Anyone ever reuse projectiles?

[Utah Shooter]

Taken from a different forum but I know you guys here would have some great ideas.

"the snow is melting finally and i am finding a bunch of bullets that have only hit paper and snow. they look like new except for the rifling. makes me wonder if i could reuse them. these are larger caliber jacketed pistol bullets."

[dtknowles]

I shoot once fired 45 acp fmjs in sabots in my 50 cal muzzleloaders.

Tim

[ratboy]

paper patch it.;-)


Taken from a different forum but I know you guys here would have some great ideas.

"the snow is melting finally and i am finding a bunch of bullets that have only hit paper and snow. they look like new except for the rifling. makes me wonder if i could reuse them. these are larger caliber jacketed pistol bullets."

[runfiverun]

I have talked to several guy's that have repurposed 45 acp bullets they have picked up from the snow.
the repurposed them down a different barrel and back into some paper.

[aaronraad]

They could be reused as is but what effect they would have on reloading dies, accuracy, the barrel, the action or shooter is anyone's guess.

Making a go & no-go gauge to check diameter would be a start after cleaning.

Passing them through a bullet re-sizing die with a matching nose or base punch couldn't hurt.

Maybe running a cannelure tool over any remaining rifling marks would almost pass them off as unfired.

Depending how much how much deformation the base has undergone, inserting a gas-check or base-guard might be advisable also.

...makes you wonder what's actual in an open box/packet at the local garage sale.

[bangerjim]

I have about 200# of 38's and 45's in FMJ format that are just like new. Slight rifling on sides but no other deformity at all. If your's are like that.....go for it!

I plan on cleaning/tumbling them and reloading for target practice!

At less than a buck a pound, they were a bargain.

banger

[uscra112]

Well, I fired some low-velocity .22s into wet paper a while back, to see if they expanded. They didn't, and just recently I swaged 'em up to .228 for a single-shot I'm working on.

[frkelly74]

It seems a total waste to melt the lead out of almost perfect 45 FMJ slugs to cast into boolits. If they look good and shiny and round I load them up and shoot them without a problem.

[dilly]

I've dealt with my fair share of range scrap and I hardly get enough intact to even consider it. What are you guys doing, shooting a thousand foot thick wall of pillows?

[akajun]

IT is commonplace at conventional pistol matches where the bullets land on flat ground and not into a berm to pick up fired bullets and sell them back to the shooters who use them for practice. THis used to be done at Camp Perry by Juniors for spending money, dont know if its still done.

[alfloyd]

I have ran once fired pistol bullets thru my swaging dies and reused. The swaging dies take them back to the correct diameter and shape. Depending on the backstop, they can be reused multiple times.
A friend of mine turned me onto this practice. He has a indoor pistol range in his basement that uses rubber belting material in layers to stop the slugs. He can reuse about 80% of the slugs he fires.

Lafaun

[Old School Big Bore]

I found some undistorted Nyclad .38 HBWCs once; after cleaning it was hard to even see the rifling on them because of the nylon's resilience, and I loaded them inverted for some cup point demo ammo. They worked great. Makes me think something like a thinned tool-handle dip would make a good coating.

[frkelly74]

I've dealt with my fair share of range scrap and I hardly get enough intact to even consider it. What are you guys doing, shooting a thousand foot thick wall of pillows?


1000' of snow. actually it seems to take about 6' or 8' horizontally to gently slow the bullet without distorting it very much at all. Now is the time for picking them up.

[bobz]

I've fired thousands of rounds of once-fired .45, .30 M1 carbine, and M2 ball bullets and never had any problems. Makes good plinking ammo, accuracy's not the best but the price is right. I quick-sort them dirty, tumble them til they're shiny, and sort again.

[Bullshop Junior]

I melt mw down and recast them. Loss of accuracy isnt worth it to me.

[Steve Steven]

Where I grew up in New Mexico, there was a training camp for the Army in WWI/ Where the rifle range was, there were thousands of spent .30 cal bullets on the ground, the wind would blow away the sand (remember, this is the desert) and leaving the spent rounds on the surface. They were marked with rifling and most had sand marks where they hit the sand. I reloaded and fired some, they worked but I didn't keep any records.

Steve

[Chuck Walla]

Never done it myself. I'd think the most important thing here if you're going to try it, would be like a few members mentioned; I'd clean them up good and run them through a sizing die to staighten them back up. As long as they are clean and the right size, it wouldn't cause a problem.

[HollandNut]

If they are cast boolits I will re melt and reuse them , if j werds , I will as well .. Heck when I go to the range I have been known on many occasions to go to the berms after shooting and digging up mine and everyone else's I can and bring them to the pot ..