deactivating a 44 mag cartridge

[sisiphunter]

Hello All,

I have been given about 40 44 mag loaded cartridges and I know they have cast bullets and are reloaded. I don't know what was in them for powder/primers, etc. I decided to go the safe route and pull all of the bullets. About half appear to have h110 compressed and the other half possibly Unique, not too sure though, just by sight. Anyways I dumped all of the powder into a small tub of water to deactivate it. I think this should work fine, then I flushed it out with a few gallons of more water just to be safe. Now for the primed brass with powder residue. Can I just soak the primed brass overnight in water to deactivate the primers and remainding powder????

I just wanted the brass to reload myself and the bullets to melt down for my casting....

Does this sound ok or will the water not properly deactive the primers for safe removal???? Maybe gun oil instead???

Any help would be greatly appriciad.

Thanks, Matt

 

[Grizzlypeg]

You could take them to the range and fire off the primers. Personally, I'd have used the primed cases.

 

[tjsudbury]

Just reload them as they are, no need to use new primers. You probably will want to bell the case mouth again though, and don't load them hot, not knowing what primer is in them.

 

[Cerdan]

Why not just keep the primed cases? I understand you wanting to pull the bullets and start over but there's no reason to kill the primers.

But if you insist, know that water won't do it. IMO the only way to truly "deactivate" a primer is to fire it. Gun oil'll do the trick as well, but some will tell you they've heard stories of primers going off even after having been soaked in oil. Not to mention that oiling the inside of cases is a real pain in the ass.

 

[sisiphunter]

k, thanks alot guys. I never though of just firing off the primers, like blanks....hahaha, simple yet so complicated..

wow, I need some sleep....anyways, thanks again.

 

[blacksmithden]

You don't even have to go to the range to pop off primers. Put the barrel of the gun into a pile of rages and it pretty much turns the sound into that of a cap gun.

 

[H4831]

One thing about your posting that wasn't mentioned. Water does not deactivate powder!
The US had trainloads of powder left over from World War one. They caked it into huge blocks and burried it in a little lake! Some of this Hodgdons surplus powder we have used, may have been treated that way.

 

[Ganderite]

I just deprime live primers they same way i deprime fired ones. Just did about 100 of them tonight because i wanted to change brass from match primers to Winchester primers.

 

[medicstimpy]

Powder residue? From what it sounds like, there wouldn't be enough left in the case to cause any significant changes. I'd just do what the others said... restuff 'em and shoot 'em the way they are.

Or you can use a decapping pin and catch the still good powders, wash your cases and re-prime them. Depending on what kind of press you are using.

 

[Garand]

Personally, I need to get rid of small arms ammo, I find a little C4 goes a long way

 

[Edward Teach]

You could also have a little fun with 'em...stick a yellow foam earplug in each primed case and fire them off. Put a little carpenter's chalk on the end of each one so you can see where it hits!

 

[ebrand]

I would clean the gun very well after popping off the primers by themselves. Reloading the powder and bullets would be my choice.