breaking down ammo

[jballs918]

ok guys there was a post today that got me thinking. the powder in the 7.62x54r looks like it can be used for a few different things. now i know they are doing futher tests on this right now so that leads me to the next question. i pulled 2 different bullets apart tonight. i found that one had a lead core and one didnt mostly likely steel. now from what i figured i could pull close to 6 pounds of powder from 880 rounds. this would cost 70 bucks. now here is my first question. i know the brass can be turned in for recyle to make some of the money up. how would i make the primers where they would be eurt(spelling). so that i could turn them in. also the copper can also be savaged for more money. and the lead can be reused would anyone have any idea what the hardless would be for this. i have no clue. also does anyone anywhere know where to get powder storage bottles. thanks guys

[Leftoverdj]

The two different bullets tell you that you have two different batches of ammo, and you should assume two different powders. I would not be happy about shooting a mixture of unknown powders. Me, I'd buy one of the cheap chink carbines and shoot the stuff up.

Shooting them is the best way to make primers inert, too, although I would not asume those cases are brass until I had checked them with a magnet.

www.sciplus.com is a good place to check for powder bottles. They are a surplus joint so the inventory varies, but I picked up great opaque inert plastic lab bottles from them a while back.

[Frank46]

Some years back I latched onto a bunch of WWII 303 british cheap. After firing a few rounds I found out why. Just about every round fired showed either splits and cracks in the neck and shoulder area. So spent the better part of the day using an inertia bullet puller. Then picked the wad and cordite outta the cases. I had a junker 'p14 enfield and popped every one of those primers. Powder was disposed by burning it in very small piles. Brass went to the scrap yard and bullets
into a box after cleaning off the asphalt type varnish. A few years later I got some 1950's vintage british 303. Only this time only a few boxes. Same story. About the only surplus 303 I have now is some greek HXP with boxer primers. Stuff shoots pretty well out of my #4MKII. So no more british 303 for me. You could not even give it to me for free. Frank

[singleshotbuff]

jballs & others,

I want to reinterate and be VERY CLEAR about a couple of things when pulling down powder.

You MUST make ABSOLUTELY certain that you only use ammo from the same lot. I treat each "can" of surplus ammo as a "lot" and make sure that it all has the exact same headstamp.

Powders can and do change from lot to lot of the same ammo. Even from the same manufacturer and country. You MUST BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL of this.

When changing cans or lots of ammo, you must start over with your work up.

You should also start any workup after a lot of research and with EXTREMELY reduced charges until you get your feet under you. I consider myself to be a VERY experienced reloader and I still triple check everything when doing something like this and I ask a LOT of questions from others with more experience.

PLEASE BE VERY CAREFUL.

Also jballs, if you pull the bullets carefully enough, as I try to do, they are reusable and may be worth more to sell as pulled bullets to another reloader than you would get out of them as scrap.

I use my own pulled bullets for plinking ammo.

SSB