Why you don't trust others reloads!

[Rez Exelon]

So last weekend I picked up a package of stuff at a show that included 15 rounds of 416 Rigby. Not that I needed it since I don't own one, but I'm not going to turn down the freebie right? Well, I debated if I wanted to leave them intact but my policy of "never trust other people's reloads" won, and this thread will illustrate why I have that policy.

Example A shows some of the rounds as they got to me. Looked nice and uniform all Norma head stamps. Two things jumped out. First I usually seat further the the groove. Second, they weren't crimped. So definitely rule out factory ammo IMHO.

Now, as cool as it'd be to hang onto the rounds even without a gun, I flagged them for take down. Two rounds in, nothing special happened. But on the third, it looked a little different. Put side by side to the other, something just looked off.

Hard to see, but the rounds had two completely different types of powder. One stick and one ball. The ball I should note was also a compressed load evidenced by the hard pack of powder in the case and sticking to the bottom of the bullets.

Out of the 15, three were the ball powder ones. One case didn't sit in the shell holder right either.

Maybe nothing would have been wrong if fired --- who knows, maybe they were matched in load dev. But there were sure some big red flags. I'll deprime and tumble the brass and store it and recycle the bullets to other rounds and call it good.

 

[Luvthunt]

Interesting

 

[mark-hunter]

What is the factory or source of this ammo? I doubt it was norma?! Or maybe it was norma, differetn lots, sold by private owner? Or reloads?

 

[Kevin Peacocke]

What do you do with the discarded powder?

 

[JimP]

What do you do with the discarded powder?

Makes a fine garden fertilizer.

 

[Rez Exelon]

What is the factory or source of this ammo? I doubt it was norma?! Or maybe it was norma, differetn lots, sold by private owner? Or reloads?

It came to me second hand so based on the tells it was reloaded. I mention the Norma name because often reloads come as mixed brands which is an easy to spot thing. In this case they were all matching head stamps.

@Kevin Peacocke --- garden fertilizer is my number one thing just like was mentioned earlier.

 

[matt85]

Might have been fine... But your call was correct. Never trust a strangers hand loads.

 

[meritman]

I've used a number of brass from different sources and never had this happen, maybe lucky? Though I do check the cases multiple times so that helps with prevention. Just a guess but I'd say you're probably right about it being to hot of a load or possibly to high pressure depending of course on the powder used. I wouldn't destroy the cases but definitely replace the powder but if you're that concerned about the cases than by all mean safety first.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Not sure I would trust the primers either. Unlikely to blow up your gun but might screw up the grouping.

 

[Safari Dave]

Either myself or factory.

I always carry factory to Africa, because I trust them more.

Unfortunately, but true...




Federal Premium and Hornady DG have never let me down.

 

[Ridge Runner]

It came to me second hand so based on the tells it was reloaded. I mention the Norma name because often reloads come as mixed brands which is an easy to spot thing. In this case they were all matching head stamps.

@Kevin Peacocke --- garden fertilizer is my number one thing just like was mentioned earlier.

Blasphemy.....use it for firecrackers. Works wonders on the 4th of July. Or blowing up stumps.....if you acquire enough "junk" powder.

So a friend told me. Don't tell my neighbors. I told them it was a "heat lightening" strike.

 

[Rez Exelon]

As a fun little followup I deprime the brass today. My Lee universal decapper couldn't accommodate the case but then I remembered I had a RCBS one that has more interior room. As it turns out there were two primers types in the mix as well. 9 of type A and 6 of type B. Considering that the initial mix of stick/ball powders was 10/5 that means primer use couldn't have possibly been consistent between rounds as well.

 

[Ridge Runner]

My policy...NEVER EVER TRUST OTHERS RELOAD!!!!.....

If I (you) didn't completely supervise the person reloading the ammo....Don't trust the reload...Personal Experience!

Primer: should be okay.
Brass: INSPECT IT!!!
Powder: discard into a "catch all" canister MARKED FOR Other Uses.......like firecrackers for 4th of July fireworks.

SAFETY....YOUR SAFETY..... FIRST!!!!

 

[Ontario Hunter]

As a fun little followup I deprime the brass today. My Lee universal decapper couldn't accommodate the case but then I remembered I had a RCBS one that has more interior room. As it turns out there were two primers types in the mix as well. 9 of type A and 6 of type B. Considering that the initial mix of stick/ball powders was 10/5 that means primer use couldn't have possibly been consistent between rounds as well.
View attachment 599304

Wow! Helen Keller could have done a better job loading those shells.

Next up: caliper the brass. I'll bet my crusty jock strap the lengths are also out of whack. Maybe check the bullets on a powder scale to ensure they're all the same weight.

 

[Rez Exelon]

Wow! Helen Keller could have done a better job loading those shells.

Next up: caliper the brass. I'll bet my crusty jock strap the lengths are also out of whack. Maybe check the bullets on a powder scale to ensure they're all the same weight.

Interestingly I did that yesterday and forgot to note it. All bullets appear to be of the same type. Weight was 348.7-351.2 if I remember correctly. I decided to skip doing measurements against the brass since I'll either A) need to resize it myself if I ever get a Rigby or B) Advertise it as "full prep required" if I ever go to sell it. But I wouldn't be surprised if the measurements were wonky.

Another fun thing since I've gone down the rabbit hole on this though (cheap entertainment for sure with this one while I await the countdown to an auction closing that includes 416 Taylor dies) is that on the one piece of brass that didn't really fit my shellholder last night, I had to pull the bullet via kinetic hammer.

In an of itself that'd be no biggie, but the rigby brass doesn't exactly fit in the kinetic hammer. Even if the shellholder DID fit the rim, then I couldn't have used that for instance. But what I could do is just kind of shove it in and start whacking at it. When I did the bullet came out but then I couldn't pull the dang brass back out of the hammer. So I started whacking it backwards. When I did that the case came out but the bullet was now inside the dang case. So I had to start whacking forwards again. Eventually I got it out with powder all over my garage floor that Mr. Leafblower sent to the great outdoors beyond.

BUT, it was interesting that the bullet made it's way back inside to me. I'd have expected it to get on the lip and not go in, but apparently there was little enough neck tension that it worked in. So that does make me think that sizing might have been...different.

 

[meritman]

I have on occasion helped a co-worker. I sold him some powder, primers, bullets, brass. Had him come over. Gave him a quick primer on reloading, helped him set up my progressive press and showed him how to use it, and he ran off 100rnds of 38spl.

 

[Rez Exelon]

I have on occasion helped a co-worker. I sold him some powder, primers, bullets, brass. Had him come over. Gave him a quick primer on reloading, helped him set up my progressive press and showed him how to use it, and he ran off 100rnds of 38spl.

I've invited a few people over for teaching/demo sessions to help them decide if it's right for them and/or to teach them processes and safety. Then if they move forward, I'll go to their place and help with out of the box configurations and rehash and such. I try to keep various bits of excess reloading components (which oddly build up right??) so that I can supply the random bits to folks too. All that said, I start with the manta that when it comes to your own bullets, then YOU are your own quality control, and YOU are your own safety tester and YOU are the one that hangs it out when the trigger comes backwards far enough.

 

[wswolf]

I once witnessed a friend shoot a recently acquired .270 Winchester with some handloads that came with it. The first shot sounded very odd and a lot of smoke came out of the action. The ammunition box was labeled .270 Winchester and all of the cases were head stamped the same. Upon further examination we found that some of the .270 cases had been sized down reloaded as .257 Roberts. Some of the Roberts cases had been properly trimmed and some had not been trimmed at all. This was early in my shooting career and I have not trusted other peoples handloads since.

 

[meritman]

I taught two women how to hand load 38 special target loads. 100% everyone else lost all interest once there was obviously going to be some easy work involved and some required reading leading to learning on their part. That is ok too.

 

[Grumpy gumpy]

I recently broke down some ammo to post the brass interstate ( can’t post live ammo here) in 38-55 45-70 45long colt a few randoms and 45-90, these rounds came from an older gentleman who was getting out of competition shooting, they were all bagged into different reloads, eg jacketed, cast, hard cast. Luckily they weren’t fired as there was a couple of different smokeless loads and black powder ones all mixed in together in the calibre groups, when I commented on this I got "oh, they shouldn’t have been", he didn’t seem to know what he had there
gumpy