Salvaging components from disassembled cast rounds (fair warning: LOTS of questions)

[barnfrog]

Last night I pulled some lead bullets from some .357 Mag rounds that someone else reloaded. The powder will be tossed, but I had some questions about the cases and the bullets. I tried searching online, but when you use the terms "salvage," "lead" and "bullets" you get a lot of stuff about wheel weights and digging through shooting range berms.

First are the bullets. I have never loaded anything but jacketed bullets, and I'm not sure if what I read in the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook is affected by the fact that these have been seated and then pulled with a collet. In the picture below you can see how much the collet deformed the nose of the bullet (left) as compared to one that hasn't been in the collet yet (right).

And here's a picture of some that have been pulled.


Will that deformation affect whether they can be loaded again as is? Do they need to be run through a sizer again and re-lubed? Or should I set them aside until I eventually go so far down the rabbit hole that I decide to start casting my own, and melt them down again? Or, since I don't know what hardness they are, should I avoid reloading them altogether?

As for the cases, my plan at this point is to load them with jacketed bullets. How fastidious do I need to be about cleaning the residual lube from the case mouths? Will it have much effect on performance if I'm using a good roll crimp on a cannelured bullet?

Thanks heap if you've read this far. As always, I appreciate the assistance everyone here is willing to share.

 

[EricBu]

If it was me....I'd put the bullets in a drawer for end of times...just not worth the effort IMHO. They'll work no doubt, but really, are we that desperate? If not, just shove 'em in a hole until you either take up casting, or your heirs throw 'em in a dumpster.

The cases, I would dump in a tumbler with CLEAN and UNTREATED media for 15 minutes, won't hurt the primers a bit. Take the decap pin out of your sizing die, resize them, and load as usual. YMMV, this is just what I would do and have done with this sort of acquisition of pulldowns. Of course, make a good inspection of the cases and make sure original loader seated primers correctly, and then maybe start by just loading 2 or 3 and see what kind of ignition you get. No telling if those are magnum or standard primers.......so would not make sense to use something like H110 in those cases.

 

[barnfrog]

If it was me....I'd put the bullets in a drawer for end of times...just not worth the effort IMHO. They'll work no doubt, but really, are we that desperate? If not, just shove 'em in a hole until you either take up casting, or your heirs throw 'em in a dumpster.

The cases, I would dump in a tumbler with CLEAN and UNTREATED media for 15 minutes, won't hurt the primers a bit. Take the decap pin out of your sizing die, resize them, and load as usual. YMMV, this is just what I would do and have done with this sort of acquisition of pulldowns. Of course, make a good inspection of the cases and make sure original loader seated primers correctly, and then maybe start by just loading 2 or 3 and see what kind of ignition you get. No telling if those are magnum or standard primers.......so would not make sense to use something like H110 in those cases.

Thanks much.

Desperate, no. Just wondered if they could be pressed into service for trigger time if nothing else as long as it's not dangerous to use them.

First loads in these cases will be mild ones with Unique or Universal.

 

[EricBu]

Thanks much.

Desperate, no. Just wondered if they could be pressed into service for trigger time if nothing else as long as it's not dangerous to use them.

First loads in these cases will be mild ones with Unique or Universal.

Nah, not dangerous. But if you don't relube them, they'll probably lead a bit, and they likely won't be the most accurate thing you'll ever load. I mean, sure, just to go out and bang off some rounds at cans in the desert, no problem, but to me, not worth it, not at the current price of primers and powder. Throw 'em in a hole in case the world runs out of lead, and those are the last 38 caliber bullets left. I like to think that all my little stocks of things like that..that I saved "just in case" will turn up when my kids or grand kids are cleaning things out for my estate sale. I want them to say things like "*** was dad thinking when he put this crap in that ammo can 30 years ago".

 

[Tallinar]

I've never tried to run primed cases through the tumbler, but if it's new and untreated media, I suppose it makes sense. Just don't skip the step of making careful inspection of the cases to make sure there is no media obstructing the flash hole.

I want them to say things like "*** was dad thinking when he put this crap in that ammo can 30 years ago".

About 3 years ago, I was tasked as the executor of my grandfather's estate. Among other things, I ended up being responsible for going through all the crap in his garage. He was a lifelong reloader. Some of the things I found were exactly what you're describing.

 

[reddog81]

What diameter are the base of the pulled bullets? That's really the only thing I'd worry about. If they are too small you aren't going to get good neck tension when you go to reload them next time. Sizing won't help in this scenario unless you can some how size them to be larger...

The lube isn't going to hurt anything. A slight deformation on the bullet shoulder isn't going to hurt anything unless you're going for tiny groups out to 25 yards or something further out.

 

[Seedy Character]

Thanks much.

Desperate, no. Just wondered if they could be pressed into service for trigger time if nothing else as long as it's not dangerous to use them.

First loads in these cases will be mild ones with Unique or Universal.

THIS! ^^^^^^^^


Load them light. 4.0 gr Unique and go plinking
Get some trigger time. Make some noise.

The primed brass should be good go.
Drop them in your cylinder, to make sure they chamber easily. If they do, add powder and bullet, have fun. If not, remove decapping pin from your die and resize then, add powder and bullet.

Those bullets will not be Match grade. They are not SD loads. They are great for shooting cans, making noise.

 

[EricBu]

I've never tried to run primed cases through the tumbler, but if it's new and untreated media, I suppose it makes sense. Just don't skip the step of making careful inspection of the cases to make sure there is no media obstructing the flash hole.



About 3 years ago, I was tasked as the executor of my grandfather's estate. Among other things, I ended up being responsible for going through all the crap in his garage. He was a lifelong reloader. Some of the things I found were exactly what you're describing.

Hahahaha. I can only dream that in the year 2045, somebody posts a picture here on THR of a box of my hand labeled .357 Magnums **For the Coonan Only** from 2021, with the question, "While cleaning out my grandfather's shop, I came across several boxes of these. I think the warning on the box is for his old Coonan .357 1911, which I was also given. Do you think it's safe to shoot them?" And I pray to all that is holy, that somebody on this forum says, "hell yeah, it's what you're grandpa would want! But heed that warning, and don't shoot them in an old Model 66!".

 

[Rule3]

Just resize the brass (remove decapping pin) No need to "clean them. Why???.

As for the bullets how many are there? I would just shoot them

Moral of the story don't use a collet puller on lead bullets.

 

[Seedy Character]

Hahahaha. I can only dream that in the year 2045, somebody posts a picture here on THR of a box of my hand labeled .357 Magnums **For the Coonan Only** from 2021, with the question, "While cleaning out my grandfather's shop, I came across several boxes of these. I think the warning on the box is for his old Coonan .357 1911, which I was also given. Do you think it's safe to shoot them?" And I pray to all that is holy, that somebody on this forum says, "hell yeah, it's what you're grandpa would want! But heed that warning, and don't shoot them in an old Model 66!".

My grandkids have no problem shooting my handloads. They do know, of the box says "hunting load", or "magnum", or "rifle only".
It is not a mild, target load, but a SAFE load, that I tested and used.

Some learned easier than others.

 

[.38 Special]

The bullets almost certainly will be safe to shoot as-is. With the front driving band essentially gone, though, they are unlikely to be very accurate. I personally would melt them down and recast them.

Several options regarding the cases. The simplest thing would be to run them all through the flaring die and just load them from there. The other end of the spectrum would be tumbling them, carefully clearing the flash holes, and then running them through the sizing die with the decapping pin removed. I suppose I personally would lean toward the former and just use the resulting loads for plinking, after which the empties would get the usual treatment before being added into regular rotation.

 

[Highland Lofts]

For me rule #1 is never shot reloads that were reloaded by some one else.so my first step would be set them aside until you want to get into reloading then tear them down for components.
Set the projectiles aside to be recast.
The cases remove the decapping pin and resize.
Flare the case.
Fill with powder.seat new bullet.
Crimp. You are safe &set.
----------------------
My reason for not shooting other people's reloads.

#1 I use to buy reloads from the gun forums, gun show and from estate sales.
I bought a bunch of estate sale reloads one time. Various calibers. I was shooting a 357mag revolver and got a double charge. Everything was going fine until that double charges cartridge. About blew the gun out of my hand, luckily it didn't blow the gun up.
After that one incident I never shot another's reloaded ammo no matter who made it.
------------------------------
On a local gun forums a guy was giving away four or five -50 round plastic packs of 222 Remington reloaded ammo and a set of RCBS 222 Remington dies with the stipulation they be tear down for components.
His father in-law was 89 years old and still reloading. When the old guy died he inherited all of the reloading equipment and everything that goes with it. . He had a 45acp pistol and was shooting up the 45acp reloaded ammo. After two double charges cartridges he knocked the rest down for components and come across several more double charged cartridges.

He tore down some 38spl cartridges and found several double charges cartridges.

-------------------------

My brother wanted to get into reloading.
A couple of years ago while back East deer hunting I helped my brother set up his reloading equipment and showed him how to set dies up.
How to trim casesthat needed timing.
It didn't do any good what so ever.

When I went back there this past October for small hunting I told him I will be reloading up some 243 because I only had about twenty left for the up coming deer hunting in November

He said he loaded up two plastic shell holders that hold 20 each. 100 grain soft point.
These are what he loaded. He loaded twenty up and continued to reload another twenty.


Looks like when he tried to seat the bullets he cranked the die down instead of the stem.
Never caught on to what was happening.
With that big eff up on the outside of the case, what's happening on the inside?

------------------------
Then you get no charge in the case.
A friend did some carpentry work for a friend. He didn't charge him for the work done so his friend bought him a single-stage Hornaday Lock n Load kit. He bought a portable bench with wheels on it so he can load in the living room while watching television.
Reloading you need to give it your undivided attention.
Squids are another major issue.
One big problem he has is not charging the cases with powder because of his undivided attention watching television and reloading.
We were shooting one weekend and a couple he knows came along for a couple of hours. This guy's wife wanted to shoot his 38spl revolver. She shot two times and hit her target.
Third shot she said something was wrong because she did not hit the target. Her husband told her to shoot again.
Needless to say she should of said something to one of us.
She shot two squids in a row. The second bullet pushed the first bullet half way out of the barrel and was about to shoot it again.
I looked over and seen the half bullet sticking out of the barrel and yelled over to stop shooting.
I took the last bullet home and tore it apart, it had a full charge.
I took a handful of other loaded 38dpl cartridges he loaded and found two more squibs (no powder).

 

[blue32]

They look like a 358311 copy with a fatter ogive and no crimp groove, kind of like the RCBS 38-158RN. The mold that cast them looks to be dropping whiskered bullets. As long as they mic at .358" I say load a few and shoot to test.

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

If you know someone who casts, give them the bullets for their pot. If not, stick them in a flat rate mailer and gift them to the first bidder over on the paying it forward thread. Tis the season of giving, after all.
There’s no harm loading jacketed bullets over however much lube might be sticking to the insides of the necks but I suppose a quick tumble couldn’t hurt either. As for primer flash, lots of magnum powders and loads are possible with standard primers. Your plan to use Unique is a good one.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Resize the cases without the decapping pin and use them. Load the bullets in .38 Special brass as is and practice your trigger control. No need to over complicate this process, it's not a mystery. I'm writing this just to agree with many of the posts above. No problems with that advice.

You were right to ask. Have fun and be safe just like you are doing.

 

[BJung]

No use letting those bullets go to waste. You can just resize and flare the cases and seat new bullets. I’ve tumbled primed brass before and it still fired. But, I prefer not to do it and have a misfire. To me, you can do three things with your lead bullets. First, take up casting or give them to a bullet caster. Second, you can use them in a ladder test to get an idea where an accuracy load for that bullet or a lead bullet of the same weight. Ask someone at the range if you can shoot the loads and record the MV. Or third, load them in .38 Special light loads, then alternate these with your .357 loads to identify flinching. You don’t even know if those lead bullets match your bore so besides having been slightly swayed and being mangled a bit from the collet die, and it being a LRN, accuracy will less than ideal.

 

[BJung]

For me rule #1 is never shot reloads that were reloaded by some one else.so my first step would be set them aside until you want to get into reloading then tear them down for components.
Set the projectiles aside to be recast.
The cases remove the decapping pin and resize.
Flare the case.
Fill with powder.seat new bullet.
Crimp. You are safe &set.
----------------------
My reason for not shooting other people's reloads.

#1 I use to buy reloads from the gun forums, gun show and from estate sales.
I bought a bunch of estate sale reloads one time. Various calibers. I was shooting a 357mag revolver and got a double charge. Everything was going fine until that double charges cartridge. About blew the gun out of my hand, luckily it didn't blow the gun up.
After that one incident I never shot another's reloaded ammo no matter who made it.
------------------------------
On a local gun forums a guy was giving away four or five -50 round plastic packs of 222 Remington reloaded ammo and a set of RCBS 222 Remington dies with the stipulation they be tear down for components.
His father in-law was 89 years old and still reloading. When the old guy died he inherited all of the reloading equipment and everything that goes with it. . He had a 45acp pistol and was shooting up the 45acp reloaded ammo. After two double charges cartridges he knocked the rest down for components and come across several more double charged cartridges.

He tore down some 38spl cartridges and found several double charges cartridges.

-------------------------

My brother wanted to get into reloading.
A couple of years ago while back East deer hunting I helped my brother set up his reloading equipment and showed him how to set dies up.
How to trim casesthat needed timing.
It didn't do any good what so ever.

When I went back there this past October for small hunting I told him I will be reloading up some 243 because I only had about twenty left for the up coming deer hunting in November

He said he loaded up two plastic shell holders that hold 20 each. 100 grain soft point.
These are what he loaded. He loaded twenty up and continued to reload another twenty.

View attachment 1048349 View attachment 1048350
Looks like when he tried to seat the bullets he cranked the die down instead of the stem.
Never caught on to what was happening.
With that big eff up on the outside of the case, what's happening on the inside?

------------------------
Then you get no charge in the case.
A friend did some carpentry work for a friend. He didn't charge him for the work done so his friend bought him a single-stage Hornaday Lock n Load kit. He bought a portable bench with wheels on it so he can load in the living room while watching television.
Reloading you need to give it your undivided attention.
Squids are another major issue.
One big problem he has is not charging the cases with powder because of his undivided attention watching television and reloading.
We were shooting one weekend and a couple he knows came along for a couple of hours. This guy's wife wanted to shoot his 38spl revolver. She shot two times and hit her target.
Third shot she said something was wrong because she did not hit the target. Her husband told her to shoot again.
Needless to say she should of said something to one of us.
She shot two squids in a row. The second bullet pushed the first bullet half way out of the barrel and was about to shoot it again.
I looked over and seen the half bullet sticking out of the barrel and yelled over to stop shooting.
I took the last bullet home and tore it apart, it had a full charge.
I took a handful of other loaded 38dpl cartridges he loaded and found two more squibs (no powder).[/QUOTE
You need to tell your brother to put his tv, phone, and radio in a different room.

 

[Highland Lofts]

You can talk to people all you want, nothing you say has no meaning. That's what they have done and will continue to do.
This is another reason indoor ranges turn me off. I like the outdoor pits and get our little area away from other people.
We I take my grandson shooting every weekend from spring to late fall we set our table up some distance from the people who go there with us.
We never line the tables up next to each other.

Lots of good information here.

 

[Highland Lofts]

Another thing, I save all of my spent primers and store them separately and turn them in when I turn in my scrap cases. I get the same price for the primers that I get for my scrap cases.
And the price of scrap fluctuates.

 

[barnfrog]

Thanks for all the replies. I cleaned the cases with a dry cleaning patch on a .32 caliber bore brush. That got the insides pretty shiny. Probably overkill but there are only 50 of them so it didn't take that long. Then sized them and flared the mouths. All set and ready for loading.

I think I'll set the bullets aside for now. I only have a couple hundred jacketed on hand at present though, so I'll likely put the cast ones in some light .38 loads at some point for plinkination purposes.

 

[Highland Lofts]

I have extra die sets and have extra resize dies missing the decapping pin just incase I need to knock out projectiles and need to resize a case with a live primer in it. I also have RCBS and Lyman trimmers. With the RCBS trimmer with the collet system I can trim cases with live primers in the cases.
The Lyman cam lock trimmers uses a ball that centers the case that goes partially in the empty primer pocket.

------------------

After you resized the cases did you check the case length? They generally grow when the resizing ball pulls out of the case.
If the case is to long you might have an issue with closing you bolt.

 

[barnfrog]

After you resized the cases did you check the case length? They generally grow when the resizing ball pulls out of the case.
If the case is to long you might have an issue with closing you bolt.

Yes, I checked the length and trimmed them all to the SAAMI trim-to length.

I'm not sure what made me think to do it, but just before I went to bed last night I tried putting one of the pulled bullets in one of the re-sized and flared cases, and it slipped right in past the flare. So I checked it with my caliper and it read 0.349. I checked a dozen others and they all measured 0.350 or less. I'm guessing the roll crimp scraped some diameter off the bullets when I pulled them. So I won't be loading them any time soon. I like GeoDudeFlorida's idea of finding someone on the PIF thread.

 

[Rule3]

I thought these were handgun, revolver ammo? They do not "grow" What bolt??
Just load them and shoot them.

 

[Thomasss]

Don't toss the powder. You can fertilize grass with it or it will also melt ice and snow.

 

[Seedy Character]

Don't toss the powder. You can fertilize grass with it or it will also melt ice and snow.

It is great fireant bait.
Sprinkle on bed, wait 10 minutes, drop match, no mo ants.