live rounds

[colt 357]

I go to our shooting ranges about a hour and a half before they open for shooting to look for brass and shift lead out of the berm for range scrap. What really surprizes me is all the live round I find at our two ranges. So far this year I have found over 80- .22LR, 3- 9mm luger, 3- .40 S&W, 1- .45, 1- .17 hmr, 1- .38, 1- .223, 1- 7.62x39, and two other military rounds I'm not sure what they are but they are big rounds. I also found 2- 12 gauge and 1- 16 gauge shot gun shells.
None of these even had the primers hit. Beside being dangerous if they are hit on the range these people must have more money then me to leave a live round on the gound and not pick it up and use it. They probably drop the out on a jam or during load a clip. Now we shoot the ones we have guns for and all have shot. I give out the others. I would hate to be the poor guy that has to mow the range and I hope he's got a armor plated deck on the mower and a bullet proof vest.
I also find and lot of .22LR rounds that the primer has been hit but didnt go off. I found that when we put these in our bolt action rifle with the stike turn 180 degrees 98 % of these fire.:?:

[RugerFan]

I never fire live rounds I find at the range. I always pull them even if they look like factory rounds. I won't take the chance on what kind of powder charge is inside (I have to assume they may be hand loads). Better safe than sorry.

[BruceB]

Live rounds aren't much of a hazard in themselves. My main worry would be if some irresponsible soul (like a child, for instance) should pick one up and either slip it into a firearm at the wrong time-and-place, or start PLAYING with dis-assembling it, hammering it, or whatever.

NRA tests have shown that parts of a cartridge igniting in the open air generally won't even penetrate a cardboard box. Eyes are still at risk of injury, however.

Live rounds that I find at our range are carried to some nearby open ground, a shallow hole is scuffed out with my boot, and the rounds buried. Problem gone.

[DIRT Farmer]

If you don't know who loaded it, or where it came from I wouldent fire it. A lot from one of the local range have went into the bottom of a post hole, no return.

[mooman76]

I find them out in the desert where I go to shoot all the time. Allot of people go out there. All kinds 22, 8mm or whatever. Some have light strikes and some look untouched. Wish I had that kind of money to throw around.

[fatelk]

I find them all the time, too. Last time I went out I found a .454 Casull amongst others.

I'm probably the odd one out here, but I will occasionally fire them, if they are obviously factory rounds. Please don't flame me on that- my decision, my safety. One thing I never do is throw them away. Burying them seems a waste, but better than nothing if you don't want to mess with them I guess.

I tinker a lot with oddball stuff, so I usually pull them apart for the brass and bullets. I have a big box of assorted bullets to use if I'm experimenting with some loads. The .22s go in a bag for plinking ammo if they look good, or pulled apart for the lead if they're ugly. All powder gets dumped of course.

[Frank46]

Same here, just pull them and save the brass and bullets. Got a plastic jug about half full of rifle and pistol bullets. Frank

[blueeyephil]

I shoot USPSA and IDPA locally. At the end of your stage you have to unload and show clear. There are allways some rounds that don't get picked up. Be careful esp with 9mm. Most will be light loaded or factory, but a few people load hot loads called 9mm Major. Probably not a good idea to shoot those in a normal 9mm. Best course of action is if you didn't bring it, don't shoot it.

Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk

[JIMinPHX]

When I pick up brass from the shooting pits out in the desert, I usually find at least 1 live .22rf. I occasionally find other calibers as well. Over the years, I've collected about 2 quarts of live ones. I haven't decided what to do with them yet. Some day I'll probably recover the components, but I haven't tried it yet.

[colt 357]

I use all the .22 lr if they look good. most of the rounds I found I don't have a gun for. So far it only .22 that I have shot. I got a big pile here at home that I havn't figure what I'm going to do with them. .22 should be safe. Soon I well have over a hundred of them to shoot at the rate I find them. Any taker on running mower. I have heard they dont do much when the go off outside of a gun. But I am not going to be standing around when the mower shows up. My luck I would be that one in a million. MAN KILLED BY A JOHN DEERE GAUGE RIDING MOWER

[Ed Barrett]

.22 lr's are outside lubed so if they hit the ground they pick up dirt, if the drop on concrete the pick up concrete dust. Neither are good for a rifle barrel. saving a couple of cents can cost you a good barrel. I was taught to never use a 22 that hit the ground.

[fatelk]

Some day I'll probably recover the components, but I haven't tried it yet.
.22 ammo is real easy to pop apart. I just hold the brass in my fingers, a pair of pliers in the other hand, squeeze and twist and the bullet pops right out. The lead goes into the melting pot, the brass I smash with a hammer and toss in the recycle bucket, and the powder goes in the dirt.

I have a bag of a thousand or so rounds of .22 LR good enough for plinking, and a can of another thousand corroded ones that someone gave me. The corroded ones look good on the outside, but tend to split when fired, so they will be pulled apart for components. It may or may not be worth the time it takes to pull them apart, but I might as well be green and recycle- the lead into boolits and the brass into cash!


I was taught to never use a 22 that hit the ground.
No disrespect intended, but I have use hundreds if not thousands that have hit the ground, so long as they were clean and looked good. Most modern .22 rounds have dry lube, as opposed to the wax on the older ones. If I saw grit on a wax-lubed bullet it would get pulled down.

ADDED: the old pump .22 I use to plink with this ammo has a bore that has seem better days. It still shoots minute-of-tin-can and second rate ammo won't hurt the worn and pitted old barrel. I sure wouldn't shoot questionable ammo in an expensive target rifle.

[colt 357]

I have a old .22 too that just short of a bunderbuss. I think I could drop dirt down that thing I even shot bird shot thought it and never hurt it.

[6.5 mike]

3 years ago come jan, Russel the fellow that takes care of the maintance at the range I use, asked me if I could use the range drops he had picked up, told him if I couldn t' use them I might know someone who could. Talk about snowballing, when I got to 500 fac useable 9 m/m I bought one just to have something to shoot them in. 38/357, 44spl/44mag, 40 s&w, 45 acp. a few 32s long short & acp, 25 auto, 1-454, 2 old ballon case 45ar, 45 lc.
Rifle just as much 223, 243,ya doc this is where yours are coming from, 6.5x55, 7x57, 7-08 270,30 carbine,30-30, 30-06 308,7.62x39,7.62x54, 8 m/m,a few 32 win spl, 45-70. He handed me a full box of rem 30-40 krag one trip. Awhile back he gave me a box of rem 45-70s someone wanted to get rid of cause they where tarnished,lol. Works for me.
I check them over good when I get back to the house, toss the bad or miss loaded ones in the pulldown can, box up the rest.
Plus he has given me a clay target box bout 1/3 full of pistol brass, over 1000 useable 9 m/m, 40 s&w, & 45 acp alone in it. I like going to the range!!!!

[frkelly74]

Use or scrap, you can use your judgement and either way can benefit from other peoples wastage. I also am amazed at the number of pop cans that can be had, most are un-opened and just shot while full, makes an impressive splat if they hit them. They are worth $.10 each if the bar code reading machine at the store can read them. I have seen whole cases set up and blasted, I have recovered lots of cans that were not hit and washed them off and enjoyed them. I generally will recover anything that can be used , sold , or recycled and drag it home.

[fatelk]

It used to be called cheap, now you are being environmentally responsible.

[Hardcast416taylor]

I agree with not taking a chance on firing unkown found ammo. I also agree on tearing down the rounds for the bullet and case only. However it is the disposal of empty unfired .22 cases that is a concern. Yes you may crush the case and toss it in with your other scrap brass to be sold to a junk dealer, but you still have a live primed case there. I know of 1 scrap dealer that won`t accept empty .22 cases due to the chance of a live round mixed with them or a empty but primed case. Seems that he would smelt down large amounts of small pieces of brass before sending it on in the scrap business. He had several detonations in the smelting vessal that caused enough concern to stop buying scrap .22 cases.Robert

[WILCO]

I also find a lot of .22LR rounds that the primer has been hit but didnt go off. I found that when we put these in our bolt action rifle with the stike turn 180 degrees 98 % of these fire.

Yep. That's what I do too. Those mis-fire cans and range "drops" have given me plenty of 22lr for plinking and lead for the pot.

[Le Loup Solitaire]

My personal preference preference has always been to tear down any found ammo and reuse the components rhat fit in with your needs except for the powder; that I get rid of. I remelt the lead and keep the brass. On .22's, I pull the lead and remelt it. The powder is dumped in the garden. The unfired brass goes into a tin can filled with some old motor oil and then eventually disposed of. You don't know what other folks loaded and there is no sense in taking chances or "better safe than sorry". LLS

[oneokie]

Strangest thing I have found is a box of 47 Triple 7 50 cal pellets. Then there was the box of Winchester 30-30 with 17 live rounds and 3 empties. And the box of 18 Federal 12 ga. shells.

[beanflip]

Heres a find not even at a place to shoot about 50 feet from the Snake River.....found over 780 LIVE ROUNDS of 17 HMR factory ammo that someone just threw on the ground. It took my daughter and I about 50 minutes to pick all of them up. All the 17 HMR looks like it had been on the ground about 2 to 3 days my guess cause there isnt any of the ammo showing tarnish or brown spots on them.

Here a couple of pics of the ammo. The area in which the ammo was on the ground my guess about 30 by 50 foot area. Some of the ammo were hanging in the tumble weed bushes just like ornaments in a christmas tree.


Still have alot left to shoot up. Oh and no miss fires.

[colt 357]

Speaking of other thing me and my son have found at the range is a 4 # hammer that someone must have used to drive in a target stand. my son found a small swiss army knife. I am wondering if I well find someones gun that hey left at the range someday.........

[thegreatdane]

I never fire live rounds I find at the range. I always pull them even if they look like factory rounds. I won't take the chance on what kind of powder charge is inside (I have to assume they may be hand loads). Better safe than sorry.

me too.

[firefly1957]

I will shoot 22 rimfires I find everything else is tore down this year I found a 357 mag with some kind of yellow gunpowder in it? It burned VERY fast when I touched a match to the powder spilled on the ground.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

When I pick up brass from the shooting pits out in the desert, I usually find at least 1 live .22rf. I occasionally find other calibers as well. Over the years, I've collected about 2 quarts of live ones. I haven't decided what to do with them yet. Some day I'll probably recover the components, but I haven't tried it yet.

Same Here, I have a small box of live ammo from the range grounds that I don't have any idea what I'll do with it. I don't plan on shooting it in any of my guns. But I can't and won't leave them for the Lawn mower or innocent/curious child.

Last year I found two boxes mostly full of 243 WIN re-loads with the plastic boxes and load recipe and 2 or 3 fired cases with cracked necks. These looked very age tarnished. these weren't even in the trash, just laying on a woodpile like they got forgot. I pulled the bullets and deprimed, dumped the powder, annealed the necks, resized and someday they'll get reloaded.
Jon

[Case Stuffer]

Like most others I would fire found 22 rimfire in a not to expensive rifle but would never trust unknown (likely) reloads. There are some folk's out there with twisted minds that may think that a double or triple charge found round would make an interesting news story.

Back in the early 80's I managed an indoor range and most days found numerious 22 LR when sweeping up the firing range floor,these got emptied in the range's bolt action rental gun.

Well I was a virgin atleast here but no longer.

[bobthenailer]

I just recently cleand out the clubs indoor pistol range brass bin marked " no live ammo" because a fourm member was looking for fired 22 lr brass . in that lot of 28 lbs of brass there was 73 rounds of live ammo all 22lr + 1, 9mm the primer/ rim was not struck on about 1/2 of the ammo the others were missfires but would probley of gone off if hit in another place on the rim.
I also see live ammo on the other clubs ranges almost every time i go , more so with 22lr.

[P.K.]

{{{Cough-cough}}} (Waving the dust away)

I get numerious pickups of .22LR to "cycle" in my Ruger at the end of the day. Most are from FTF's and feeding issues. Folks just cycle the action and go on. Good enough for me, toss a few clays on the berm and pop away.

[Jim]

Many years back, some guy found a box of rifle ammo left on the table of a public range. "Hey, free ammo!" Seeing as his gun was the same caliber, he decided to shoot it. The guy chambered a round from the box and promptly blew his gun to pieces. He had to be transported to ER.

[Del-Ray]

I don't even have to hunt for mine. People are always bringing old ammo up to the shop to be disposed of. They seem to really hate paper shells. My shot gun loves em

[walltube]

For center fire, metallic ammo I inspect, disassemble and salvage. No exceptions!

I remove the boolit using a Hornady collet type puller; NEVER an inertia (hammer a looking thingy) boolit puller. Dump powder in garden. A handy magnet will seek out steel core boolits for segregation. Some ranges do not allow such things.

Inspect case to determine Boxer primer or not. Eye and facial protection is manadatory. Remove primer with Lee universal de-primer. A cautionary caveat here: the de-priming proceedure is done in the fashion of a pair of porcupines making passionate love: carefully, very carefully. Operate the handle of your press with a slow, steady pull until the primer is free of the pocket. Mil-surp, crimped primers require even more caution to avoid a "POP". The 'pop' event may not reverse your blood flow, but I always caution a newbie to expect this. We have no way of knowing how sensitive an unknown, lightly struck primer may behave. Despite my not having leveled my man-cave to splinters doing the above, I suggest caution and carefull attention to any new comer.

Still in doubt? Toss it out!

My two sou,
Wt.

[Charlie Two Tracks]

It must be the way human nature is. I also find ammo laying around the range. Mostly .22 LR.

[BLTsandwedge]

Mal Paso can testify that I'm beyond counting individual drops- I now go by weight. Right now I'm at about 33 pounds. They're mostly pistol- but expensive stuff like silvertips and Barnes. Plenty of .223 and 7.62x39. I've stopped picking up the 22s- too many. I won't shoot them but will (eventually) pull them.

[Bob Krack]

For what it is worth... I will NOT fire ammo that is not known unadulterated commercial or that I reloaded myself.

That means no - NO - reloads from friends, from the range, from gunshows or from "Hairy Ned" himself.

Bob

[smokemjoe]

10 + years ago I picked up alot of brass at Daytona- Fl., went home with a 5 gallon bucket full, The range master said they took a bobcat and pushed the brass over in the sand off range.

[Bullwolf]

Quite a few years ago, I worked as a hand loader for a small re-loading company. We only dealt in pistol ammunition, and were housed in the back room of an indoor gun range. The company recycled brass fired at the gun range, tumbled, re-loaded, packaged, and then sold it economically to people who would shot at the gun range. We also sold a fair amount at gun shows, and to a few other ranges as well. I got to see first hand just how much brass can move through a small indoor gun range.

One of the employees, who worked there as a case sorter, manged to darn near fill up a shoebox with an assortment of varying kinds of 38 caliber ammunition left by other shooters from the range. He occasionally would even fire some of the ammo he found. I remember the box quite clearly because one day he up and gave me the partially full shoebox.

It was full of 38 wad cutters, 38 S&W, 38 short colt, mostly 38 Special, 357 Magnum, and I remember a few long .357 Maximum in the box as well as some accidental rimless auto stuff that he also slipped .380, and other similar sized ammunition especially if it had a 3 or an 8 in the head stamp someplace.
(I never said that he was smart, he was just a case sorter after all)

Everything ended up in there from brass, steel case, to aluminum, military, surplus, AP or sintered iron, nickel, self defense frangible, HP fodder, lead free, lead, and jacketed ammo. The sheer variety of what people left behind was impressive. I was often shocked at what people showed up with and shot on the range (even stuff they weren't supposed to be using) and what they left behind as well. We found the strangest things in the floor sweepings besides just cartridge brass and live ammo (the most common was 22LR). We would find gun parts too, like pistol sights, barrel bushings, springs, slide locks, safety's/de-cockers, magazine floor plates, and once time even pieces of a revolver cylinder.

Shooting, or not shooting found ammo is a judgement call. Personally, after seeing a few injuries from handguns go Ka-boom at the range, often from an unchecked squib bore obstruction, then a firing a second shot, I have become a LOT less trusting when it comes to unknown ammunition. I also check to make sure the barrel is clear to the point of paranoia.

I don't care if what I find looks like factory ammunition, or a nicely assembled and tumbled hand load. I have seen enough mistakes that I am distrustful to the point that I pull anything I find, and break it down into it's base components for re-use, recycling, or to throw away.


- Bullwolf

[Blacksmith]

Don't any of you have a collection of different calibers and types of ammo for a display board or just to illustrate to the uneducated what the differences are? Shucks some of that stuff is collectable in its own right.

[Down South]

I find live ammo at our range almost every time I go but it's a big range and I'm at least several of the stations each visit.
I found a reloaded 9mm round last time that the primer was in backwards. I pulled the bullet the other day from that round. The bullet was a FMJ target bullet. Whoever loaded it had used so much taper crimp that the case was almost flush with the outside diameter of the bullet. The bullet had a definite deep crimp ring embedded in it.
I almost took pictures of it from start to finish to post here.
I don't shoot ammo that I find on the ground. If it was reloaded, did the person who loaded it know what he was doing?
I do collect 22 rim fire that I find. I'll trust that.

[km101]

Don't any of you have a collection of different calibers and types of ammo for a display board or just to illustrate to the uneducated what the differences are? Shucks some of that stuff is collectable in its own right.


Yes I do. And some of it I dont even know what it is! But it still lives in a box, as I dont have any idea how to arrange it. LOL

But that is the ONLY use I have for range pickups, other than as components. I like all my parts attached just as they are now, and I dont want someone else's mistake or booby trap to re-arrange them. I disassemble any and all range finds and re-use the brass.
Better safe than sorry!

[Blacksmith]

Yes I do. And some of it I dont even know what it is! But it still lives in a box, as I dont have any idea how to arrange it. LOL


Here are some sites to visit:

http://cartridgecollectors.org/?page=reference

http://www.ecra.info/start.php

http://www.ammunitionpages.com/

http://www.gunsgunsguns.com/gunhoo/a.antique-obsolete-collectible.htm

http://www.municion.org/

Just what you need another hobby!:bigsmyl2:

[xs11jack]

A post at the beginning of this thread about young kids getting into the pickup ammo and do something dumb reminded me of a dumb thing I did when I was 12. I found a .22 round and being a tinkerer I just had to try something different. I cocked my BB gun and set it on the butt in the gravel and balanced the .22 over the muzzle. Then I pulled the trigger. Loud bang, bullet went out of sight straight up and a split open case hit me in the forehead. But not very hard. I thought it was cool!! But I never did that again. When I told my wife about it one time, she said that explains a lot of things.
Jack
Jack