Reloads and Warranties

[GunLvrNLearner]

So many people seem to shoot reloads a lot although it voids the warranty.

Why void a warranty?

Also how would the maker know reloads were used and how could they prove it?

 

[TAB]

Money, If it failed do to factory ammo, the company could get thier money from said company.

 

[mljdeckard]

All manuals say not to use reloads. This is a butt-cover. This is to protect the mfr from liability if a rookie shoots a round with a double-charge of powder in it, and blows the gun up.

There is no reason not to use GOOD reloads in just about any gun. Little asterisks I do follow, my Kimber manual says to use ONLY jacketed 230 gr ammo. I agree, I don't want to use any un-jacketed lead bullets, I think they are dirty.

How will they know? Unless you send them back a slide blown open by a double-charged cartridge, THEY WON'T. Even then, it's not really possible to prove that it wasn't a factory round.

 

[rcmodel]

Many (most) of my guns are older S&W, Colt, Browning, and Winchester.
They aren't going to be able to help me, even if one does break.

Most of them have never had a factory load through them since I have owned them.

I don't worry about it.
But after 50 years of shooting reloads, I have never had any problems either.

rcmodel

 

[MMCSRET]

I'm in the same group as rcmodel for about the same time period. Most of my guns have never been violated by someone else even a factory. Why would I allow a stranger to penetrate the chambers of my babies.

 

[loop]

It is really pretty easy for a manufacturer to tell if a gun has been fired (recently) with reloads.

You have to understand the difference between cannister grade powder and bulk powder. Bulk powder is used by factories. It can be one kind of powder or a mix of different powders, but the goal is to yield pressure and velocity that the maker states are its standards. Bulk powder is also mixed with a buffer material so that the fully loaded cartridge has no excess room left in it.

If you shake a factory load you won't hear any movement. If you shake a handload you'll hear the powder move back and forth.

Cannister grade powder has to be made up of the same size and weight granules so the hand loader can duplicate loads from one batch to the next. If a batch of cannister grade powder doesn't live up to specs it becomes bulk powder.

One of the reasons handloads are so much more accurate and consistent than factory loads is that bulk powders may be a mixture of a half dozen different powders and a buffer, which are impossible to mix evenly.

That said, it is pretty easy for a chemical analysis to determine what powder was used in the gun most recently. Cannister powders are easy to identify because of their tight specs.

The reason using reloads voids warranties is there is no quality control division in your garage. While most reloaders are extremely careful there are some who simply crank them out and pay little attention to the numerous variations within each round.

I spend about 20 hours a month at the range. It is the rare month in which I do not see a squib load. For every squib load there is an overcharged load (in most circumstances).

While voiding warranties is simply a "cover your ass" move by gun makers, it is one I would make if I made guns. You have to look at this way: At least 50 percent of the people out there have below median IQs. And some of them own guns.

 

[General Geoff]

If a gun blows up when you shoot a hand load you know for a fact is good, it's worth talking to the manufacturer about it anyway. Chances are likely that analysis of what's left of the gun will reveal any kind of defects in the steel or whathaveyou and they'll cut you a break even though you used reloaded ammunition. It should be pretty obvious to a knowledgeable gunsmith whether the ammo or the gun itself was at fault for any particular problem.

 

[VHinch]

If you shoot a lot, as many here do, the economics of reloading still make sense. I try to average 1k rounds a month (and that's probably light compared to many here). The overwhelming majority of what I shoot is .45. Winchester White Box is running around $23/100 if I recall, and I am reloading .45 practice ammo at around $12/100. Out of the 12k rounds a year I shoot, probably 9k of it is reloads, so I'm saving $990 a year.

I am a careful reloader, and I have never had an issue in the 8 years that I have been reloading, so I have saved $7920 in ammo cost. I shoot primarily 1911's, at an average value of probably $800, so in that time I could have replaced 10 guns if necessary. Combined with the fact that I am getting what I consider to be higher quality practice ammo, those economics make sense, warranties be damned.

I have also never used a factory warranty on handgun, so I really don't give them a lot of thought anyway.

 

[brickeyee]

If you shake a factory load you won't hear any movement.

You can hear movement in plenty of factory loads.

 

[Zedo]

ANY reputable mfg will warrant a gun which hasn't been "abused" or otherwise "used for other than its intended purpose/design."

If a gun "blows apart" the first question on the mind of a mfg. is "What's being loaded?"

Basically the warranty stipulation about handloads gives the manufacture a legal "buffer" protect against liability.

Not sure where the OP got the "info" about bulk and cannister powders, but manufactures produce propellents in uniform batches from uniform formulas.

Batch to batch, lot to lot, it's all the same stuff -- And the stuff in the factory load is the same stuff as on the shelf for sale to reloaders. It'd be pointless and impractical to allow variations in propellent production and then try to keep track of production records, ammo, shipping, production dates.

Consistency in production, specs, components is the key to producing quality ammo, and you can bet commercial manufactures are consistent. There's "variation" in commerical loads -- bullet weight, case weight, powder lots -- but you can rest assured the "variation window" is a small one.

 

[rcmodel]

Bulk powder is also mixed with a buffer material so that the fully loaded cartridge has no excess room left in it.

Not so!
To my knowledge, no manufacture mixes anything with powder to make it fill the case.

And there are an awful lot of factory loads with room left over in the case.

rcmodel

 

[EHL]

I've never heard of manufacturers filling the case entirely with "buffer powders" either. In fact, when I have taken apart some factory loads I'm surprised by how little powder is actually in the case! That's cuz I reload with the same weight and make of bullet too!

 

[dfariswheel]

If you send a reload-damaged gun back to the manufacturer, it isn't going to be looked at by Joe The Assembly Line Worker.

It's going to be CLOSELY looked at by an engineer with a hefty degree and a lot of experience.