What to do?

[bluealtered]

I'm pretty sure we have at some point all run into this. Last summer i sent some stuff to a gun show with a friend to sell and to look for a couple of things i wanted, one of those was a Springfield XDm 3.8 .45acp which he found. It came with a fair amount of ammo, including two 50rd box's of the seller's .45acp reloads. That's ok but there was nothing about what he had used to make the rounds in those two box's of bullets.

I have watched people over the years reload and some were very good loads, however others i have watched made me want to run from the room screaming before the whole room blew up! So these two box's have sat in the back of the reloading room closet for a year and now are going to my storage shed probably forever.

I have in the past pulled a few of these no name bullets to see what powder it was and what it weighed but never felt god enough about it to want to risk a good pistol on trying it to see what would happen when touched off. (Another sure sign of getting old i guess)
What have you done when this happened to you?

 

[jdh47]

If you can't identify the powder and don't want to risk it you can pull the bullets and load with new powder. Established recipe.

 

[hogpatrol]

My 2¢, Not worth an injury of any sort. Pull the bullets and throw the brass in the scrap bucket, and the powder on the flowers. If desired, the bullets can be measured and weighed for use.

 

[joshb]

Just pull them and save the bullets and brass. I bought a bunch of reloaded 45/70 rounds from an estate sale. They were dirt cheap so I pulled them and started over.

 

[joshb]

My 2¢, Not worth an injury of any sort. Pull the bullets and throw the brass in the scrap bucket, and the powder on the flowers. If desired, the bullets can be measured and weighed for use.

Grrrr........! Dale! SAVE that brass!

 

[MikeT124]

Any time I receive reloads from an unknown source I pulled the bullets, dump the powder and punch the primers. I inspect the case and if near perfect it gets reused. If I can identify the bullets or if they are a weight I commonly use they become part of practice ammo. The powder goes into my disposables container which gets dumped on the back 40 once a year and gets burned. The primers go into a container that is half full of oil and remain there more or less indefinitely.

Mike

 

[hogpatrol]

Grrrr........! Dale! SAVE that brass!

Only if it's once fired.

 

[nakneker]

Your were wise by not shooting the stuff, too big of risk. I’d do what everyone else has mentioned, disassemble the loads, throw away what you don’t like and start over.

 

[Cecil S.]

Good advice here. I might try to salvage the bullets and brass after a good inspection. JMHO

 

[338 dude]

I'm pretty sure we have at some point all run into this. Last summer i sent some stuff to a gun show with a friend to sell and to look for a couple of things i wanted, one of those was a Springfield XDm 3.8 .45acp which he found. It came with a fair amount of ammo, including two 50rd box's of the seller's .45acp reloads. That's ok but there was nothing about what he had used to make the rounds in those two box's of bullets.

I have watched people over the years reload and some were very good loads, however others i have watched made me want to run from the room screaming before the whole room blew up! So these two box's have sat in the back of the reloading room closet for a year and now are going to my storage shed probably forever.

I have in the past pulled a few of these no name bullets to see what powder it was and what it weighed but never felt god enough about it to want to risk a good pistol on trying it to see what would happen when touched off. (Another sure sign of getting old i guess)
What have you done when this happened to you?

Throw them in the river and forget about it

 

[joshb]

Throw them in the river and forget about it

...but what about the poor fish!!!?????

 

[338 dude]

...but what about the poor fish!!!?????

They’ll probably go the way of the Condor and get lead poisoning

 

[NZ_Fclass]

A few years ago, a mate with a gun shop gave me some reloaded 44 mag ammo, about 50 rounds, that he had bought in with a Riger Redhawk. The guy said that the Ruger was inaccurate, and got a S&W in 357.

I was hunting with a Winchester 94 AE for goats, so...nope. I took it home planning on reloading the stuff.

Using the kinetic puller to free the projectiles was fruitless. After 30 or 40hits, the hammer cracked, the bullet still firmly wedged inside. I resorted to metal tools,eventually releasing the bullet.

A max load of 296 was inside, and the bullet crimped as hard as possible. All I can say is that I'm glad that he was shooting a Redhawk, otherwise the outcome may have been different.

I recovered the cases and used them for a while. May have even passed the on with the rifle.

 

[joshb]

A few years ago, a mate with a gun shop gave me some reloaded 44 mag ammo, about 50 rounds, that he had bought in with a Riger Redhawk. The guy said that the Ruger was inaccurate, and got a S&W in 357.

I was hunting with a Winchester 94 AE for goats, so...nope. I took it home planning on reloading the stuff.

Using the kinetic puller to free the projectiles was fruitless. After 30 or 40hits, the hammer cracked, the bullet still firmly wedged inside. I resorted to metal tools,eventually releasing the bullet.

A max load of 296 was inside, and the bullet crimped as hard as possible. All I can say is that I'm glad that he was shooting a Redhawk, otherwise the outcome may have been different.

I recovered the cases and used them for a while. May have even passed the on with the rifle.

I found a cardboard box of 44s in a corner of my shop. 500 rounds I reloaded 30 years ago. I’m wondering if I should trust my “younger self”!!!
There is NO load info in the boxes! I was bad back then about keeping records. I probably shot 10,000 rounds of them, tho.

 

[edwardware]

If it's worth your time:
-pull 20
-measure powder, both change and deviation
-load one at 30% charge, fire over chrony
-increase 10% at a time until you achieve the other guy's charge
You now have enough data to inform your risk assessment.

 

[K22]

Just my personal opinion but I would never shoot someone's reloads, even those assembled by a competent reloader.

The reason is simple - you have no control or idea of the quality / safety of those reloads. Even a competent reloader can make a mistake if distracted. A good friend of mine, an experienced reloader, many years ago blew up a 45 pistol with a mistaken double charge of fast burning powder.

 

[Rsadams]

Pull them and reload with your normal powder... It's not worth it... I promise it will be cheaper than damaging the gun or a trip to the emergency room.... There is no way I would shoot them...

 

[tmwinds]

If it's worth your time:
-pull 20
-measure powder, both change and deviation
-load one at 30% charge, fire over chrony
-increase 10% at a time until you achieve the other guy's charge
You now have enough data to inform your risk assessment.

It’s not a good idea to reduce a charge by 70%.Some powders will detonate at a greatly reduced load, especially slow burning magnum pistol powders.

 

[butchlambert]

A question as I'm not a pistol person. If you, say pull the bullet on a 45acp and the powder weighed 4-5 grains and you have a 230 grain bullet. Now what powder would be too hot at that load to be dangerous?

 

[Twicepop]

A while back I bought a bunch of stuff for .45ACP ay a gun show. Bullets, brass, dies and 100 rounds of loaded ammo, it was at the heaviest 185 grain cast bullets, maybe 165s. I tried pulling the bullets to salvage the brass, they wouldn't budge with the inertia puller and were to short and soft to grab with the collet. So as I once stated about being a cheap SOB, I put one in a mag and chambered it. It went bang, as did the other 99 and had very little recoil. The people I bought this from are regular table holders at the same gun show I also have a table at, so it wasn't a total gamble. I ended up with 500 pieces of brass, about 250-300 bullets and a set of dies for around 25 bucks.