Safe to tumble loaded 22lr?

[Tennjed]

Got a question. I had a large box with about 700 rounds of 22lr in it dump out all over the ground. To make matters worse I was in a lake bottom where the water was down but still muddy as heck. I threw all the rounds in a few zip lock bags and now I have a bunch of 22lr covered in mud, dirt, and clay.

Can I tumble them clean?

I have done some searching and gotten mixed results on tumbling loaded ammo. I have yet to find anything on tumbling loaded .22lr rimfire. Is it safe? How hard does the rim need to be struck before it goes off? Anything else I need to be aware of?

Thanks

[Mike]

Tumble away, it won't hit them hard enough to detonate a primer.

Mike

[mikegideon]

It may tumble the lube off the bullets. I would leave them in the minimum amount of time.

[R1100R]

See Below.

Edited November 7, 2011 by R1100R
Double

[R1100R]

I did this once and it made a huge mess because of the wax/ lube on the bullets. I would just wash them off and let them dry on a towel. The lube got over the entire round and caused extraction and buildup issues in the chamber on my automatics.. This was with Eley .22 ammo

[Westwindmike]

I had 5 bricks of Remington Thunderbolt ammo from the late 90's that the lube dried and swelled up to the point that you could not chamber it. I tumbled it in #8 shotgun shot in my tumbler. The shot polished the bullets smooth enough to chamber and fire. I only did 500 of these and sent the rest back to Remington and they replaced them with new.

So yes, you can tumble them clean.