Pulling someone else's reloads

[Ratbelly]

I recently bought a Model 500 and the guy added 200 rounds of ammo that he loaded. His records are very specific and I checked the loads against my book, but I still don't feel comfortable shooting them.

My first question is how do I go about pulling these huge things?

Second question is, I know I can reuse the bullet and brass, but what about the primer and powder?

 

[Rule3]

You can use everything except the powder as you really do not know what it is just by looking at it. Same may be true for the primers. Did he use the right ones for the 500?

As to pulling them, probably a press mounted bullet puller. I do not think a kinetic bullet hammer is big enough.

RCBS Collet Bullet Puller - MidwayUSA

 

[m657]

I'd pull them all too....along with the primer unless there was a way to specifically ID what he did use.

Weighing 10% of the powder charges might give you a degree of comfort IF they were all as he specified.

Still...how much additional pucker with each round you might fire, can your blood pressure tolerate?

 

[sourdough44]

What exactly are the loads? Yes, some guys seem to have to load right at the top, are they there? If he has good records you could weigh a few charges & see how consistent they are.

I'm not saying what to do, as I am here & you are there, with the rounds & information. Depending on mostly the 'who' is who loaded them, shooting them is not totally crazy. Are my carefully loaded mid range reloads haz-mat? I do have a few close relatives who don't mind shooting them. I guess the easy answer is to pull them, but there may be other options. JMHO

 

[Ratbelly]

335 grain JHP - 16.6 gr Titegroup - CCI350 primer - COL 2.031
335 grain JHP - 16.5 gr Titegroup - CCI200 primer - COL 2.027
500 grain JFP - 31.3 gr H110 - CCI200 primer - COL 2.065

 

[David Sinko]

I have no experience loading this particular cartridge, but is it possible you can weigh each loaded round? The jacketed bullets should be very uniform in weight and any significant deviation would have to be with the powder charge. There are some scales that can weigh up to 1000 grains.

Unless I'm mistaken, I do believe collet type pullers work only with long rifle bullets.

And why would the primers be suspect? I always re-use the primers from pulled cartridges and never have any problems.

Dave Sinko

 

[Rule3]

Only the question of if he did or did not use LR primers.

Bottom line, is it worth it (even for expensive 500 SW ammo) to risk using 200 rounds??

I would not use anyones ammo unless I knew them well and have shot with them with exception of a few folks here on the forum.

 

[m657]

re: "I have no experience loading this particular cartridge, but is it possible you can weigh each loaded round?"

In my own efforts to resolve the very same question about OTHER calibers on other occasions and even with my OWN reloads, I undertook to do this very thing, as I suspected a glitch producing some defective rounds.

What I discovered was there is a host of other weight variables which will obscure whether the powder charge is in error.

Cases alone, even if they are in spec, can and do vary more than a few grains. Amount of lube on cast boolits can and will vary more than a few grains and still be perfectly within spec as well. And so forth.

There is considerable difference between "grams" and "grains". http://www.asknumbers.com/GramsToGrains.aspx
1 Gram = 15.4323584 Grains
Just where could I expect to determine variance in a loaded round, by weighing the cartridge?

I don't think it's possible in the typical home reloader set up, to discern which component is responsible for "grain" variation in scale number reading.

Maybe I'm wrong.

 

[Ratbelly]

I wondered about weighing each round too. I'm not worried about the prrimers so much, more so a double charge or something. So will the puller posted above damage the bullets by pulling them? I noticed the description says not use with non-jacketed bullets, so how do you pull lead bullets?

 

[125JHP]

I once bought 200 rounds of 308 out of a ammo box at a gun show. they were supposed to be all the same 150gr bullet. I decided to pull some of them to check. There were 150, 165 and 168 grain bullets of 3 or 4 different styles (BT & FB etc) and at least 3 powder with charges all over the place. I pulled all of them. What I did was use a kinetic puller (hammer type) to get the bullet started but not all the way out then a press mounted puller to finish the job. Was less messy and faster in the end.

Another time I bought 300 44 Mag at a gun show. The guy must have though he was Elmer Keith as they were all MAX loads. It was a real pain trying to pull those LSWC crimped bullets so I decided to shoot them. After a couple trigger pulls I decided a Smith wasn't worth trashing so bought a Ruger to finish blasting them. Then I sold the Ruger.

 

[Maximumbob54]

335 grain JHP - 16.6 gr Titegroup - CCI350 primer - COL 2.031
335 grain JHP - 16.5 gr Titegroup - CCI200 primer - COL 2.027
500 grain JFP - 31.3 gr H110 - CCI200 primer - COL 2.065

I thought Tightgroup was the powder with the few 500SW popped cylinders. If that is correct then I wouldn't use them at all. Or is my overheated brain making this up???

 

[Rule3]

Weighing them will tell you nothing. Maybe in a 500 which uses a lot of powder you can see if one is empty but other than that, what have you learned?

On small calibers that use 4-6 grs of powder a bullet or piece of brass can vary that much.

So again, how much does a SW 500 cost? What is your hand or eyes worth??

 

[ohiococonut]

Weighing these won't tell you much since I've seen as much as 7gr difference in the brass alone.

I would be suspect of the primers & cases as well since he used the same charge of TG but in one load used LMPP and LR in the other??? They are not the same length. Did he ream the primer pockets or just load them thinking they are the same. Question, questions.....
I'd be curious to find out what type of brass he used and go from there.

 

[Ratbelly]

Brass is all Starline & Hornady. I'm going to plan on pulling them all, just need to figure out which puller to get for both types of bullets so I can at least re-use them. Do you have to re-size the cases after pulling bullets? The whole crimp thing is new to me, but I would assume that you'd have to.

 

[ohiococonut]

Ok. Now the first load you listed is probably in the Hornady and the last two are in Starline. Correct? The Starline is most likely stamped with and "R"? Hornady still uses Large Pistol Primers. You can either keep them seperate or purchase a primer pocket reamer and ream them to accept LRP so they are all the same. That's what I initially did until they wore out. Now all I use is Starline designed for LRP.

 

[kennyb]

i have pulled 500 rounds using the hammer...no differant then any other round

 

[125JHP]

Weighing the cartridges wouldn't be a sure thing. a bullet itself can sometimes be 1 or 2 grains light or heavy . What if they are max loads, and the tolerances happen to not be in your favor would 2 to 4 grains more powder make a significant difference? can you say kaboom?
Does anyone make a rifle or carbine or field artillery in 500 S&W? There's your excuse to buy a new gun.

 

[Rule3]

i have pulled 500 rounds using the hammer...no differant then any other round

What hammer do you have. My regular RCBS will only go to 45 cal. I see some listed on Midway for Magnums.

 

[125JHP]

I would be suspect of the primers & cases as well since he used the same charge of TG but in one load used LMPP and LR in the other??? They are not the same length. Did he ream the primer pockets or just load them thinking they are the same. .

It's possible - Early brass was different in the primer pocket size- I cant recall the exact details but I'm sure the new stuff uses rifle primers and is marked with an R

Oops... I guess this has been covered, however the box of Hornady cases I bought have LR stamped on their head and my load data indicates I used large rifle primers.

 

[Vartarg]

I'd pull the bullets, flush the powder, punch out the primers and discard them and save the brass......that's just me. I wouldn't think about trying to reuse his powder and primers.....