Swap Meet Question

[azcoyhunter]

I am not sure is this should go here or not?

When I go to a swap meet, I find myself looking for anything that deals with reloading.

And I do not mean anything, if I can not use it, somebody here might be able to.

Anyway my question is....

When you see a box of "RELOADS" will you buy them and shoot them?

I am a brave/stupid person (DO not ask my wife which one I am)

And I buy them and shoot them.

My Brother in-law alwas says noooooo dont do it!!


What is your opinion?

Clint

[HollandNut]

Nope not me , I dont trust anyone with that ..

[montana_charlie]

No, sir...too many stories about 'ignorant reloading practices' to allow me to trust something cobbled together by a total stranger.

If I was willing to try some (in somebody else's gun) it would be with it tied to a tire...and fired with a lanyard.
CM

[Freightman]

Not EVER! NO_NO_NO be careful a man at the range blew up a $1500 rifle that way. Had I been at the next bench he would have got me, apiece hit the table next to me nine tables away.

[azcoyhunter]

Thanks,


I will stop.

Clint

[Scott_In_OKC]

If they're cheap enough, buy them for the components but don't shoot them. I don't trust anyone's reloads but my own.

[JSnover]

I was warned against reloads years ago with this theory: Someone selling remanufactured ammunition wants to maximize his profit margin. One way is to use a small charge of fast powder to save on propellant cost, which makes it easier to accidentally double-charge a case.
It only has to happen once.

[Wayne Smith]

Buy them cheaper than the brass price or not at all. That would be my way. Then pull them down for components. Use the powder for lawn fertilizer, you have brass and free bullets and primers.

Also buy "pewter" - it's mostly tin.

[azcoyhunter]

I have a bullet puller, and that is a good idea.

Would you just use the primer in the case?

I do not know of a way to SAFELY remove a primer that has not been "shot"

Clint

[Wayne Smith]

I'd use the primer in the case unless it was obviously not fitting - e.g. very low (pistol primer in rifle case) or very high (rifle primer in pistol case). In that case I'd chamber the empty case, pop the primer and reload the case. In the case of high primers in revolver cases I'd have to punch them out and put a drop of Remoil in each one. RemOil 'cause it comes in such a nice dropper container and it is thin.

[cbrick]

Gun show reloads? http://www.lasc.us/z7shysterical.gif

In reality there are a few people (very few) that I know well enough and know their loading practices well enough that I feel safe with and do shoot their ammo. That however is a light year from buying reloaded ammo at a swap meet or gun show. No doubt you can get ammo much cheaper that way but how cheap is it when it costs you a couple of fingers, an eye and a nice gun? That cheap ammo sounds terribly expensive to me.

Rick

[Jon K]

azcoyhunter,

Just run it thru the sizing die to remove the primer, DON'T reuse, you don't know what it is. You don't even know if it wiill fire, not worth it.

Like others have said "DON'T". BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY!

Let me relate a recent incident at the range 2 weeks ago. A gun blew up, Winchester 300 Win Mag -the barrel blew off, the scope blew apart, the bolt blew open, parts inside the action blew out. Parts of the scope and action were embedded in the guy's head, embedded in the overhead and scattered around. When the paramedics hauled him to the hospital said pieces were still embedded, paramedics did not want to remove.

Bottom line: they took apart some Wolf 223 ammo, and filled the 300 Win Mag case with the powder and seated the bullet. First time he pulled the trigger- BOOM............he was lucky the bolt only opened, instead of flying out of the action- probably saved his life.

Don't know what it is......Don't know if it's safe.....Don't Shoot it!

Buckshot & Al can confirm this is an actual incident, not hearsay.

Jon

[Kraschenbirn]

Right now, I'm in the process of pulling down a mess of 7.62x39 "plain brown wrapper" reloads that I got (very cheap!) from a non-reloader who picked them up at a swap meet. They don't appear to be dangerous...no signs of overpressure when they're fired...but they're totally unreliable. 'Bout every third round has some sort of malfunction...dead primer, primer only (bullet stuck in bore), squibs, etc. (And, before someone asks, his SKS functions just fine with Wolf ball ammo.) When I load for myself, I know who's to blame if there's a problem but would rather not have pay for someone else's screw-ups, too.

Bill

[Blackhawk Convertable]

I don't have a problem shooting someone else's reloads IF they are a COMMERCIAL reloader. In other words, they are a Professional reloader and have the FFL that goes along with it. If it is Joe Schmo with a couple of boxes, NO WAY!

[HollandNut]

I would be wary of any communist Bloc ammunition , I have seen several at the range saving a few dollars , get high pressures and rupture cases ..

Also know of one guy who bought an 8# keg of what was supposed to be rifle powder for around $25 , from a guy walking around the gun show trying to sell it ..

He went home , loaded some ammo and first shot at the range trashed a good rifle with what was apparently , in reality , pistol powder ..

[grumpy one]

Sometimes you can trace the history of the loads, and make a rational decision on whether it's a risk you choose to live with. When you can't trace the history, it seems to me to be a risk you can't even estimate.

When you can trace the history it may still be a greater risk than you realize. While at school I once went out with a guy who'd just inherited his grandfather's twelve bore double and a bunch of reloads, to shoot them at nothing in particular and thus use them up. The grandfather had about fifty years history of successful reloading. Unfortunately the stuff we leave behind when we snuff it is probably either the last things we loaded, when our performance might be - er - a bit shaky; or the things we knew were wrong but we hadn't quite gotten around to pulling down. The shotgun loads we were trying to shoot up turned out to be in one or other of those latter categories. Most of them were quite normal but about a third really gave that old gun a breech pressure test, and threw two separate patterns of shot each time it went off. A couple of teenage shoulders took a beating. If we hadn't been teenagers of course we'd have stopped after the first surprise, but being kids we shot them all up, and lived through it. A dumb way to behave, though.

[timkelley]

If you know who made the reload, and if you trust that person with your eyes, hands and arms, then go ahead. If the above does not apply don't shoot other folks reloads.

[hydraulic]

I bought a very nice Remington 721 in 300 H&H , years ago, at a gunshow in Cody, Wyoming. Also got a set of dies and looked around for brass but could only find a box of reloads. I bought them, planning to pull them down and reload when I got home. When I finally got time, I decided to go ahead and shoot them and then reload the brass. The first round locked up the action and the gunsmith had to set the barrel back and rechamber to 300 Winchester. Of course, any alteration from factory original, of any kind, ruins a gun, so this one was disposed of at a loss.

[C1PNR]

Some time back I bought a High Power from a friend of mine. He had bought it from a mutual friend and neighbor a couple of years prior. It came with a box of reloads using PB powder, pretty "hot" as it turns out, that both fellows had been shooting.

I shot up most of the remaining reloads, about 50 or so. And then one day I was looking at the barrel through the ejection port and noticed a thin black line on the chamber.

Turns out the HP barrel is a press fit of 2 or more parts and those "hot" reloads had caused it to start separating! I ended up getting a Pachmyer replacement barrel and the factory gunsmith who did the work fitting the barrel said he had NEVER seen such a thing.

Nope. Reloads done by others is a good source of brass and, maybe, bullets. I even pop the primers before resizing, etc., since I don't know what they are.

[454PB]

jon k, that story instantly brought "Darwin Awards" to mind.

My grandad was a handloader and boolit caster. When he was about 75, he gave me a Remington model 600 6mm, a bunch of dies, components, surplus H-4831 in a paper bag, bullet moulds, and some handloaded 6mm and 30/30 ammo. Much as I loved and respected him, I'm surprised he never had any injuries from shooting that stuff. Nearly every round had head separations, some of the 30/30 ammo left the case neck stuck in the chamber, and some entire cases stuck in the rifles and had to be beat out. At the time I had just started handloading and casting. One the bright side, he taught me some valuable lessons!

[Jon K]

If you know who made the reload, and if you trust that person with your eyes, hands and arms, then go ahead. If the above does not apply don't shoot other folks reloads.

Tim,

Sad to say, but in this case the guy shooting, did trust the reloader ultimately.........his Dad did the reloading.....................

Jon

[Jim]

Many years ago, A shooter found a box of what appeared to be factory .30-06 loads left on the table at a public range. He promptly loaded one up, pulled the trigger and put himself in the ER and his rifle in the dumpster. They were booby traps left by some psycho. The cases were full of high speed pistol powder.
I'm not suggesting that all home grown ammo is booby trapped. I'm suggesting if YOU didn't loaded, you don't know what's in it. I don't drink home grown whiskey for the same reason.

[357maximum]

You can be safe a thousand times, you can only be dead once.

[Bent Ramrod]

I'm late to this party, but must add my own tuppence. A friend had obtained a rather nice .44-40 92 Winchester back when these were anachronisms and the ammo was extremely hard to find. He found some reloads at the gun show and we repaired out to the desert to shoot them.

The first shot was kind of a ("poomp!") and when the action was opened, the shell popped with extreme vigor out of the breech along with a cloud of Cream of Wheat. The jacketed bullet was stuck in the barrel just ahead of the chamber. that ended the shooting session.

My friend broke down the rest of the loads and we surmised that the loader had read all the stuff about small powder charges in large cases needing some kind of filler to keep them next to the primer. He had dutifully added Cream of Wheat to the top of the powder and seated the bullet. Unfortunately, he had not added enough Cream of Wheat to fill the space in the case and after a little jiggling and transporting back and forth, the powder charge was nicely diluted with cereal, with a guaranteed misfire in every round.

My own essay was some .22 Hornet ammo that I only surmised must have been reloaded when I couldn't get any of it to chamber. It was also broken down for components, which shot quite nicely when I reloaded them.

These incidents generated Rule #1: Don't shoot anybody else's reloads.

Corollary #1: Be extremely wary and suspicious of your OWN reloads and always pay good attention to your own loading practices.

(Sermon over; we will now pass the collection plate...:mrgreen:)

[mroliver77]

I dont find much anything at gunshows I cannot buy cheaper at a shop or mail order these days. I would pulldown any unknown loads for components. I remove and save good primers for use in gallery loads in the shop. I have never popped one removing it and have done quite a few. I do wear real safety glasses when working at the reloading bench.J

[JSnover]

I would be wary of any communist Bloc ammunition , I have seen several at the range saving a few dollars , get high pressures and rupture cases ..

Also know of one guy who bought an 8# keg of what was supposed to be rifle powder for around $25 , from a guy walking around the gun show trying to sell it ..

He went home , loaded some ammo and first shot at the range trashed a good rifle with what was apparently , in reality , pistol powder ..

Even it was "known safe" a lot of that stuff is made with corrosive propellants. This is a fact; the Chinese front line infantry rifle fires a 5.8x42 cartridge made with corrosive primer and propellant (Cartridges of the World, 11th ed.).

[NSP64]

only shot someone else's reloads 1 time the 4th bullet out of my smith 686 6" stuck 1/4" from the muzzle. What a PIA to pound that jacketed bullet 5 3/4" backwards. NUMQUAM!

[JSnover]

only shot someone else's reloads 1 time the 4th bullet out of my smith 686 6" stuck 1/4" from the muzzle. What a PIA to pound that jacketed bullet 5 3/4" backwards. NUMQUAM!

One of the first things I learned when I first started reloading was how to stick bullets in the bore by loading too light. The next thing I learned was to bring a couple of sized and primed cases to the range, just in case. On two occasions I was able to use these to blow a stuck bullet out. Works like a dream. After that I learned a few more things and have never had that problem again.
Sure beats the hell outta beating the bullets out.

[Wayne Smith]

I remove and save good primers for use in gallery loads in the shop. I have never popped one removing it and have done quite a few. I do wear real safety glasses when working at the reloading bench.J

I've never had one pop while removing it, but I have had a few refuse to go bang once loaded again. Now I simply deaden and toss removed primers.

[omgb]

I don't shoot anything I haven't bought from a reputable manufacturer or loaded myself. I do on occasion, get other's reloads and when I do, I pull them down for cases and slugs. The powder goes on the lawn.

I also buy ChiCom and Ruskie Milsurp ammo by the case for my Nagant. I pull these down, dump the powder and reload. It is the only way to be sure these go bang. Especially that CZ stuff.

[mooman76]

I used to before I started reloading and learned how bad things can get. I also picked up reloads not knowing. They package them up almost like factory and I figured they were just bulk ammo they containerized to make a profit because they usually don't specify. Also a friend shot some and lodged a round in his barrel. They acted like it was no big deal, happens all the time. He kicked up a fuss and they gave him a free box to make up for it!

[cbrick]

About 5 or 6 years ago at our range one of our elderly shooters shooters showed up with a rather nice rifle and a box of ammo. This shooter is well known at our range and has been a handloader for about the same time I've been around (that's 59 years). He's never had any type of problem and no one thought anything about it when he went to the firing line.

The rifle literally exploded on the very first round. He was holding the forend with his left hand between the middle fingers and it split his hand almost to the wrist. Pretty ugle. Just to give you an idea of how hard and how fast the rifle came apart, I was about 20 feet away and a piece of the stock hit me in the leg hard enough to cause a bruise from the hip to knee.

Waiting for the ambulance he said he had bought a box of reloads at the gun show. After they took him to the hospital we broke down several of the cartridges. They were triplex charges??? Three very different powders in each case. That's not easy to do by accident and one has to assume it was intentional.

This is a true story and anyone thinking of saving a buck on unknown ammo should consider this, it could be you next time.

Rick

[kingstrider]

This is sage advice never to shoot unknown reloads. I never even buy partially shot boxes as you just never know what you're getting.

[Duce]

If I find reload that are dirt cheap I will buy all I can get (or afford). Take them home and break them down for the components. Cheap bullets and cheap brass.

[HeavyMetal]

I have bought reloads at garage sales, usually with reloading equipment, and found some real winners in the stuff when sorted! The classic was a bunch of 270 ammo made from 06 case's that had every neck split! I could push side ways on the bullet and take it out of the case!

Same guy had a few 375 H&H rounds necked down to .22. Every round was pulled down bullets slavaged and everything else scrapped!

Buy the stuff for the case's and bullets but never shoot it!

I also deal with a reloading business here in L.A. that gets in a lot of used stuff, from estates, he sells the ammo by the pound and I buy that when I see case's, like .222 and Hornet, that are hard to come by. If the case's are empty cool, if not it's pulled!

To many people don't have a clue! If it's unknown: mark it, pull it down or throw it out!

[USARO4]

I've watched a good friend reload. No way I would shoot his loads in my gun.

[DLCTEX]

I've told this before on this forum, but it bears repeating. An acquaintence gave me some 12 ga. magnum ammo, but didn't tell me that they were his reloads until I had fired a couple. They were fired in a Win. 1300 pump and cycled the slide and very forcefully ejected the case when fired. The rest were pulled down and the powder dumped. I will not shoot another's reloads. A friend regularly loads so hot he has case separations and damages his rifle. He brags that he likes to load them hot. To me that's stupidity. DALE

[JIMinPHX]

I've bought reloaded pistol ammo twice in my life. I've had two bad experiences. I'm done with that.

[docone31]

I got a really cool Enfield for nothing because someone had bought some reloads.
He fired 19 shots. The 20th shot never left the barrel! He did not know it. If he had 21 shots, the ending might have been different.
I am one of those who check every powder charge, especially in my turret. I rigged up a small mirror to look see before the bullet goes on. I have never had an issue, but, who knows.
I have accepted other folks reloads, but I never fired them. I also pull down.
I take my risks, not someone else's. If I mess up, I pay the piper. No biggee, just my way.
I have reloaded for many years. The only squib load was factory load. Go figuire.
I have shown many people how to reload. I stress, adamantly, always check the charge! So it takes a couple of seconds extra. Might save years of sorrow.
Don't fire anyone else's reloads.
Just my way.

[OeldeWolf]

Before I started reloading, I bought some reloaded 7.65 Argentine ammo from a professional at a gun show. I also bought a couple of boxes of 7x57 marked new, in the original boxes.

The 7.65 shot poorly, and one box would not chamber. hey were al Norma brass, and appear untrimmed before being loaded. It also turned out, when I measured, that the "pro" had used .308 cal bullets. The next show, they were there again, and I miked a sample from a few boxes, told him the problem, and offered to buy them cheap for the brass. No go.

The 7x57 was not so nice.

The second magazine full, I think the 2nd round, the cartridge burst. Hot gasses flew right over the top of my forehead. The safety features on the 1895 Chilean mauser worked exactly as they werre supposed to. Thank God I was wearing safety glasses and was shooting a military Mauser. I do not like to think how a standard sporting rifle might have behaved.

I tore the rounds down later, when I first started to reload. They had been marked new, but both boxes were full of reloads. Some primers were not seated correctly, and when I popped the primers in the rifle, some had much more energetic sparks than others. That same dealer is there every show, but I buy nothing from him/them. They were not even apologetic about their rounds blowing up.

[Boerrancher]

Here is my story about other peoples ammo. When I was in college, I worked at a little hole in the wall sporting goods store and gun shop. A man came in one day with a stainless Smith revolver, looked to be the Highway Patrol model, couldn't tell for sure, in a plastic bag. I wasn't sure it was even a pistol, except for the grips and the barrel. Everything between the two was gone or in smaller pieces at the bottom of the bag.

It would seem that his son was a security guard at the local airport, and had caught a guy going through the medal detector with a pocket full of 38 spl. and confiscated them. A few days later on his day off he takes his newly acquired rounds and heads to the range. The first one went off too well, blowing the pistol into two halves and scattering parts everywhere. The young man was not seriously injured, and was able to keep his full compliment of fingers. Needless to say his fathers pistol he shot the confiscated ammo out of was not as lucky.

The Father handed my the gun and reached in his pocket and pulled out 10 pcs of ammo handing them to me also, as he was telling me the story. I explained that there was nothing I could do for his gun, but would like to keep a few of the rounds to examine, which he promptly left me. I noticed it was a lead, most likely commercially made, SWC that weighed in at 200 grs and was 358 in dia. There was almost 25 grains IIRC of what looked to me like bullseye packed into that case. When I say packed I mean dowel rod and rubber mallet type of packed, all except for the powder that was up against the boolit. That too was compressed but not like the rest of it further away from the boolit and closer to the head, which leads me to believe it was done with a dowel rod. I can't 100% say that it was bullseye in those cases, but talk about an over charge. I was taught at an early age never shoot anyones reloads that I wouldn't trust with my life. On the private range on the Farm here, I saw a good many rifles blown up by Other peoples hand loads. Only two people I ever trusted their hand loads and those were the two men who taught me how to hunt, fish, reload, cast, and build custom rifles and custom stocks, and they were my Father and his best friend.

Once I started loading my I shot my own in my own rifle, and was never allowed to put even their reloads in my guns. Having this drilled in to me has saved my butt more than once

Best wishes from the Boer Ranch,

Joe

[Scrounger]

I don't believe the Hiway Patrolman was ever made in stainless. Just for info, totally irrelevant to the story...

[whisler]

About 15 yrs ago, when I knew next to nothing about reloading, I bought a few boxes of 12 Ga. reloads at a gun store sponsored swap meet. I thought "heck, it's a smooth bore! How much problem can I have?" Since they were 7 1/2 size shot and I don't bird hunt I never shot them. Now that I have learned more about reloading and found this forum, these will be broken down. I don't reload for shotgun, so I will re-use the shot in my smoothbore muzzleloader and if I can find a way to break them down without destroying the casings, will give the cases to some one who does reload for shotgun. I need all my fingers, and even though it is just a Mossberg, I would like to keep my 12 ga. in one piece. Thanks for the warnings.

[Tom Herman]

I've been lucky so far. The only reloads I've bought for personal consumption were some .223 reloads I bought from a commercial outfit 20+ odd years ago. As I remember, they didn't work very well, and had problems chambering.
When I had my FFL, I bought reloaded .38's and .357's from reputable, high volume commercial reloaders that advertised in the Shotgun News.
All of those worked fine. It's a long ways from somewhat less critical revolver ammo to stuff like rifle ammo where you have to take a lot more into consideration.
All of my reloads are for personal consumption only. I strictly load mid range target loads, nothing hokey or even close to the line.
IF I were to use someone else's reloads, it would have to be someone I could trust my life to, and reloads with as much care as I do, which usually isn't possible.
A very good friend passed on a year ago, and before he left, he gave me his late son's S & W Model 39. Along with it came a box of "Bargain Bullets" brand 9mm reloads. The work was sloppy, primers uneven, and all sorts of debris imprinted on the primers.
I'll look forward to pulling down that crap, repriming and reusing the brass, and melting down the bullets and salvaging the lead.
There's no way I'd fire that garbage in any of my guns!

Happy Shootin' -Tom

[copdills]

Like Scott in OKC if its cheap enough I would buy just for the bullet,brass