Polishing bullets

[holstil]

For those rolling their own.
What method do you like after finished making bullets? Wet or dry?

 

[STS]

I don't polish them at all. I wash the jacket lube off in a acetone bath and air dry. Seal them in bags until I use them.

 

[Bart B.]

Sierra uses rubber lined cement mixers half full of wood chips tumbling a few thousand at a time. The sizing lanolin lube gets rubbed off and jackets polished very bright.

Before Sierra moved to Missouri, they sold their most accurate bullets 1000 per plain brown box with the lanolin still on them. They shot 30 to 40 percent smaller test groups as well as highest scores in matches. 2 or 3 per box would have visible flaws as they didn't get visually inspected. They were boxed as they came out of the pointing die.

 

[holstil]

They shoot pretty good right out of the point die. I accidentally washed a few in my pants pocket during laundry and the meplat looks more finished and the bullet is shinier.
It would make a hellava racket if did em all that way.

 

[TheOtherZilla]

I polish mine in a barrel

 

[savagedasher]

The sand works also

 

[WillyTP]

For those rolling their own.
What method do you like after finished making bullets? Wet or dry?

Wet, 1000 at a time in thumbler tumbler.

 

[PatMiles]

Wet, 1000 at a time in thumbler tumbler.

What concoction do you use when tumbling? Time frame?

 

[holstil]

What concoction do you use when tumbling? Time frame?

I'd like to know too.
Do you use any media?

 

[KevinThomas]

Just a word to the wise; the bullets that are handled (or processed) least, are almost always the bullets that will shoot best. That bullet is at its peak of accuracy potential when it comes out off the sizing die and into the collection bin beneath the press. Anything done after that, will degrade the base accuracy of that projectile. This includes inspection, polishing and final packaging. Sounds odd, but bullets ar actually pretty fragile. Any rough treatment, such as carelessly dumping them into a collecation barrel rather than carefully placing them, will likely cause concentrity problems in the finished product. Final polishing can be tough on them, as Bart explained earlier. Anything that came down to the range for me to use as standards in production testing, never saw the, inside of a tumbler, and were taken literally straight off the press with nothing further done to them.

We can talk about pointing an uniformity meplats in another thread, but suffice it to say, the same cautions apply, and that enhancment process can also work against you if not done properly. People like shiny, well-polished bullets, so the bullet makers polish them prior to packaging. But for years now, those shooters in the know have tried to get them to package bullets straight off the press, unpolished and still covered with the oil used in production.

 

[holstil]

Thanks! Nice not having to do another step!

I may launch a few both ways just to see what happens.

 

[dcali]

Not meaning to hijack with my own question, but curious of how Berger polishes there bullets?
There typically very lustrous compared to many other mfg's.

I don’t know what Berger does but you can get similar results with wet vibratory tumbling in steel media with a solution designed for copper. Doesn’t take long.

 

[rwj]

Just a word to the wise; the bullets that are handled (or processed) least, are almost always the bullets that will shoot best. That bullet is at its peak of accuracy potential when it comes out off the sizing die and into the collection bin beneath the press. Anything done after that, will degrade the base accuracy of that projectile. This includes inspection, polishing and final packaging.

I respectfully disagree. The photo below depicts 3 out of 100 bullets found with defects during visual and BTO inspection. The top bullet has a jacket inclusion (inside green Sharpie circle near ogive), the middle a deep circumferential groove near ogive, the bottom an unidentifiable spiral mark. Not a complaint, nor a reason not to buy this manufacturer’s bullets, but definitely why I’ll continue to inspect/sort prior to shooting.

 

[Bart B.]

I respectfully disagree. The photo below depicts 3 out of 100 bullets found with defects during visual and BTO inspection. The top bullet has a jacket inclusion (inside green Sharpie circle near ogive), the middle a deep circumferential groove near ogive, the bottom an unidentifiable spiral mark. Not a complaint, nor a reason not to buy this manufacturer’s bullets, but definitely why I’ll continue to inspect/sort prior to shooting.

That's why we inspected all Sierra's "standard" bullets in each box of 1000 as we got ready to seat them.

Humans who are not perfect inspecting polished bullets. They miss .01% of those with visible flaws

A top ranked shooter inspected a few hundred Lapua 185 grain 30 caliber match bullets in a 40X optical comparator and found 4 different ogive shapes, proof 4 different pointing dies were used in that lot.

 

[KevinThomas]

rwj,
You’re misunderstanding what I said; production defects do occur, and that’s the reason for their final inspection. But that process adds handling and the potential for damage to the finished product. This is far and away one of the gentler phases of the operation, but when done in a production operation, it still subjects the bullets to additional dings, concentricity problems and so on. Omitting this step means that those production defects WILL wind up in the finished product, which is a large part of the reason why bullet makers don’t offer product (normally) in this manner. I’d certainly assume that the bullets will get a closer bit of scrutiny (mine do, anyway) during the loading process, and such defects can be culled at that point. But you generally had to have some pull (and likely still do) to get them in this manner. Always helps to “know someone” who can arrange this sort of thing, as the average customer isn’t going to ask for this sort of treatment, and get it carte blanche.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

rwj,
You’re misunderstanding what I said; production defects do occur, and that’s the reason for their final inspection. But that process adds handling and the potential for damage to the finished product. This is far and away one of the gentler phases of the operation, but when done in a production operation, it still subjects the bullets to additional dings, concentricity problems and so on. Omitting this step means that those production defects WILL wind up in the finished product, which is a large part of the reason why bullet makers don’t offer product (normally) in this manner. I’d certainly assume that the bullets will get a closer bit of scrutiny (mine do, anyway) during the loading process, and such defects can be culled at that point. But you generally had to have some pull (and likely still do) to get them in this manner. Always helps to “know someone” who can arrange this sort of thing, as the average customer isn’t going to ask for this sort of treatment, and get it carte blanche.

You can drop one on concrete or touch one with lube on your fingers and pick that bullet out of a group if you have a good enough setup

 

[Enosiophobia]

Don't polish bullets yet but found a new way to prep my brass today....

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Don't polish bullets yet but found a new way to prep my brass today....
View attachment 1087499

Is that scotch brite on there mr white feather?

 

[Ggmac]

Is that scotch brite on there mr white feather?

Now for the finger prints when he chamfers it .

 

[Puzzaz01]

With brass that clean you'd be wearing white gloves to seat the bullets. Kinda makes me want to cry. My brass is always the nastiest brass at the range. I always get... why don't you clean your brass? My thoughts if it's working don't change it.

Darrin