Reloads -- use or toss?

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Cal44

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I purchased a M25-2 a while back.

The guy I bought it from threw in 500 rnds of 45 auto rim.

These are his reloads. He claims to be an experienced reloader.

But I don't know the guy other than having met him when I bought the gun. He seems like a stand up guy, as far as I can tell in one meeting.

The reloads are in boxes with the recipe, primer, and bullet listed on nice typed labels on each 50 rnd box. This shows the guy was pretty organized and that's a good thing.

My quandary is do I use these and risk blowing up my gun and myself?

I realize I could pull the bullets and reload them myself (but I haven't started reloading yet).

Also, pulling bullets on 500 rnds would take forever.

I'm not rich, but not poor enough to spend a lot of time pulling bullets.

I could toss them, but hate to waste 500 autorim cases.

Dave
 
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Using a K hammer it would take at most half an hour once you got the swing right. It goes even faster if you buy the shell holder and use that instead of the little rubber band collet.
 
A collet puller is the best way to go if you have a single station press. They don't work well on lead bullets, even hard cast, if there's a crimp. .45 ACP should be a piece of cake. The bullets are jacketed and there's no roll crimp engaging the bullet.

Another alternative is a gripper type puller. The cartridge goes in the press, and is raised until it extends through the empty top hole. Grip the bullet with the pliers type tool and lower the ram. A complete set of tools for rifle and pistol costs about $120, but they work on any caliber, with negligible setup time.
Grip-n-Pull The World's Best Bullet Puller

Because the method is gentle and the case remains upright, both of these methods allows you to recover the powder, which is useful only if you did the reload but made a mistake. Otherwise, you can't identify powder by its appearance, and have no idea of its age or storage conditions. Life is too short to learn to shoot left-handed.

It takes 4 to 6 decent whacks with an inertial puller, and you hope the case doesn't pop out of the holder, delaying you further. The plus side is that it works with any caliber and type of bullet, with or without a crimp. The tools are cheap ($15 of so). All you need is a concrete surface (or an anvil).
 
Trust yourself most of the time and trust someone else none of the time. Like others, pull the bullet, powder for the garden and reload yourself, or sell them for brass to someone but make sure you tell them they are reloads of unknown origin. The guy you got them from is a unknown in this equation. Hey I could tell you I'm a rocket scientist and made a trip to Mars but doesn't mean it's true. Everyone thinks there a expert some are some aren't.
 
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Seeing as you don't reload the components are of little value to you. You might be able to trade them to someone who does reload, otherwise I'd just stick them in the back of the safe. If the melon ever really hits the fan they will be better than nothing.
 
As tempting as it is to just shoot it anyone can make a mistake and it would be bad if it was saved for you! That's why I will not load for anyone else and will not shoot anyone else's myself. I agree pull the bullets, dispose of the powder and if you are leery of punching out the primers treat em as if they were magnum primers and load down a bit. Far better safe than sorry!
 
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First response is don't shoot them. Second response is, if you absolutely feel you really want to shoot them, take a few apart and see if you can identify the powder to be what it is claimed to be, the charge as what it is claimed to be and the bullet as what it is claimed to be. Then, take them apart anyway and don't shoot them.
 
I've been reloading for 50 years. I have never made a mistake in that time that caused a dangerous situation. I am sure that there are a lot of people who are just as smart or smarter than I am. I would pull a few of these and check the load. Did they use a powder sufficiently bulky that it can't "double charge"? Anyone who takes the time to correctly label all boxes is likely to be a careful reloader. Some factory ammo malfunctions. Are we going to say don't shoot factory ammo due to the risk? Has there ever been a case where a lot of powder was improperly labeled or had the incorrect burn characteristics? I would either shoot it or keep it for SHTF situations.
 
Pull 'em. Never had one blow but I've known of two nice S&Ws that did with mystery loads.
 
Geno44 said:
I've been reloading for 50 years. I have never made a mistake in that time that caused a dangerous situation. I am sure that there are a lot of people who are just as smart or smarter than I am. I would pull a few of these and check the load. Did they use a powder sufficiently bulky that it can't "double charge"? Anyone who takes the time to correctly label all boxes is likely to be a careful reloader. Some factory ammo malfunctions. Are we going to say don't shoot factory ammo due to the risk? Has there ever been a case where a lot of powder was improperly labeled or had the incorrect burn characteristics? I would either shoot it or keep it for SHTF situations.
Click to expand...

I may shoot a cylinder full and see if there are signs of over pressure or bullets pulling out on the last round.

I paid $550 for the 25-2 and the value of 500 free rounds of 45 auto rim is probably 1/2 the cost of the gun.

Of course, having my head get blown off and reattached would be higher.

If I pull the bullets can I reuse them? They are Oregon Trail laser cast 200 g SWCs. The bullets alone are worth something.
 
I like the suggestion of keeping them, clearly labeled, and use only in case of an emergency - SHTF and you have nothing else to shoot. 500 rounds doesn't take up a lot of space. Besides, if you take up reloading, you can pull them apart then and reuse the materials yourself.
 
FishingPilot said:
I like the suggestion of keeping them, clearly labeled, and use only in case of an emergency - SHTF and you have nothing else to shoot. 500 rounds doesn't take up a lot of space. Besides, if you take up reloading, you can pull them apart then and reuse the materials yourself.
Click to expand...

That's a good thought also as I can always shoot 45 acp for practice and that's easy to come by and cheap.
 
Well, trust is one thing, and if I didn't use his reloads it wouldn't be a reflection (or my opinion) of his handloads. I don't think I'd shoot them, even if the reloader is a "better" reloader than I am.

But, there's only one way to eat an elephant, that's one bite at a time. Nobody says you have to pull all 500 bullets in one sitting. Do as many as you're comfortable doing at one time. Take your time, don't get overwhelmed. Any aspect of reloading ammo should be fun, even pulling bullets...
 
If your are so worried about them why did you take them? They are no good to you, the bullets yes but do you really know what the powder is? and maybe he used magnum rifle primers instead pistol primers. Ask the guy if he will trade you something that you can use.

You said yourself the bullets are worth half the price you paid for the gun.
 
Get a hammer and borrow a scale.Take 5-10% of them apart and weigh the powder and compare it.From there it's up to you.
I only shoot my own loads.
 
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I have aquired reloads of unknown heritage in the past, and I just took 'em apart, junked the powder, re-did the flare-neck and put 'em back together with a charge I was sure of. They ran perfectly.
There is one other friend I will share reloaded ammo with, and his methods and general approach is the same as mine. Neither of us are prone to hot load anything nowadays.
It is all single stage, and generally uses powders with sufficient charge density to minimize the risk of an accidental double charge.
If I use a fast , low weight powder, then it is visual inspection and regular weighing during the process.
We have all seen the reults of carelessness.
Reloading is a heads-up operation, and boys will be well advised to keep it that way.
Stay safe, and enjoy yourselves.
 
A great many of the powders used to reload .45 ACP and Auto Rim are very dense and you can easily get 2 or 3 powder charges in the case under the bullet. With the thin chamber walls in a Model 25, a double charge of most powders will, at minimum, wreck the cylinder.

The weight of the powder charges is small, so weighing each cartridge, trying to find double charges, may or may not be useful. "Test-firing" a sample of 5 or 10 rounds won't guarantee that there isn't one double charged round in the remaining batch.

I just plain don't shoot other people's reloads in my guns.

I would set them aside until you take up handloading, then take them apart, dump the powder and reload them. This, in spite of the appearance that the other fellow looks like he knew what he was doing.

Just curious, what bullets and powder charges does he have listed?
 
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BUFF said:
Just curious, what bullets and powder charges does he have listed?
Click to expand...

Bullets are all 200 grn lasercast SWC.

These are auto rim, not 45 ACP

There two different recipes:

P: #150 Federal Large Pistol
L: 8 grns Ramshot true blue


P: CCI #300 Large Pistol
l: 5.4 grns Win Super Target Powder

All:

Cast trim: .898, Taper Crimp
 
Damn Yankee said:
Take some out and fire a few of them, if he was shooting them before you bought the gun and it didn't blow the gun up why should it blow up now?

What is the load info on the box?
Click to expand...

This could go both ways...but i'd shoot a few from each box..like what was said the guys was shooting them before you bought the gun and did'nt damaged it...Rusty
 
Cal44 said:
I purchased a M25-2 a while back.

The guy I bought it from threw in 500 rnds of 45 auto rim.

These are his reloads. He claims to be an experienced reloader.

But I don't know the guy other than having met him when I bought the gun. He seems like a stand up guy, as far as I can tell in one meeting.

The reloads are in boxes with the recipe, primer, and bullet listed on nice typed labels on each 50 rnd box. This shows the guy was pretty organized and that's a good thing.

My quandary is do I use these and risk blowing up my gun and myself?

I realize I could pull the bullets and reload them myself (but I haven't started reloading yet).

Also, pulling bullets on 500 rnds would take forever.

I'm not rich, but not poor enough to spend a lot of time pulling bullets.

I could toss them, but hate to waste 500 autorim cases.

Dave
Click to expand...

Shoot them.
 
The safety side of me says to pull them, though I wouldn't. I'd shoot every single one of them one slow shot at a time. From what you've posted, you stand a better chance of dying in a vehicle accident than you would blowing up the gun.

Sincerely,

Stumpy :)
 
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