cleaner.
My 2 cents.

Thank you all.
my intention is to clean the bullets for show. i will not be firing them! I found both on Amazon!!

[Pistole+Parabellum]

I found couple other techniques discussed:

Lemi Shine (from Wallyworld). It's a detergent used in dishwashers. It will make them look like brand new

Tumbling will not hurt the bullets at all. They are simply sliding around in a nice soft corncob mix. What could possibly hurt them? I polish bullets like this all the time. Put a little Nufinish polish in with them and they'll look like new in about 30 minutes.

[Pistole+Parabellum]

lastly, what is tumbling?

You have to of course tumble them with the proper amout of product, walnut shell, corn cob or what have you. If not, you may end up with more tiny dents!

[alanint]

"Tumbling" is a word that refers to the cleaning of brass shells through a machine that contains a polishing medium, (such as the walnut shells, corn cobb mentioned above). This machine vibrates and "tumbles" the brass shells through the medium for as long as the machine is on. The polishing medium rubs the shells on a constant basis until they are polished.

[sheepherder]

I use Nevr-Dull, a wadding treated with a Brasso-like chemical...Spin the cartridge in my hand, or if I'm lazy, spin it in a drill chuck...And the wadding removes old oxidation...Works great...

I usually do this for cartridges I need to display to acquaintances, but if you're planning on displaying yours with your pistol, why shine them up??? Just wipe them off and let the patina do the talking...

[Sergio Natali]

Cody

I'm glad you've found "Sidol" to clean brass, to me it was quite useful, although it takes a lot of patience to clean all the cartridges, and then wipe them all, but the results were quite good.
With charged cartridges avoid any sort of tumbler.

Sergio

[Piet]

Good old Turtle Wax car polish does the job softly without scratching