Friend had an idea - Will this work?

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Hostile Amish

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My friend is a pistol and rifle enthusiast, and he asked me for some advice. He had the idea to use a bullet puller to remove bullets from cheap factory ammunition, save the propellant, and press the bullet back in. He wants to use these 'de-powered' cartridges to practice clearing FTF's by mixing in the semi-dud cartridges in with full-power ammunition in one magazine. Would the primer alone be enough to force the bullet out of the barrel? (Velocity doesn't matter, because he's practicing clearing the chamber, not trying to increase performance).
 
No, the primer alone will put the bullet into the barrel and block it completely. He's essentially created a squib load. The bullet will need to be driven out of the barrel.

He would be better-served to seat a bullet over a primerless case and then clearly mark the case with a a sharpie or similar device. There should be no confusion from any angle as to which is live and which is a dummy.

Without knowing the precise blend of propellant that was used in the cheap ammo, he is (no pun intended) really playing with fire if he intends to use it for loading other rounds.

One man's opinion,
Dan
 
Hostile - That seems like an extremely bad idea to me, as well as a waste of ammo.

While the primer is usually plenty powerful to send the bullet from the case, it is very likely to end up lodged in the barrel, and if he were to fire another full-powered round behind it, a Kaboom could very well be the result.
 
Tell your friend that he is NUTS. And if I were you. I'd stand way clear of him when he is going to fire a weapon. Like at least 2 miles away.

The answer? NO!!! An emphatic NO!!

A primer isn't even powerful enough to push a bullet down a pistol barrel let alone a rifle. Most primer fired bullets barely enter the rifling. Second shot will cause catistrophic damage to the firearm and the shooter...
 
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just to drive the point home this is the kind of destruction a squib load can cause
 
Deprime them as well and reprime with spent primers and he will be fine, otherwise.....
 
I have actually fired a primer only
.223 load through my mini-14 and it cleared the barrel. I would strongly suggest not to try it intentionally, mine was a reloading mishap. Had it not cleared, my mini would have probably ended up like krochus's AR. Scared me enough to go shake every one of my handloaded .223's, which took a very long time.
 
I'm joining the crowd here, having practice loads that look real is a REALLY bad Idea. A mix up is bound to happen!

HEADLINE: Man shot with "Practice" Load. :confused:
 
The safe way to do that is for him to buy some dummy rounds and let YOU load the gun. A dummy interspersed here and there will put him to work on the problem. There is another way I have read of but it may only work for the Beretta that the particular agency used.
 
krochus was that a squib you had? That looks nasty. Hopefully everything worked out alright for you or whomever.
 
Aah me...I just hate school teachers on this site. Especially .38 special. I didn't know you were a school teacher...:neener:

Spelling corrected (emphatic). Had a hell of a time figuring that one out...:D
 
I made up rounds for this purpose by taking cases that were going to be scrapped anyway (loose primer pockets) and glueing a spent primer in, then seated a bullet. I drilled a 2.2mm hole through-and-through the case sidewall and deburred it. Now I can clearly see it is dead. It works great for FTF clearing. And no way will it ever fire anything.
 
krochus was that a squib you had? That looks nasty. Hopefully everything worked out alright for you or whomever.
__________________
Click to expand...


Not my pic THANKFULLY, just something from Google to impress the importance of what others have said
 
Real dummy function-test rounds don't even have a dummy primer in them.

I wouldn't bother putting fired primers back in place.

rcmodel
 
Home brew snap cap.
Deprime and clean the primer pocket with acetone. Get "ShoeGoo" at any footwear store, and with a toothpick place a large drop in the primer pocket, let stand 24 hrs, do it again until the goo can be cut level with case.

These snap caps last thousands of firing, and prevents damage to the firing pin. If the goo craters, another dab'l'doya.
 
I had this idea too. Then I realized what a stupid one it was since there could be the slight chance of confusion and load a live round instead of my "dummy" round and bang!:what: I shelled out the two bucks for the dummy snap cap instead and now have piece of mind.:)
 
"just to drive the point home this is the kind of destruction a squib load can cause"

It would seem to me a squib load in an AR would lodge somewhere in the barrel, thereby preventing propellant gasses from reaching the gas port and operating the action, ultimately resulting in the failure to eject and/or chambering of another round. Therefore, a squib load would not cause the kind of destruction shown in the picture. If the shooter manually pulled the charging handle and chambered/fired another round, then this kind of destruction could occur. Maybe I am being picky, but that would mean the destruction was a result of pure stupidity, not the firing of a squib load.
 
Aah me...I just hate school teachers on this site. Especially .38 special. I didn't know you were a school teacher...
Click to expand...

Well now that you do I hope you'll put more effort into your spelling, young man. :p
 
Like RC mentioned, load dummy rounds, without any primer at all, if your concerned about about firingpin damage, snapcaps are avaliable just about anywhere.

Also, like mentioned the live primer alone is enough to force a bullet into the first several inches of the barrel.

Not a huge problem by itself, until someone cycles a live round then fires it
= very, very bad news for the person holding the weapon.
 
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