The things you find...(range brass)

[colonelhogan44]

I recently bought a lot of 1000 .38 special casings, and found some interesting things:

Severely flattened primers:
Pictured is a .357 case (i got about 50 mixed in with the .38s ), but the same was seen in at least 50 .38 cases..


Primers seated backwards:


and even a live round (!!)


People never cease to amaze me with the stupid things they do...

 

[J_McLeod]

I found a few of the severely flattened primers with some brass I picked up from the range tonight. The ones I remember seeing all had a WIN headstamp.

 

[Geckgo]

hehehehe, props for the last pic. I have a growing collection of loaded shells that I find at the range when scrounging brass. I can't resist picking them up and putting them all side-to-side on my bar like a calliber show

 

[esheato]

I've been finding a ton of 9mm brass lately.

I was pretty excited until I loaded a bunch and was getting random failures to fire and inconsistent extraction.

Reviewed my process, double checked the press, pulled a couple bullets, checked headstamps...hmmm. Wait a minute, I can see the lube groove on some of these. Cases measured .050" short.

Some looney trimmed 9mm cases waaaaay too short. I have no idea why...I've never trimmed a pistol case in my entire life.

Found 20 in a lot of 1500 I loaded.

 

[Hey_Allen]

I wonder if they were trimmed down for someone shooting 9x18?

Of course there's always the possibility that they didn't have a clue...

 

[LiveLife]

A lot of live rounds I find turn out to be out of dimension cases that would not chamber fully. Some are live rounds with primers indented.

9mm brass fired in 40S&W chambers have that unique look.

One day at the range I saw some small pieces of metal that turned out to be broken gun parts. Somebody really had an interesting range day ...

 

[evan price]

esheato: Somebody was making their own Makarov brass (9x18) from plentiful Luger brass... Happens, and sucks when you find it.

I get a lot of live rounds that jammed and got ejected due to misfeeds. Stuff with dents, crushed necks etc.

Plus lots of stuff that got dropped and abandoned. Found one day 20 rounds of Remington 158-RN 38 specials that looked like somebody dropped the ammo tray off the bench and it went forward of the firing line and rolled around and got left behind. Nice!

One day I found a bolt-on .30 caliber muzzle brake that had a fresh bullet scar on the inside of the bore. It had been launched about 30 yards downrange!

Once I found the end of a brass cleaning rod, the kind used in muzzleloaders, that had been fired into the backstop. No idea the decision process on that one!

 

[Shadow 7D]

hmmm,
those trimmed cases, check the empties, see if the case is straight walled, mouth flared, if it is, you have mak brass. But hey, I'm sure you can get real pissed at the you bought it from...

wait, it's free...

 

[esheato]

Awesome, thanks...I don't have a Mak. It would have taken me a bit to figure that one out.

 

[clutch]

Gee, I recently bought 1000 once fired .40 S&W cases from Grafs, the only odd thing I found was a few 9 mm cases stuck in the necks.

There was one case that I had to toss out of the whole batch.

Clutch

 

[Peter M. Eick]

I picked up 2 45acp rounds, 3 10mm's and a 38 super live round at the range yesterday. I go to a big public range and this is common.

I just pull the bullet, dump the powder and then reload with something mild and use them up.

 

[rfwobbly]

Ah. You've merely picked up the very rare and elusive....

"38 Not-So-Special"

And as you can tell from the initials, it was loaded by Willy Wonka.

 

[1911Tuner]

The flattened primer looks more like a headspace issue than pressure...going by the fact that the edge is above flush with the case.

 

[Sin City Shootist]

That one with the flipped primer probably came from a lee turret press. Mine did that a few times till I replace the primer arm. Lee actually has that listed in its FAQ's.

 

[colonelhogan44]

I load on a lee turret, and I've never had that problem.

 

[GaryL]

People never cease to amaze me with the stupid things they do...

Fill'r up til she's full

I wonder if they were trimmed down for someone shooting 9x18?

That's a good point.

I have an old defunct airline plastic tray I use for sorting brass before tumbling. It's real easy pick out 380 from 9mm, and anything weird that doesn't belong when you set them on their bases. Then I toss them into qt plastic buckets rescued from recycle (wife figures I have enough of them).

The tray is a NW serving tray I picked up for 75 cents at a surplus place.

 

[mbopp]

Gotta be careful with range pickups. I found some 38 cases, tumbled them, and went to size / deprime them.
CCRRRUUUNNNCCCHHH!!!
There was a pebble stuck in a case. Bent my decapper rod & broke the pin. Two emails to RCBS and they sent me replacements gratis even though I was more than willing to pay for them.

 

[ljnowell]

I load on a lee turret, and I've never had that problem

Me too, never had that happen.

 

[rondog]

Flipped primers can happen on ANY type of press. I'm just curious why it was laying on the ground at a range. Doesn't look like it has a bullet in it.

 

[KosmicKrunch]

I just bought about 4000 .38 special brass, 1000 were claimed to be clean, decapped and sized - 370 or so still had primers in them, 150 had CLAW (not extractor marks by someone using them in Model 52's) marks on the head, looks like someone used a vise grip on them.

The next 2000 were literally perfect in every way.

The other 1000 were not claimed cleaned or anything, but many had to be range pick ups at an outdoor range as there was mud, pebbles, crushed, split, beveled head etc... out of that lot, I was able to save like 350. The rest were scrap. LOL there were even lead and copper shards in with it, although there were 1012 cases in the lot.

I just pulled bullets on about 200 loaded .38 spl (mixed grains), the ammo came out of literally tons and tons of re-claimed brass from a farm. He claims the ammo and brass had to be about 60-70 years old. The bullets had ROCK hard wax/lube. Most but not all of the primers had a "U" stamped into the primer and they were copper colored, the powder had green flecks in it, we took it out back and laid the powder in a pie pan and ran a 15 ft fuse to it to burn it and get rid of it. Turned out to be a nice lil flash in the pan, super slow burn though. I buried the de-capped primers in a 1 foot deep hole under a rock in back of the garage. I am not sure what to do with the lead, maybe use it when I cast next.

 

[ljnowell]

Flipped primers can happen on ANY type of press. I'm just curious why it was laying on the ground at a range. Doesn't look like it has a bullet in it.

I agree, I'm just wondering why it would be implied it was a Lee Turret because of it.

 

[LiveLife]

Flipped primers can happen

I will admit that even when hand priming, flipped primers can happen if you don't get them all facing the same way on the tray.

I put the loaded rounds nose down in the tray/box for a final look over and catch any flipped primers.

 

[Sin City Shootist]

I agree, I'm just wondering why it would be implied it was a Lee Turret because of it.

Because it happened to me numerous times on mine and because lee has a bulletin related to this problem and burrs left from the machining process. I'm not bad mouthing Lee by any means, it just happens. Oh, I just bought the new Lee single stage classic cast with breach lock.

 

[ljnowell]

Because it happened to me numerous times on mine and because lee has a bulletin related to this problem and burrs left from the machining process. I'm not bad mouthing Lee by any means, it just happens. Oh, I just bought the new Lee single stage classic cast with breach lock.

First I have heard of it. I guess I never looked for that info, because it never happened to me. Which part has the burrs on it? Now I am starting to wonder, I will end up taking mine apart just to see, you know, the OCD that exists among reloaders. LOL.

 

[Sin City Shootist]

From Lee's site.

Flipped primers in Turret Press

Primer tipping or flipping is usually caused by a burr or nick in the slot of the ram where the primer arm and primer cup pass. This burr catches the primer cup and compresses the spring and when it suddenly snaps free, it causes the primer to tip or flip over.

You will find the burr at the point where the 1/4 " wide primer arm slot on the ram meets with the shell holder slot. Remove this burr with a file. It is easy to get at with the turret removed.

Mine was a miss drilled post for the priming lever. I simply replaced it and problem solved.