Balloon head brass reloads.

[10x]

There were 75 rounds of 45 Colt (235 Grain lyman cast) loaded with 2 Grains of Unique over manual maxmums and about 200 rounds of .455 Colt (Webley) loaded 210 grain semi wad cutters also loaded with 2 Grains of Unique over manual maxmums. Both boxes of reloads had a label with the powder and the load.

I have pulled the bullets on the .45 Colt and reloaded them with a middle pressure load of Unique over the 235 grain lead round nose.

I am going to be pulling the bullets from the .455 Webley rounds as well. I suspect these would disassemble my 1885 break action Webley on the first shot.
This guy was shooting them in an 1917 S&W hand ejector (third model). It still seems to be tight but the old girl is getting minimum loads of Unique over a 220 grain hollow bace from now on. That way if I grab the wrong box of ammo and stuff it into a Webley I will still have all of my fingers.

BTW: All of these rounds are old style balloon head brass to boot.

Is it risky to use old style balloon head brass with very light loads?

[tek4260]

Sell the brass to a collector. Don't take a chance shooting it and risk a case head failure. FWIW, if they were old reloads, they probably weren't over max back in the day.

[KCSO]

If a baloon head goes they go at the back and you get a lot of gas in the face. If I hadn't been wearng saftey glasses shooting a 73 Winchester I might be blind today. The problem is that IF the baloon heads were shot with mercuric primers they rot out at the base and you don't know the history of the case. I treat them as either collectors or scrap brass.

[missionary5155]

Good morning
+1 on the above.. you can probably find a collector who will trade you even up on some new Starline. Look inside a few cases around the primer hole. If that area is perminently stained black and you cannot scratch through to brass color then they are unsafe to shoot.
I have a 1917 Model Colt I shoot regularly when up north there with 230 ball boolits 50-50 mix and 5.5 grains Unique in the auto rim brass. Nice load that shoots near dead on and has not caused any deterioration in the revolver over 15 years.

[44man]

Everyone has good answers.
Old brass can get brittle with age and needs a new annealing or it will split.
Sell it to collectors.