Why you don't trust "mystery" reloads..

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weldingmachine

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About 22 years ago my father found a plastic case with 100 rounds of .223 reloads in it while down at the sand pit that we went shooting at.
He didn't have a .223 at the time so he just held onto them until a couple of years ago when he passed them to me.
I have no clue what kind of powder was in it, but the shells were completely full!
I didn't really trust them, so I didn't use them.
Yesterday I was cleaning the safe out & decided to pull them apart.
1 round had a 16gr. chunk of lead in it. (and still filled up to the top)
3 rounds had chunks of wax in them.
about 5 were totally soaked with some kind of oil, projectile & all.
And 1 had an 8" piece of gray hair in it!
No squibs though..
 
yeh, i was given boxes of .38spl and .357 reloads with cast bullets from god knows who......
part of me wants to take 'em apart and re-load them with known quantities.....
but i only have an inertia puller and it'd be a pain in the ass to pull 'em all....

the other half of me says eff it just shoot 'em...... but i don't own a wheel gun......

anyone have a .357 i can borrow.....?
 
inerlogic said:
yeh, i was given boxes of .38spl and .357 reloads with cast bullets from god knows who......
part of me wants to take 'em apart and re-load them with known quantities.....
but i only have an inertia puller and it'd be a pain in the ass to pull 'em all....

the other half of me says eff it just shoot 'em...... but i don't own a wheel gun......

anyone have a .357 i can borrow.....?
Click to expand...
My old man gave me a ton of his .38 wadcutter reloads when he quit competitive shooting. Problem is that he tended to be a little "generous" on the powder. I remember shooting some out of a J-frame .38 long ago... on my own and before I was fully aware of his "generosity."

Come to find out, they were at least +++P. [shocked] Honestly, I am very lucky the gun survived. [rolleyes] The spent brass had to be hammered out. [thinking]

I still have around 90% of them left. But now I wouldn't shoot them out of anything short of an N-frame .357. [wink]

And no, I would never put them in the classifieds. [laugh]
 
My buddies grandfather gave him about 150 .38 reloads to give to me... Ill probably shoot them, although I have no shortage of .38 brass.

Mike

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2
 
NavelOfficer said:
Not to endorse shooting unknown reloads, but what is inside factory loads? You go on faith that these are done correctly, don't you?
Click to expand...

Yup. The same 'faith' that tells you you'll get a better heart bypass operation from a senior cardiologist at Mass General than from some random homeless drunk with a rusty box cutter.
 
I trust nothing. I was given a large quantity of small pistol primers, some regular and some magnum. One of the 100 rd packs was partially full. Altho no danger, I discarded them not knowing if they were standard, magnum or mixed. Why use something if you are not sure what it is? Jack.
 
inerlogic said:
yeh, i was given boxes of .38spl and .357 reloads with cast bullets from god knows who......
part of me wants to take 'em apart and re-load them with known quantities.....
but i only have an inertia puller and it'd be a pain in the ass to pull 'em all....

the other half of me says eff it just shoot 'em...... but i don't own a wheel gun......

anyone have a .357 i can borrow.....?
Click to expand...

EJFudd said:
My old man gave me a ton of his .38 wadcutter reloads when he quit competitive shooting. Problem is that he tended to be a little "generous" on the powder. I remember shooting some out of a J-frame .38 long ago... on my own and before I was fully aware of his "generosity."

Come to find out, they were at least +++P. [shocked] Honestly, I am very lucky the gun survived. [rolleyes] The spent brass had to be hammered out. [thinking]

I still have around 90% of them left. But now I wouldn't shoot them out of anything short of an N-frame .357. [wink]

And no, I would never put them in the classifieds. [laugh]
Click to expand...


I might consider running them through my GP-100. Maybe. After I took a few apart.
 
"Found at a Sand Pit" is off the extreme end of what I consider a "Mystery Load". Holy crap. I hope you at least got a nice MTM box out of the deal.

ETA: Please say it was in an old sandwich bag.
 
Last edited:
Here, for free, is my rule of thumb, or thumbs of which I still have 2. Still have all limbs and both eyes. "Do not shoot other peoples' reloads". If you didn't load it, if it's not factory, treat all gifts, finds or purchases of ammunition as - components.
 
A coworker showed me the bulged Glock 19 barrel. His son was shooting someone else's reloads and never noticed anything until the slide locked back. He now has a new barrel.
 
my G17 slide locked up with a SL barrel, I thought it was due too tight a fit in the reciever. SL offered grind down the block for free. sent it, turns out they think there was a squib in there and I shot a second bullet into the squib and this knocked the 2 rounds out. there is a bulge in the barrel where the squib was and a ring of brass they are sending me. I never heard the squib. I am very lucky. Anyone want to use some of my reloads?
 

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