How far would you go to reclaim components?

[lancem]

Still in the middle of moving my reloading area and I came across 300 rounds or so of .223 that I had loaded for a rifle I no longer own. I decided to tear them down for the components as things are in short supply in my area. Pulled the bullets and saved the powder knowing what it was from my notes, then decided to decap the brass and save the primers as I knew the brass had been loaded 5 times already and I am already working up a load for my new rifle with a different brand of brass.

I guess I'm just curious if anybody else would have bothered to go this far.

[zarrinvz24]

Yup, you’re definitely not alone in this. The primers would have made it worth it for me.

[lightman]

I would have!

[Outer Rondacker]

You bet ya. In a heartbeat I would have even if this were at normal prices. Its part of the game.

[BrassMagnet]

I would use those primers to fire form brass.
Maybe for close range plinking.

[NyFirefighter357]

I don't know if I would have broken 300 rounds down but I wouldn't have disposed of the ammo either. I would have kept it whole for, you never know. Maybe shoot them like that or break them down if needed later.

[lancem]

I don't know if I would have broken 300 rounds down but I wouldn't have disposed of the ammo either. I would have kept it whole for, you never know. Maybe shoot them like that or break them down if needed later.

Two things I didn't mention, they had Moly coated bullets that I wasn't going to shoot in my new rifle, (thought about pulling and just loading new bullets), the rounds were just neck sized and wouldn't chamber in the new rifle, didn't even bother trying the AR. So I pulled them, only took me around a half hour to totally disassemble them using a hornady collet puller and a lee decapper.

[PhilC]

I would have!
Me too.

[TyGuy]

I actually get a kick out of cannibalizing components from ammo that I have no use for. It’s best when you can use every component just like you did.

[cwtebay]

I probably would have bought a rifle, shoot the 300 rounds and sell it with the (multiple times fired) brass.

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[firefly1957]

I have a pile of mixed primers I have set aside over the years because they were dropped on the floor or pulled from bad loads ,today I would be tempted to put them back in use even though early on I had my only failure to fire from a dropped primer reused . (I marked it with marker a practice I often do with loads for other reasons with no issues)

One day I plan on adding them to a binary exploding target on a rainy day .

[Handloader109]

Absolutely.... Broken down a goodly number. I've deprimed a number that I didn't want to shoot and never have had issue with them going bang.

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[sharps4590]

I have.

[Shepherd2]

I've done it before. More than once but never 300 rounds. Knowing me though, 300 wouldn't stop me if I wanted it done.

I've never had a decapped primer fail but I've never used them in my best ammo either.

[FISH4BUGS]

I have a coffee can (actually TWO) marked "FOR COMPONENTS". As I load, inevitably there are a few that don't pass muster - i.e. primers upside down, 38 case that gets loaded with 357 settings, .223 with a wrinkled neck, etc.
I have been saving them for maybe 20 years. I keep adding as needed. They are in the 'someday" category, along with the military 9mm brass to size/decap/swage....someday.
My indoor range has a bucket for "duds". I am trying to buy it simply for the components.
...and this is from a guy that doesn't need any components. I stocked up heavily the last time around. :)
I think it is part of the frugal nature of we casters/reloaders.

[BrassMagnet]

I have a pile of mixed primers I have set aside over the years because they were dropped on the floor or pulled from bad loads ,today I would be tempted to put them back in use even though early on I had my only failure to fire from a dropped primer reused . (I marked it with marker a practice I often do with loads for other reasons with no issues)

One day I plan on adding them to a binary exploding target on a rainy day .

Use them to fire form brass. It doesn't matter if they are rifle or pistol primers. It only matters if they are large or small.

[Kraschenbirn]

Finished breaking down 250 rounds of 9mm yesterday afternoon (sometimes, I really hate my Dillon SDB!!). Remelt pulled boolits into ingots, pull decapping rod from full-length sizer, clean powder measure, and start all over again.

Bill

[FISH4BUGS]

Finished breaking down 250 rounds of 9mm yesterday afternoon (sometimes, I really hate my Dillon SDB!!). Remelt pulled boolits into ingots, pull decapping rod from full-length sizer, clean powder measure, and start all over again.
Bill
I can't tell you how many times I have done that.
You are not alone.

[WRideout]

I haven't done large quantities, but as a Certified skinflint, I break down all the rounds that aren't acceptable, one at a time. Everything I can't use again, I try to scrap. Just about at the "zero landfill" point.

Wayne

[Budzilla 19]

I’ve done it before. Probably gonna do it again.

[cwtebay]

I was pretty much joking about buying a new rifle (well, at least half joking) but I have torn apart tens of thousands of rounds over the years. From military tracers to old cordite rounds to most recently - someone else's reloads. I find it to be a not unpleasant task, watch a movie, have the kiddos help - it's mindless and monotonous but very rewarding.
Especially in this day and age.

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[kayala]

See nothing wrong with it. My scrounging story even better - I've had a ka-boom with my SP101 in 327 (double charge) one remaining live round blew up as well but upon inspection primer was still live, so I've decapped it from a mangled piece of brass and reused it later :D . Remains of SP101 mounted on my reloading bench as a constant reminder.

[pergoman]

It looks like I have a different position than most who have commented so far. I will shoot up bad ammo or ammo that was tailored for a particular gun I no longer own. I had a few hundred 40's that wouldn't plunk in XDM's or STI's so I bought a used Sig in 40. The chamber on that gun was plenty large to accept each and every round without a fight. I kept that gun for a while longer and then sold it for what I had in it. I got some practice and had lots of fun shooting.
I had rounds for 223's and 22-250's that eventually needed to be re-barreled after thousands of prairie dogs had met their demise. It seems like we always came home with some loaded rounds after a week of shooting. Those rounds were used for barrel break in, offhand practice at the range or close-range tactical games with an AR.
I guess I feel that 1 loading session to 1 shooting session is a fair enough deal while 2 loading plus 1 unloading just to get 1 shooting session is a bad deal time and effort wise for me. Everyone is different.

[.429&H110]

Reclaiming was one of my first lessons. The kid who taught me gave me a big can of .44 that he had loaded for his dad. "Dad says they're too hot". So I took them apart, blessed the roses with free fertilizer, and reloaded my first 200, shot them and loaded them again.

[Daver7]

We have several LEO agencies shoot at our range. when they "show clear" they don't bother to pickup. when they are done I pick em up break them down dump the powder, drop in my powder. yep I'm cheap

[ioon44]

I pick up all the dropped rounds after IDPA & USPSA matches and break them down and dump the powder, reload the primers and some of the bullets. I'm cheap too.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

I commonly pull bullets from old military 7.62x51 that I bought in the 80's. I use the primed case for practice, after neck sizing and expanding. I run a spinning bore brush into the necks to clear the sealant. I have a container of the ball powder, I have found that 44 grains of a ball powder (W846?) is common over multiple headstamps from different countries. After firing, the brass is kept for future use. I have also made 'Mexican Match' from 5.56x45, changing military FMJ for better bullets. Also pull ammo that has been unfired for years when new loads have been developed. When pulling bullets, the older the ammo the more variance in bullet pull I find, either sealant or bullets 'bonding' to the brass make a difference in accuracy.

[Bigmancrisler]

I have a coffee can (actually TWO) marked "FOR COMPONENTS". As I load, inevitably there are a few that don't pass muster - i.e. primers upside down, 38 case that gets loaded with 357 settings, .223 with a wrinkled neck, etc.
I have been saving them for maybe 20 years. I keep adding as needed. They are in the 'someday" category, along with the military 9mm brass to size/decap/swage....someday.
My indoor range has a bucket for "duds". I am trying to buy it simply for the components.
...and this is from a guy that doesn't need any components. I stocked up heavily the last time around. :)
I think it is part of the frugal nature of we casters/reloaders.

I do the same thing, my range has dud cans next to each brass bucket and as I go down the firing line I empty both buckets, I even take all the 22lr and will pull those bullets to throw into the casting pot. No sense in throwing away perfectly good lead.


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[Springfield]

I went through my discard bucket and pulled out 5 years worth of 45 Colt errors/split cases. Pulled the bullets/dumped powder when there, removed all the primers for later use. Used my HB chopsaw to cut shorter and then finished cutting with my (manual)Forster case trimmer. Made me 1500 Cowboy 45 Special cases. Then loaded 1200 of them. So yes, I woulda pulled the 300 cases, no problem.

[Bmi48219]

Maybe a better question than “How far would you go to reclaim components?” would be ‘Why wouldn’t you reclaim them?’
I have a small Tupperware type container marked “PULL”. When it is near full I can fully break down the contents in short order. Unidentified or unusable powder becomes plant food, projectiles are reused or melted, if I don’t have use for the brass someone else does. The salvaged primers go into non-critical range reloads.
I was recently given a large quantity of .40 & .45 acp reloads of suspect lineage. The load data was clearly labeled on each box. I pulled down the (150 rounds of) 45’s, two of which lacked a powder charge. The Unique powder looked good so after resizing and flaring the primed brass, I reloaded them all and treated a friend to an hour at the range. The (several hundred) 40’s will get the same treatment.
I’m not anywhere near hurting for reloads or reloading components. Nevertheless it feels good to get full value out of something that would otherwise be discarded. Being wasteful is not in my nature.

[Baltimoreed]

If you’re going to the trouble to load ammo why wouldn’t you tear down old or no longer needed ammo to reuse components. Just tore down a couple hundred .450 Webley and .44 mag loads to sell the brass.

[MT Gianni]

Not this guy, I would have bought a new contender barrel.

[AlHunt]

This comes up from time to time and I've done a few hundred. My experience is that the primers re-seat with erratic tension - some are fine but others re-seat with very little force required. I have turned the newly primed cases upside down in the loading block and applied a drop of super glue to the groove between the primer and the case, wiping the excess. Maybe they'd have been fine, maybe not.

Maybe I'm unique, I've never seen anyone else mention it.

[guzma393]

I put all my rejects in a bin for later reclamation. Once it gets full, I put all pulled powder in a jug (could use for fertilizer, NC fines for priming compound, etc.), sort the projectiles by weight, decap salvageable primers, scrap damaged brass, and deactivate unsalvageable (berdan usually) primed cases/damaged primers (put them in a ziplock bag full of used waste oil) and scrap them.

[imashooter2]

Zero chance I would throw away 300 SRP in the current environment.

Frankly, I have a hard time envisioning a time when I would throw away 300 primers.

[kevin c]

My own reloaded ammo, no question. I have broken down unknown rounds before, but I like my ammo to be more consistent than I can make from salvaged components, and I won’t use unknown powder. Out of curiosity I tried salvaged primers: they’re OK for plinking ammo but I wouldn’t trust them for anything else.