500 old reloads pulled

dearslayer

dearslayer

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As in the title ....I've mentioned in other posts about these 500 rounds of 45 ACP with lead semi-wad cutter bullets that I acquired about two years ago and it's Origins pretty much unknown.. so I decided to take on the task of pulling all the bullets one at a time with an inertia bullet puller. Needless to say it took a little while. Out of the 500 there were 13 cases that had no powder at all. Whoever loaded these did not pay much attention to detail or for that matter quality control. A lot of the bullets are distorted or were inserted crooked or were compressed on top of the brass. As mentioned in other threads I'm going to leave the primers in to reuse. I have a whole bunch of questions related to this and will itemize them in a little bit but I thought I'd post the photos first while I give the questions some thought
 

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So I guess my first question is about the primer. While most of them look nice and flat there are quite a few that look a little bit concaved almost wrinkled looking... are these any good to use?
 

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I guess the next thing would be if I'm going to reuse the lead bullets I'll need some load data. It appears there's two different weights 155.4 grains and 157.7 Grains give or take a grain or two either way on each one.
 

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It appears there are three different weights the first two as I mentioned 155.4 and 157.7 both have a blue ring ( is this a wax ring ), and ones with a brown ring at 154.3, so all told about a three-grain difference between all three projectiles.
So what would be the best bullet weight to go by the low end at 154 or the high end at 157.
I'll be using HP 38 for powder so can anybody recommend load data?
 

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The ideal data to use would be that for 155gr or 160gr. Not sure what you will find. Lots is out there but I've never used such light bullets myself.

One other thing to check is the diameter of the bullets. The act of seating and then pulling them again over the crimp may have effectively sized them down a bit. If they're too under size you risk lead buildup in the barrel or having them tumble.
 
WOW ! them is some mind blowing crap. At some point I would ask? IS THIS JUNK WORTH THE POWDER TO BLOW THEM TO heck?
Bullets with burrs and misshapen and no lube need to all be resized and relubed.
Primers are so badly crushed all are suspect for malfunction.
Brass cases bent and crushed beyond recovery.
FIX! scrap it all.
 
new210/22 said:
For the cost of a primer I wouldn’t use that.
Click to expand...

I beyond totally agree ^^^

As well as the cost of brass, powder, & projectiles (and your handgun for that matter).... NOTHING here is worth salvaging !!

Good on you -especially since you're a newer reloader -for not taking this 500 rounds for granted (i.e. not making the assumption that this batch was good to shoot).

Some here may think that I am being way too cautious, but if it were me, I would throw EVERYTHING out
Brass, primers, powder, projectiles .... the works.

You said it yourself " Origins pretty much unknown".

  • A lot of the brass is beat to sh#t already.
  • There is no definitive way to tell if the powder has gone bad.
  • Finally, the guy who reloaded the rounds may have cast and lubed these SWC himself for all you know? Would you really trust those projectiles after everything else you saw done incorrectly?

Honestly, I would rather take a chance eating gas station Sushi that had been sitting on my dashboard for 6 hours, than use any of these components .... pitch it all away.
 
Last edited:
VICIOUS said:
WOW ! them is some mind blowing crap. At some point I would ask? IS THIS JUNK WORTH THE POWDER TO BLOW THEM TO heck?
Bullets with burrs and misshapen and no lube need to all be resized and relubed.
Primers are so badly crushed all are suspect for malfunction.
Brass cases bent and crushed beyond recovery.
FIX! scrap it all.
Click to expand...

Indeed... throw it all away.
You (and your handgun) can live "to tell the tale."
 
Who cares who made the bullets? They're inert lumps of metal and you can tell everything you need to with a scale and calipers. The stuff in the first picture and the crushed primers are a mess but the bullets in the other pictures aren't too bad if the diameter is okay.

Used pistol brass is used brass. Discard the worn or buggered ones as you load it. If it's not cracked, folded or have a loose primer pocket it's no worse than any other range brass. Pull the decapping rod, size and bell with the primers in place and reload.

Probably would keep the good looking primers myself but it's a little bit of a gamble because it would suck if lots were faulty. But if they look okay they likely are.
 
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