I was dumping brass out of my vibratory case cleaner today and discovered I'd accidently tumbled a live round. I'd never done that before and it made me curious. I'm sure we've all heard that its dangerous to tumble live rounds because the powder breaks down/loses its coatings, etc. and produces dangerously high pressures. Well, I pulled the bullet and compared the powder (H4832SC) to some fresh out of the can and there was absolutely no apparent difference. That's after over 6 hours in the vibratory cleaner. I had no intention of firing the round nor do I recommend tumbling loaded rounds. But maybe the old powder breakdown story is...just a story?
