Safe or Smart to Reuse

[KAC1911]

I was given a good quanity of 556 ammo. After firing some I had issues with the case getting stuck in the chamber and not ejecting the case and having a very difficult time getting the bolt to the rear to remove case.
Would not enough powder case this to stick so tight in the chamber?

So thinking these were more fire formed to another chamber size I decided to disassemble the components and reuse what I could. Most of the bullets removed with little or no marks so I figured for plinking rounds these would be ok to reuse.
Some of the case necks had splits so those were discarded. With eye and hearing protection I also removed the primers.

Would it be safe or smart to reuse those primers or just dispose?

 

[Varminterror]

For plinking, as long as you 1) know what primer they are, 2) haven't over-pressed the anvils in depriming, 3) you didn't handle them such they were contaminated during the depriming step, and 4) they reseat firmly, they should be fine. Those in pursuit of extreme precision would generally consider reuse primers as a point of irregularity, but for general purpose blasting, they'll be fine.

 

[KAC1911]

Thanks Varminterror. I have no idea what primers they were all I know is the ones I shot all fires fine. I weighted each case charge but have no Idea what powder used either. And my real concern was condition of inside of anvil after removing and how well they'll set again. Probably not worth re-using and only have about 100.

 

[hdwhit]

KAC1911 wrote:
I was given a good quanity of 556 ammo.

Was this factory ammunition or someone's reloads? I'm going to assume they were reloaded.

In general, when a round essentially molds itself to the chamber wall, it is a sign of excessive pressure. I think you made a wise decision to stop using that ammunition and disassemble it.

• The bullets are probably good. Make sure to weigh a sample of them so that you know what they are when you go looking for load data. It would also be a good idea to measure the diameter of a sample and make sure they're all right around .224.
• Varminterror already gave you good advice on the primers and I agree they are probably reusable, but since you don't know if they were normal or magnum primers, I would only use them in starting to mid-range loads, not maximum or near-max loads.
• The unfired brass may also be good after you inspect* them carefully and resize them. If the person who gave you this ammunition had loaded them before, I might decide to start with different cases. I've bought from both these sellers and they have always done well by me:
  • http://www.leobrass.com/brass/
  • http://rangebrass.us/

And that brings me to my last point. If you don't already have one, please buy at least one (preferably two or three) reloading manuals and read the section on reloading thoroughly. Then when you're done, read them again. Once you have done that, set down in writing a set of steps for reloading that you have gleaned from the manual(s). Print a copy of these procedures each time you go to the reloading bench and check each step off as you complete it.

* Since I'm guessing these rounds were loaded hot, they may have been fired hot before, so look for:

• The bright ring near the case head suggesting incipient head separation.
• Look at the headstamp and see if it has been smashed, distorted or if there are extractor/ejector marks pressed into the brass.
• Check the fit of primers to see if the head is expanded.

 

[KAC1911]

hdwhit, yes these were reloads from a vet who passed and I got these and other stuff from his wife. Weights were all around 55g but didn't think to check diameter. I do have a few reloading books too, most recent was purchased about 18 months ago. Did not notice any high pressure indications around primers either. Neck splitting was what I found and discarded them. Most of the brass was lake city from the 70's looking real good. i do have a fair quanity of once fire brass too. Thanks for pointing out some great tips too.

 

[homatok]

Since you had no problem until you fired them, I will assume they chambered fine? If so, I would have --- pulled the bullets, dumped and chucked-out the powder, re-charged the cases with my choice of powder, re-seated the bullets and gone shooting. Just to be on the safe side, I would have loaded and fired four or five randomly selected cases prior to reloading the entire batch. The suggestions on ways to check for problems given above are also what I would have done during the salvage process.

 

[FROGO207]

These guys have given you great advice so far. I would not hesitate to reuse the primers in plinking loads as long as they are not max loads. I have reused probably 25K primers and had only one or two that did not work when shot. I also think that the loads you shot were hot loads. When loads are hot enough to see the other problems they mentioned you generally WAY over safe limits. Brass sticking is usually the first (lowest) sign of over pressure.

 

[rfwobbly]

Since you had no problem until you fired them, I will assume they chambered fine? If so, I would have --- pulled the bullets, dumped and chucked-out the powder, re-charged the cases with my choice of powder, re-seated the bullets and gone shooting.

Exactly. The weight of the bullet wasn't in question. The real question was the name and weight of the powder !! It's the powder that creates the chamber pressure, and 95% of what we do in reloading is to limit and control chamber pressure.

 

[Jesse Heywood]

Next time leave the primers in the cases. To do that remove the decapping pin from the resizing die.

 

[Sunray]

"...these were reloads..." Pull 'em all and reload 'em yourself. Stuff that was loaded for another rifle requires FL resizing. You have no idea what was done with that ammo.
The primed brass would have been fine. You can FL resize primed cases by simply removing the decapping pin. However, max loads or not, the primers are fine. Unless the anvil has come out, of course.