What to do with reloads?

[Cal44]

Several years ago I bought a 25-2 off a private party.

With the transaction, he threw in 500 rnds of 45 Autorim reloads.

He said he used the gun in club shooting event with the Autorim loads.

He said he reloaded for other people in his club.

The reloads are in plastic boxes of 50 rnds each with the loading recipe on each box on a neat typed label.

Seems like an organized guy, but I never met him before or since.

The problem is I hesitate to shoot reloads from a guy I don't know from Adam.

I just put them in the back of a cabinet and forgot about them. Jokingly called them my SHTF stash.

Back then I figured SHTF would never come.

Well, I'm not so sure of that these days.

And I remembered my reloads.

The question is, what to do with these reloads.

Any ideas?

 

[LoboGunLeather]

Generally speaking, reloads from an unknown source can be a good source of components. 500 rounds of .45AR brass is nothing to sneeze at in today's market. Pull the bullets (reusable if you have a good collet-style puller, or discard if not), the powder makes very good fertilizer for house plants. Good brass will still be good brass.

 

[growr]

Pull several apart and see if the data and powder amount line up....if it is a powder that is commonly used like Unique, Red Dot, Bullseye then check in the manuals to see if there is a huge variance....ie. 5-6 grains of Unique with a 200-230 bullet...no big deal

If you find that they are in line........shoot them!!

My comments are based on what "I" would do.....you will hear from many to NEVER shoot reloads EVER......you do as you see fit.....

Randy

 

[Engineer1911]

I understand the fear of "the other guy's reloads". I just can't agree with the idea that a person that documents their loads, has fired them in the gun, and sells the reloads with the gun would make the ammo "unsafe" because you now own the gun and ammo.

 

[Pavia]

I would never sell or give ammunition to anyone to use that I reloaded. I’m super anal, been reloading for years. But it all stays in my firearm. My advice is do not use that ammo.

Best case... pull the bullets and have primed sized cases and bullets to easily reload.

Worst case... Kaboom...

 

[Pavia]

I understand the fear of "the other guy's reloads". I just can't agree with the idea that a person that documents their loads, has fired them in the gun, and sells the reloads with the gun would make the ammo "unsafe" because you now own the gun and ammo.

Unless you are there making each and every cartridge... verifying there is a proper powder charge in the case...you don’t really know for sure.

Ive been reloading for forty years without a negative incident. Take my advice.

 

[iouri]

I’d disassemble a few and check if it has amount of powder listed, also check if double charge of that powder would be possible and if not I’d probably shoot it. If powder used is some fast one like TG or BE I’d probably disassemble all of them.


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[Lonegle57]

I usually break them down. Once I got a number of 41 mag reloads. I weighed one, then broke it down and weighed powder by itself, bullet, and brass: it was as advertised. Then went ahead and weighed each cartridge,if there was any deviation I pulled them, otherwise I shot them without a problem.

 

[AlHunt]

I don't know what the charge weight for that round would be but I'd imagine a half pound of powder wold re-charge them all.

So for $12 to $15 worth of powder, you get 500 rounds of ammo and peace of mind.

I'd break them down.

 

[harvester1]

Sounds like a lot of work to take down 500 rounds, but no one says you have to do it like a job. Take a few down now and then any soon you will have that pile of primed brass and and a box of bullets for remelting or possibly re use. Thats what will give peace of mind as has been mentioned already.

 

[yeti]

Ideal practice:
Break it all down and reuse bullets and brass. The safe play.

Practical application:
After sizing the guy up and forming an opinion on his practices, I would take a random sampling of say a dozen or so rounds and break them down to verify. Are these mid-range loads or just off MAX? If risky load or SD on drops is high...break em all down.

If all above passes muster and matches his load label details, I would shoot them.
Know it is a risk, though. I'm just being honest about what I would do, as opposed to what I should do.

 

[OldChief]

Putting it simply, I'd break them down as I wanted to reload some, say 50 at a time. Use a collet type puller as someone has already suggested and you can reuse the bullets. I'd dump the powder and reuse the primed brass. If you think you should resize the brass just remove the de-primer rod from your sizing die and resize. 45 Auto Rim brass is not readily available in any of the shops so you surely want to reuse what you have. I just got 500 pieces but I had to order directly from Starline. Another thing to remember when it comes to reloads is that no matter how careful someone is, they can always make a mistake.

 

[Rule3]

Unless you are there making each and every cartridge... verifying there is a proper powder charge in the case...you don’t really know for sure.

Ive been reloading for forty years without a negative incident. Take my advice.

That is based on you never make and error and perhaps the guy that reloaded them has reloaded for 50 years and may be a better reloader than all of us



Yes the safe practice method is to never use someones reloads, but as mentioned above if the dat is recorded and several rounds spot checked it is a safe bet they are OK. I also agree that if they are a real fast powder I would be more hesitant.


If pulling them, only a collet type puller make sense unless they are LEAD bullets.

 

[mikld]

I understand the fear of "the other guy's reloads". I just can't agree with the idea that a person that documents their loads, has fired them in the gun, and sells the reloads with the gun would make the ammo "unsafe" because you now own the gun and ammo.

One major reason is quality control. For factory ammo every step in the manufacturing process is checked, and double checked. Everything is inspected, and tested from the metallurgy of the raw brass to the size/weight of the components, to testing of powder performance, every assembly process and testing finished ammo. Home reloaders, while each step may be checked while reloading and low volume comparatively, mistakes can happen. It's been reported many times that an experienced reloader grabbed the wrong jug of powder, misread the label on their primers, misread manual specs, had equipment failures (bridging in a powder measure happens and no and over charges possible) etc. Its not disrespectful to the original reloader nor is it "Chicken Little" fear to pull handloads. I have never used any handloads other than my own...

 

[growr]

I find it interesting that the NEVER USE RELOADS unless "I" reloaded them seem to portray that THEY and THEY alone are the only competent reloaders ever. Seems very egotistical to me.

Randy

 

[AJ]

I find it interesting that the NEVER USE RELOADS unless "I" reloaded them seem to portray that THEY and THEY alone are the only competent reloaders ever. Seems very egotistical to me.

Randy

Maybe it is egotistical to think that way, but much safer than to trust someone you do not know. There are several folks that I know that I trust enough to try their reloads (usually in their guns). I also know a few, whom I do not trust at all, due to past performances (blown up guns).

Just got a couple of thousand rounds of reloads from the local gun shop ( gratitis ), just to get rid of them. Spent the time to break them down and ended up with a couple thousand primed cases and bullets, the powder went in the flower beds.

 

[Doug M.]

One good reason for the conservative position asserted by some, that is not arrogance: If the mistake is MINE, I have to own it. (I don't yet reload, it is a hypothetical.) Having seen how sloppy people can be in various parts of their lives, I understand why most are pretty cautious on this topic, and I agree.

 

[Rule3]

There are several reloaders on this forum that I would shoot their reloads no questions asked. But then there are many that I would not.

 

[dave1918a2]

Like many Who have posted, I would break down a couple from each box and if the reloads measure up to the written data, I would not hesitate to shoot them.

 

[Kid44]

I NEVER use anyone

else's reloads, don't care whose they are. My dad learned a very valuable lesson regarding that years ago.

Sure you can possibly get a double charged factory load, but at least you can probably go back to the manufacturer. Get a double charged load from an individual, he'll probably tell you to go pound sand.