Tummbling round balls

[roo shooter]

I have read that some shooter put there round balls in a case tumbler to bring them down a little in size and to get the spur off, would this be done with media or without ? and dose it work ?

 

[jtmattison]

I've done it as an experiment. Tumble without media. The sprue all but disappeared but I still found myself looking for where it was when loading so I could make sure it was facing up.

I have not found any benefit to tumbling them.

HD

 

[bwhoffman]

I knead all mine in an empty shot bag, makes them all look like factory swaged!

 

[Many Klatch]

An oldtimer told me that he put a bunch of lead balls on a piece of flat steel and then put them in the trunk of his car for a week or two. After bouncing and rolling around they were all perfectly round. I never tried it since having sprues never bothered me. I suppose you'd have to have sides and a top on the plate to keep the balls from bouncing out when you hit a chuck hole.

Many Klatch

 

[bub524]

I tumble mine all the time in an old RCBS rotary tumbler. Can't say it makes them more accuarate but it keeps me from obsessively trying to get the sprue straight up and wondering if my shot was off because I didn't. Now I know its me not the loading technique. :grin: :grin:

 

[Desert Ratxx]

I tumbled a batch one time, like everyone else I didn't notice any improvements other than apperance.

 

[ssettle]

I never tried it but who's to say if it does any good or not. I like my round balls the way they come out of the mold. I weight mine on a scale if the weight is good that all I care about. The store bought ones all seem to have very small flats all around them. The sprue has never been a problem to me it gets smashed when I hit the thing with my short starter. Just seems to me like a waste of time,but then to each his own. Ssettle.

 

[romeoh]

Well, I always tumble my roundballs.
Can´t tell whether they actually are better than untumbled ones but you can´t damage anything.

I use glass. Just grab an empty vine-bottle, mixed-pickles- or jar-glass. Fill it not more than let´s say 1/2 and then... start shaking.
Fast and easy. :thumbsup:

If you collect a few glasses for your different ball-sizes you can also keep the balls in the glass after shaking for storing them. :wink:

 

[gooddw]

I cast mine and tumble them in a 5 lb coffee can. Makes a lot of noise but rounds off the spur and makes them look a lot cleaner.