Folks,

I ended up getting about 1,000 bullets, free of charge, from someone whose husband had died. Turns out the late gentleman was a reloader. These bullets turned out to be Speer Gold Dots, 230gr, .45 caliber, just perfect for either .45 ACP or .45 Colt. Since I shoot both rounds, I was delighted.

Well, also turns out that a bunch of them on the bottom of the box had gotten wet. Here are a few typical examples.
Ouch.

So, I remembered my wet-tumbler and decided to see if I could save them. It works pretty well restoring severely corroded brass, and brass is a mostly-copper alloy, so nothing to lose but some time and a little bit of water.

The results:
Much, much better!

It's a nice, sunny day, so this batch should be dry in a few hours.

And here's the wet-tumbler in action, doing the next batch.

And, due to an apparent 3-image limitation on posts, here is the fourth image, showing the type of wet-tumbler being used. Again, this is in action, with it spinning, hence the bit of bluriness on the blue tub.
So, yes, it is possible and even recommended if you find yourself in a similar situation.

However, I also discovered that this model of tumbler doesn't have the torquiest electric motor in the world. Don't try to fill it up with bullets; it's too heavy. You can get away with filling it up to about 1/6th of the volume, but no more. Even then, it might need a little help from your hand to get started spinning. Remember, these things were made for tumbling brass cases (light but bulky), not a bunch of (very heavy) lead.

But as you can see, it works. I'm tumbling for 2.5 hours, which is about how long it takes to get these bullets cleaned.

I am using straight water, no Lemi-Shine or anything else.

CT, you are such a fastidious reloader. I would've just shot 'em. If they were too fuzzy, I'd just hit those with some emery paper. Good on you, though, man. That's some good juju there. I'm just lazy and not good enough to have it show up in my groups.

CDFingers

Good job, renewed Speer Gold Dot. You should be teaching this stuff, do any community colleges in your area offer gun smithing and reloading programs?

Cleanliness is next to godliness I say.

I wet tumble too. Never thought boolits though… good to know, just in case.

Bisbee wrote: Thu May 11, 2023 8:46 pm Cleanliness is next to godliness I say.

I wet tumble too. Never thought boolits though… good to know, just in case.

Last time I wet tumbled I woke up married. Swore off. Too late. ;-)

CDFingers

I used to moly coat bullets back when. That's a wet process also, but for adding a coating to the bullets. Probably getting crud off the things makes them shoot better than adding.

CDFingers wrote:CT, you are such a fastidious reloader. I would've just shot 'em. If they were too fuzzy, I'd just hit those with some emery paper. Good on you, though, man. That's some good juju there. I'm just lazy and not good enough to have it show up in my groups.

CDFingers

Same. I didn’t even start tumbling my brass until about 10 years into reloading. Untumbled brass looks ugly but shoots fine.


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CDFingers wrote: Thu May 11, 2023 8:51 pm

Bisbee wrote: Thu May 11, 2023 8:46 pm Cleanliness is next to godliness I say.

I wet tumble too. Never thought boolits though… good to know, just in case.

Last time I wet tumbled I woke up married. Swore off. Too late. ;-)

CDFingers

INVICTVS138 wrote: Fri May 12, 2023 9:02 am

CDFingers wrote:CT, you are such a fastidious reloader. I would've just shot 'em. If they were too fuzzy, I'd just hit those with some emery paper. Good on you, though, man. That's some good juju there. I'm just lazy and not good enough to have it show up in my groups.

CDFingers

Same. I didn’t even start tumbling my brass until about 10 years into reloading. Untumbled brass looks ugly but shoots fine.


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Thanks, CDF. Actually, it's with good reason that I'm tumbling them; since they got wet, in addition to the oxidation, there's remnants of the cardboard stuck to quite a few of them. That would affect seating and neck tension.

And, personally, I do agree with Bisbee that cleanliness is next to godliness--or, in my case, FSM-liness. :-) Such fastidiousness has helped me to find defects in cases that I otherwise wouldn't have seen, and I'm guessing that the same would be true of these bullets. Better safe than sorry...plus, well, I just like ammo that looks as good as it shoots. Tumbling brass, though, definitely is not a requirement; the rounds do shoot just as well without this step. INVICTVS138 is quite correct on this.

highdesert wrote: Thu May 11, 2023 8:17 pm Good job, renewed Speer Gold Dot. You should be teaching this stuff, do any community colleges in your area offer gun smithing and reloading programs?

Unfortunately, no. Our schools are decidedly anti-2A. The very mention of a gun on any sort of community college campus would bring out hordes of people citing Virginia Tech...even though gunsmithing and reloading are definitely not terrorist acts.

Shame, too, because I think it'd be great to do so. I would focus the rationale for the reloading class on this country's history of Black and Native American people being armed and thus saving their hides, much like how the Appleseed Project talks about Concord and the British Army coming to confiscate the gunpowder as the inspiration for their classes. The theme would be that you can be armed and you should be able to "roll your own" in case you ever need to. I would also pitch it as an affordable way for people who aren't rich politicians to be able to get regular range practice in, affordably. Matter of fact, I'm suggesting this to certain of our customers at the range on the days that I work. Some of them are seriously considering the idea...and most of them are Black! I consider this a very good thing; reloading is for everyone, not just White people.