Reloads from an unknown source

One thing I learned when pulling a bunch of cast lead loads; There's only one way to eat an elephant, that's one bite at a time. If you look at several hundred rounds that need to be pulled, it can be very intimidating, even overwhelming. But If you just pull as many as you're comfortable with doing at a time the task will go much easier. I've hammered out as few as 20 rounds and as many at 80-100 at a sitting. Since my collet bullet pullers don't work very well on cast bullets I use an inertia tool (hammer type). I use a lead "anvil", a lead puck or ingot to hammer against. Much quieter and had no effect on bullet removal. I don't like hammering, of any kind, on cement, banging on my bench is loud (and makes my CD player skip) and banging on steel with a plastic mallet just doesn't feel right (I'm a life long machinist/mechanic that used hand tools and power tools for over 50 years to make my living). Take your time, do as many at one time you feel like doing and before you know it, the task is done...

[QUOTE="crest117, post: 11540714,]They are loaded with round nose uncoated lead bullets which I would assume means they were loaded to less than max velocity. My question is, should I dare shoot them or should I break them down and reuse the bullets and cases with a new known powder charge.[/QUOTE]
I didn't know my grandpappy very well, but I did learn a couple things from him before he passed.
Lesson one; golf is a game for those that can't chase women any more so they chase a ball around the park.
Lesson two; 'Assumption' is the Mother of ALL foul-ups.
Don't assume anything about anyone's reloads, except that they might have fouled up.

I think a good take away from this thread is this. As we get older we may have more time for reloading but we should keep in mind that no one wants to shoot our reloads. Hence, try not to leave a bunch of reloaded ammo on the bench when we go.

Good decision to pull them.


Joe Random is not a good source and Skippy McDufus has a poster over his bench that says,

"Hold my beer and,watch this"

My vote is to touch them off if you have a beat up shooter you don't care about. I have a Smith and Wesson 28 I absolutely do not care about and I have shot a lot of mystery rounds in it if it goes it goes. Just wear glove and eye protection.

When I find unfired reloads at the range, my first thought is " why were these left here" and most times it's because the shooter was uncomfortable shooting them for some reason. I take them home and demill them, reuse some components, and reload them.. Never will I just shoot them....it's an accident waiting to happen.

Also some reloaders work up to the ragged edge of safe pressure in their firearms that may be nowhere safe in yours!

Example, the guy that got me into reloading was this type, into pushing the limits. To him thats why he reloaded, to get more out of it than factory ammo provided. A couple of his quotes that stuck with me is on one of his ultra mags he said his retumbo load would "let him shoot zip code to zip code". I believe it was 7 rum but he shot a 300 rum and 338 rum as well so it could be one of those, or all! He also liked his magnum revolvers, especially 41 mags and casulls and said "just dip the brass in the powder keg and smash a bullet down, crunch!"

In no way did I ever view him as careless, he certainly knows what works and how hard something can be pushed. Dipping the round in the powder keg definitely never happened... Experience level i'd say in the top 20% of loaders, like a few standout guys here.

But, here's the point. If you took one of those hot 454 Casull rounds made for his FA single action and ran it through your worn out "raging bull" it could be a bad day for ya!

I've always liked the "happy medium" loads myself and am content as long as there's excellent function and accuracy. If someone fired off my reloads there would likely be no issues, but I'm not recommending it!

I demill a lot of "bad" ammo I get from my range goof box and the local PD to dispose of. My roses are spectacular and i get a lot of lead, shot, and recycle brass. I was never tempted to shoot any due to dangers involved. As a side note I reload for accuracy and that is almost never found at or over max in my experience. Also battering a gun needlessly is not good form either.

There isn't anyone's reloads I'd shoot. It's just not worth it, incompetence these days is staggering. Even the best of us can screw up but the way I load chances of a mistake are very very slim but still possible and I'd think my method is far more meticulous than 95% of the reloaders out there. If I'm blowing up, I want it to be 100% my own fault.

Nope, I wouldn't shoot rounds that I didn't load. Even in a Ruger.

crest117 said:

A friend gave me several hundred .357 magnum reloads that he had purchased at a gun show about 20 years ago. All look to still be in excellent condition. They are loaded with round nose uncoated lead bullets which I would assume means they were loaded to less than max velocity. My question is, should I dare shoot them or should I break them down and reuse the bullets and cases with a new known powder charge. Note, if I did shoot them it would be in a Ruger Service Six, a very strong revolver. Thanks in advance for advise.

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I don't shoot unknown reloads. I have a very small group of friends that I will shoot their reloads. Other than that, NO! I pull he bullets, dump the powder, recycle the lead and salvage the case. I have a couple of different type pullers but I mostly use my press and a pair of linemans pliers.

I would never shoot unknown reloads. Pulling them and using the bullets in your reloads is definitely the way to go. As Hondo 60 states throw away the powder and use everything else

I had a neighbor who wanted to learn to reload, so I let him use my Dillon 550. I watched while he loaded 1000 rounds of .38 SPL. Nice guy but he was a wordy fellow and I had to keep telling him to pay attention and stop talking so much, but he got through the session. I got an email from him a few days later titled "YOUR FAULT!" with a pic of a blowed up S&W Model 64. Fortunately no one was hurt but it was obvious that while he was talking he'd double charged a round (harder to do with a 550 than most folks think, but possible if you're determined). I told him he should pull all the rounds and reload them as a life lesson, and he could borrow my puller, but I didn't hear back.
A couple of weeks later I saw a yard sale sign at his house so I stopped by to browse. Lo and behold I found two big boxes of .38 SPL reloads on a table for a very good price. I said "Hey, Rick, you know some of these may be dangerous" and he replied "One of these mexicans'll buy 'em and nobody will ever know the difference".

I bought all the reloads and pulled them for components.

steve9616 said:

I got an email from him a few days later titled "YOUR FAULT!" with a pic of a blowed up S&W Model 64. Fortunately no one was hurt but it was obvious that while he was talking he'd double charged a round

I bought all the reloads and pulled them for components.

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Very "High Road" of you to keep everyone safe. Good job.