Would you salvage the powder?

[Ironicaintit]

I have zero problems with using salvaged powder from mystery reloads (very cautiously, mind you)
But those are factory cartridges.
So yeah, tumble 'me if it makes you feel better; but, I wouldn't hesitate to disassemble them at 2000+FPS.

 

[ColoradoMinuteMan]

Well, I went with the overwhelming advice to try and clean them. I tumbled them for 45 minutes in walnut shells. It worked pretty well. It knocked off the corrosion and even left the lacquer in places that didn't have rust. It's not the prettiest, but then again it's cheap lacquer coated steel casings, it doesn't look that great to begin with. I think I'll do the same with the rest of it. I'm glad you all talked me into it, that made my life easier and now I have 700 more rounds to take to the range. Thank you everyone for the advice.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

I have zero problems with using salvaged powder from mystery reloads (very cautiously, mind you)
But those are factory cartridges.
So yeah, tumble 'me if it makes you feel better; but, I wouldn't hesitate to disassemble them at 2000+FPS.

Just because someone doesn't agree with you doesn't give them the right to bash you. Using custom blended powders concerns me let alone when that powder comes from an Eastern Block nation. Controls are limited at best. I just can't trust this application so I would not use the powder. Like I said above, better to shoot it and have some fun.

 

[Ironicaintit]

Just because someone doesn't agree with you doesn't give them the right to bash you.

Who's bashing?

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Who's bashing?

Really??

You said, "tumble me if it makes you feel better" so I was saying that would not be right.

 

[Ironicaintit]

Oh whoops, typo.
That should read, "tumble 'em if it makes you feel better"

My newfangled Fn iPad made a switch and I didn't notice.

I think I'd like written communications better with a quill pen and parchment. At least then my writing materials wouldn't presume to know better what I mean to say.

My apologies!

 

[ants]

Good job, Colorado MM. Now go shoot them. Good job.

 

[TimSr]

Tumble and shoot.

 

[OilyPablo]

Dry media, a little no odor mineral spirits with a little coconut oil and lanolin. Tumble and shoot.

 

[savagemann]

"Choot em lizbit"

 

[Metal God]

I saw a few post about where to start if you reuse the powder . One said take an average of a sample and "start" there . Another said take a sample and "start" at the lowest charge . I'm surprised It's being suggested to "start" your "new" load work up at a charge that is almost certainly close to max already .Why is that a good place to "start" . Why would you not find the average or even the lowest charges of a sample . Then reduce 5 to 10% and work the load back up ?

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Oh whoops, typo.
That should read, "tumble 'em if it makes you feel better"

My newfangled Fn iPad made a switch and I didn't notice.

I think I'd like written communications better with a quill pen and parchment. At least then my writing materials wouldn't presume to know better what I mean to say.

My apologies!

lol, yeah, the autocorrect makes for some interesting reading alright... No harm done.

 

[ny32182]

I don't think I'd even bother tumbling them. Just shoot.

I ran this same kind of program on about 40 rounds of corroded Pakistani .308 that I have:

Pulled bullets
Measured charges
Re-balanced charges evenly across all the rounds
Reseated bullets
Hand polished corroded spots on the cases

Never again.

They went bang and maybe off a bench you could see a 10% accuracy improvement due to the balanced powder charges, but we are still talking lipstick on a pig here. I've shot a few hundred rounds of the rest over the years with no functional issues, and still have probably 500+ rounds remaining.

Lesson learned: if you want good ammo, load it yourself with good components. If you want cheap blasting ammo, buy it as-is without any intention to "fix" it, because the effort will be a tedious PITA, and the return will be virtually nil.

 

[ColoradoMinuteMan]

I don't think I'd even bother tumbling them. Just shoot.

I went ahead and tumbled them. It only took a handful of trips out to the garage per evening to load, unload, and repackage. I realize that these rugged eastern block weapons will handle pretty rough ammo, but I just see no reason to intentionally run abrasive ammunition through my firearms. If I'm even in a situation where I have no other choice, I may change my tune.

Thanks everyone for the advice, it saved me a ton of time and effort. Now I can spend my extra time doing something more fun like loading some more .223.

 

[mdi]

After you shoot 'em let us know if you have any extraction/ejection problems...

 

[RecoilRob]

Just a thought: if you experience case failures it would not be wise to run the whole batch through the gun. I think a prudent approach would have been to clean up the worst looking 5 or 10, then shoot them carefully checking each fired case. Some new and perfect looking cases will split when fired...so these certainly could be said that they are somewhat less than perfect and very well might fail upon firing.

And, of course, the whole lot might shoot just fine with no problems whatsoever...but it would suck to clean all of them up only to find them regularly splitting when being fired and even a good Russian chamber isn't going to like 700 split cases fired in it. Best of luck to you!