What do you do with live rounds you find at the range?

[zenbreath]

Man, growing up sucks.

I've got a lot of 'seemed like a good idea at the time' stories.

 

[xdmfan]

I've got a lot of 'seemed like a good idea at the time' stories.

I hear ya there bud, me too.

For a little while there when I realized I was turning into an "old man" I started to really think that wisdom is wasted on the "old" because if I knew half of what I know now when I was 15 I might be running the world at this point.

But then I realized more wisdom in my teens would have most likely only led to a much more boring life.

 

[techiej]

Dud bucket at the range. If on public land then I'll take it home and disassemble and toss the primer...while I'm cheap , I won't take chances with someone else's ammo.

 

[xlsbob]

I just put found ammo in my pocket til I get home and then it goes in the odd ammo bucket. Every so often I go through it and pull down whatever is in there for either parts or just plain curiousity

 

[Mikej]

I've gotten good with my pullet puller, If I load it, I'd throw nothing useable away (cept powder and primer)

Is that anything like a "Chicken Choker"?

 

[thorborg]

I save them until I'm in the TSA line at the airport and drop it in a nearby traveler's bag.
(Yes I'm kidding)

Back in the late 60's, sometimes when we were bored, used to go to Portland Airport to watch the planes take off and land. Oh Boy, then they got metal detectors, we found out if we carried blue diamond almond nuts in our pocket (foil packets) they would set off the metal detectors for added excitement to our Friday night excursion.

 

[American123]

This.

When I was brand new to reloading 8 years ago I made the mistake of overcharging 10mm rounds. The first and only round I fired of that load, split the case in half, blew the magazine out of the gun and left my hand feeling rather sore.

I took the rest of the 9 rounds and told the range officer I wanted to dispose of the rounds (before I had a bullet puller). He instructed me to just throw them a little down range and they would be swept up later and gotten rid of.

Just an example of: range pick up ammo isn't worth the risk. It's a maybe .30 cent savings to use it and risking a multiple hundred to couple thousand dollar gun. Doesn't pencil out.

 

[thorborg]

Is that anything like a "Chicken Choker"?

Must be heavy lead, the b fell over and became a P

 

[DuneHopper]

FYI in case any of you wanted to...

 

[HighlandLofts]

I keep all my brass in sterilite plastic containers. I have some smaller sterilite containers for odd ball cases, range ammo and small quanities of nrass cases. I would never shoot found ammo.
I use to buy reloads atbthe gun shows and off tje local gun forums.
A few years ago I bought a bunch of reloaded ammo. I was shooting some 357 reloads and had what felt to be a double charged round.
After that round I never shot any other reloads for any one.
I got myself in to reloading and do my own. The only ammo I buy is 22lr, 22mag, 17HMR, 410 gauge, 20 gauge and 12 gauge.

I shoot at a gravel pit up.in Darrington and clean up the spent shotgun hulls and the steel rifle & pistol cased and any brass that is left. The range ammo I pick up is just stored away and will never be shot or used for anything.

 

[Tony617]

The indoor range I go to has a small bucket that you can get rid of live rounds. I had a primer malfunction on one of my 9mm rounds where it the primer just sizzled add the round did not fire. I kept my pistol facing down range and waited more than 30 seconds before I ejected the non-fired round and disposed of it.

 

[Member 34319]

Not going to lie, it's crossed my mind to leave some rounds lying around packed to the rim with tight group.

 

[scott_see]

I called the Klickitat County Solid Waste Department and asked them what to do with ammo. They said if it's just a small number of rounds, just toss it in the garbage. So, if I find a live round on the ground, I just chuck it.

 

[CarlMc]

Indoor ranges I just kick the brass across the line. Outdoors I whip out my MUT, pull the bullet, then toss the bullet and powder. I spit in the case to kill the primer and toss it into the bucket of brass I'm already using to clean up mine and your (whoever left it, that is) mess. If the case is damaged, I just crunch it with the MUT and then into the bucket. Live moves on. When I sort out my brass at home later, any bad cases get moved to the brass recycle bucket. The more I deviate from my normal movements in brass processing, the more that case costs in terms of my time.

 

[Certaindeaf]

I smuggle them into California so at least they have something.

 

[CLT65]

I never shoot random ammo I find laying on the ground, and I've found a lot over the years. I used to shoot some on occasion if it was obvious to my trained eye that it was factory ammo, but nowadays not even that. Honestly the clean factory ammo I find I would have no worry shooting if I had to, I just make a rule not to. Ammo is cheap and it's not worth the risk.

I do pick it all up and take it home with me though. I guess I'm just a scrounger. I pull it down right away, only take a few minutes. Sometimes I find wet powder, sometimes they're nice and shiny new. ALL powder gets disposed of, cast bullets get thrown into the melting pot, jacketed bullets get sorted by caliber and saved. My idea is to save them for when I'm tinkering with a new load or want to try a different bullet type, but in reality I almost never use one. I've been at it for a while. Here's a can with 16 pounds of just 9mm:


I probably like to spend more time tinkering than some of you high-speed/low drag types, so the primed brass often goes into it's own can if it looks good (mostly 9mm). When I get enough I size them (without depriming) and load them up with a moderate load (due to the unknown, mixed primers) using my cast, powder-coated bullets, and of course fresh powder. I've shot several hundred of them and they have shot surprisingly well. Free primed brass, what can I say?

Worth my time? Probably not, but like I said, I kind of like to tinker.

 

[Member 5605]

Put them in the brass bin at the range where they belong.

 

[gmerkt]

packed to the rim with tight group.

Only slightly off topic, one of my friends violated the rule of keeping only one bottle/type of powder on the bench at a time. He accidentally loaded some .223 with 20-some grains of 800X, blew an AR to smithereens, luckily only got minorly peppered and avoided serious injury. He said he never found some of the parts of the AR. I told him to look on the moon.

 

[zenbreath]

Hand loading is completely safe, if you do Every Single Step PERFECT!