How to dispose of dud .22 ammo?

[happycamper374]

I don't have a bullet puller. I know that would be the first choice. I've read online that people will just pull out the bullet with pliers. I'm game for that, but I wanted to check with you folks first. I like all of my fingers.

Oh, and we're talking brick quality ammo here. Thunderbolt and the like. Nothing expensive.

 

[Peter M. Eick]

22 LR?

I usually just put it in my 22 lr Revolver and fire it again. Extremely rare that it won't fire if you just hit a different part of the rim.

For the ones that don't fire, I just put them in the dud bucket at the range. Where they go after that is a good question.

 

[KCMOgunner]

As long as you don't smash the primer with the pliers there shouldn't be any problem. I have never had one go off or had anyone I know have one go off when using pliers to pull em.

And +1 to putting it back in and trying to fire it again. Usually they will go off, can't remember having one that wouldn't fire after a couple tries

 

[Maverick223]

I leave mine for future archeologists (though I do most of my plinking on my own property).

 

[robhof]

Another vote for trying it again. I went to our range awhile back after a 22 match and collected about 100 once tried duds, all but 2 fired fine in my Single six and I didn't even open my brick that day.

 

[rcmodel]

Pliers are perfectly safe on .22 RF.

You don't actually "pull" them though.

Just grab the bullet and push sideways on the case with your thumb.
That will twist the soft lead bullet out so you can dump the powder.

Now the next big question?
How in the heck did you acquire a brick (500) rounds of dud's in the first place?

rc

 

[bigfatdave]

Try again in something that makes a bigger primer dent, I have my Henry and NAA mini, they'll eat just about anything.
If you don't have a heavy-hitting firearm handy, rechamber the round making sure it rotated to a new point on the rim, and try again.

Failing that (I'll generally try three good hits, myself) yes, pliers onthe projectile and torque the casing off, dump the powder and dispose of the case as trash.

 

[desidog]

How in the heck did you acquire a brick (500) rounds of dud's in the first place?

..well, you start out with two or three bricks of Remington Subsonic...

 

[Maverick223]

you start out with two or three bricks of Remington Subsonic...

Well, it lived up to its name.

 

[bigfatdave]

or golden bullets

or you have a gun with a dirty/broken firing pin

or you have crap in the chamber keeping the rounds from seating fully

 

[rcmodel]

I'd have to say if you are getting that many duds, that cheap ammo isn't so cheap after all.

rc

 

[happycamper374]

Oh, I'm not getting that many duds, but it does happen, so I need to take care of them.

I also do the "fire it again" route most of the time. My brother and I had some feeding issues and mangled the bullet to the point that I didn't want to put it down the barrel.

Looks like I'll just be pulling it with the pliers. Thanks all.

 

[Krazy]

Put them in a bucket of water, thats what krazy does

 

[rcmodel]

You might as well put them in a bowl of oatmeal for all the good it would do.

It would take a long time for all of them to get water inside, and some of them never would.

I have shot .22 ammo that layed outside in a snowdrift all winter and spring and then have every one of them fire.

rc

 

[JDGray]

Throw em in a campfire!

 

[husker]

& run

 

[Maverick223]

Throw em in a campfire!

Despite not being the recommended method of disposal, it actually won't hurt anything (the cartridge doesn't carry enough propellant to be dangerous at more than a couple of feet without being confined), though I still wouldn't recommend anyone else to do it.

 

[PT1911]

pliers are just fine.

 

[forindooruseonly]

Despite not being the recommended method of disposal, it actually won't hurt anything (the cartridge doesn't carry enough propellant to be dangerous at more than a couple of feet without being confined), though I still wouldn't recommend anyone else to do it.

In my less intelligent days some friends and I thought it would be fun to stick .22s in straws and throw them in the air. When they land, they detonate, and a friend caught a piece of brass in his eye. It was a good twenty feet away, so don't chuck them in the campfire and go back to cooking s'mores and expect everything to be hunky-dory. A tiny piece of brass nearly cost my buddy his vision in one eye.

Some lessons are learned the hard way.

 

[Maverick223]

^1:1M chances like the one described above is why I wouldn't recommend the practice of placing it in a fire, or dropping it using a straw for stabilization for that matter.

 

[Steve Marshall]

#1/ DO NOT USE a bullet puller on any rimfire cartridge.

#2/ Find a friend with a woodstove. I burn all suspect ammunition and of the hundreds only one did any damage that I could see.

#3 If you don't want to burn them just bend the bullet out of the case. If you have a fair amount of them, use an empty case to bend them out.

 

[CraigC]

I discard them immediately and go back to shooting.

 

[Big_E]

Place the round at the 100 yrd line.

+1 if you hit the cartridge with any firearm of your choice.

+2 if you hit the cartridge and find that you only hit the bullet.

 

[Ignition Override]

Using the old ('30s) Savage .22, and being very tired of gas blowbacks two of each group of three Thunderbolt rounds, I threw a handful into the Loosahatchie River, near Memphis. The rifle, from the chamber forward, is pretty clean.

Cheap Remington green/yellow box is bad enough, but Thunderbolt is worse than I could have imagined-you can not pay me to shoot that lousy stuff.
Federal and Winchester .22 LR very seldom cause any gas blowback, and with so-called "cheap Commie" (Bulgarian) 7.62x54R in both of my MN 44s, there was only one in over a thousand rds.

 

[Art Eatman]

No point in saying the same thing over and over and over...