Would you fire unknown reloads?

[Member 34319]

Yes, after pulling one or two and checking what they are made of.

 

[DirectDrive]

An early-war Arisaka just might be one of the strongest actions ever made.
P.O. Ackley's service rifle destruction tests...

 

[Capn Jack]

I guess I had better get to shooting. I want to save y'all a lot of bullet pulling when I die.

Oh, I guess you'll take a chance on the 7k of .22 lrs.

 

[CountryGent]

Would you fire unknown reloads?

 

[red442joe]

My story...
Had a bunch of 30-06 reloads. Looked like two different loads.
Nope, four different bullet weights, two obviously different powders.
The fun part was weighing the charges...ALL OVER THE PLACE! Geez what a mess!
echo
echo
echo
"pull apart, reload"
echo
echo
echo...

Joe

 

[Capn Jack]

Know your source. If not, Pull and reload.

 

[tac]

I might weigh them all if the brass was all the same and pull a couple to see if you can ID the powder.

So you know what ALL powders look like? I'm seriously impressed, Sir.

 

[osprey]

What could go wrong? The fact you have hesitation to ask should tell you all you need to know.

 

[bradsteen]

+1 for the "NOPE" crowd. Sure, ammo is expensive, but why take the risk to save a few bucks? Pull and reload.

On a side note, if you aren't familiar with reloading I'm sure some folks here on the forum would be happy to show you how so you can make use of the existing casings and bullets.

 

[Frank RW]

From all the horror-stories I've seen, I'll never shoot reloads.

Even at a couple bucks or more per round, not worth the POTENTIAL savings IMO.


I trust the mfg more than I do myself or the average hobbyist I guess.

 

[WillametteWill]

Perhaps and Ouija board and some candles, see if you can connect with the original reloader.

Ask my wife, when given choices of A or B, I nearly always go for C.

 

[Member 52301]

Hey Folks,

I purchased a Type 99 Arisaka from a respectable member of this forum awhile ago. He purchased the rifle from an old timer that used to reload... along with the rifle came two boxes of hand reloads for 7.7 Jap from the long deceased collector. Obviously, for legal reasons, these reloads were included as "components".

It is very difficult and expensive to find 7.7 Jap (yes, I know in the long run reloading is the best option but lets shelve that at the moment). It took me 9 months to get 7.7 Jap from Steinel at nearly $1.50 a round.

As a hypothetical: would you risk shooting the unknown reloads OR be cautious, pull the bullets, and reload the components?

NO!

No, I would NOT shoot them.

I do not reload so I would NOT do jack squat with the old reloaded ammunition.

I would have let the OWNER of that reloaded ammo who sold you the rifle DISPOSE of the reloaded ammo himself or HE could have taken them apart HIMSELF and sold them to someone who may want to buy the components.

Cate

 

[Member 52301]

From all the horror-stories I've seen, I'll never shoot reloads.

Even at a couple bucks or more per round, not worth the POTENTIAL savings IMO.
View attachment 1214914

I trust the mfg more than I do myself or the average hobbyist I guess.

Hello Frank,

I do not reload. I never did reload.

I do NOT regret my personal decision when it comes to ME and reloading.

I was thinking about getting INTO it when my late husband was alive. But we never did do that.

I have NO interest in doing this for myself now (Almost 72 years old.) or when he died and I was 51 years old.

My MT husband is a SERIOUS reloader and has been since the early 70's. He no longer LOADS a whole bunch of ammo AHEAD of time since he no longer competes.

He continues to shoot several times a week too.

He shoots RF and CF firearms.

He has not owned a shotgun for several years now. He used to reload for several gauges a long ago too. Then he only went to 12 gauge and started to buy specific ammo for his former and LAST shotgun.

He trusts his reloading and a couple of SUPER close friends since he KNOWS them and SEES what they do as a reloader, while they reload, as shooters, expert riflemen - military, etc.

I did shoot my MT husband's reloaded ammo and the 2 people that he knows mentioned above. But mainly HIS.

Their reloaded ammo? Maybe a couple of rounds to try out one or two of their firearms that they wanted me to shoot at one of our own private shooting events - invite only.

And I brought my FACTORY CF ammo with me when I moved out west with my RF ammo. Plus I bought CF and RF ammo out here too. When I scaled down and stopped shooting handguns - I took CF and RF factory ammo from the store instead of the cash because at the TIME, I was still shooting 'some' CF rifles too.

Now?

I only shoot 22wmr and 22lr rifles. I do TRUST my RF ammo and I have had NO issues with my top brands in RF too. Since the late 90's. That goes for HP and RN.

Take care!

Blessings to you and your family.

Cate

 

[Capn Jack]

"I trust the mfg more than I do myself or the average hobbyist I guess. "

WOW !
Do you drive a car? Do you eat at restaurants? Do you cross RXR Tracks?
The .22lr is supposed to be the safest "Factory" round to shoot, but since I started shooting and reloading over 75 years ago, a few of those and a commercial 12ga. round that blew out the rim are the only cartridge failures I've ever experienced.

It's all a matter of where you place your trust. Would you drink your neighbors homemade whiskey? Would you drink a strangers homemade whiskey?
Your choice. The world's a crap shoot.

 

[CLT65]

Like I mentioned before, odds are they're probably fine. Lots of people reload safely, and as much as we've all heard of and seen photos of the occasional "kaboom", they're statistically uncommon. In some kind of survival situation where unknown reloads like this were my only option, I's shoot them without hesitation. It's a roll of the dice with very low odds of losing.

BUT, the potential consequences of losing that roll of the dice would cause me to not (otherwise) do it. I used to shoot random, unknown, leftover reloads picked up at a gun show, back in the day, but not anymore. I remember Andy posting when someone else's reloads blew up his 1903 Springfield.

As to who I trust, I trust my own reloads just as much, and probably more than factory ammo. I've seen defective factory ammo, especially .22lr.

 

[Jdubthedub]

As a young buck I fired someone's reloads. Dumbass had overfilled the cartridges with pistol powder. Damn rifle blew up on me. Had I not been wearing eye pro I'd be blind. Still have the scars on my hands and cheek. So I'm firmly in the NO crowd.

 

[ilostmypswrd]

No, Nope, No Way, never ever...

 

[slimmer13]

I trust the mfg more than I do myself or the average hobbyist I guess.

I trust myself more where I can meticulously control every step, rather than mass production.

 

[Frank RW]

"I trust the mfg more than I do myself or the average hobbyist I guess. "

WOW !
Do you drive a car? Do you eat at restaurants? Do you cross RXR Tracks?
The .22lr is supposed to be the safest "Factory" round to shoot, but since I started shooting, over 75 years ago, a few of those and a 12ga. round that blew out the rim are the only cartridge failures I've ever experienced.

It's all a matter of where you place your trust. Would you drink your neighbors homemade whiskey? Would you drink a strangers homemade whiskey?
Your choice. The world's a crap shoot.

yup, but i didn't build that car and neither did my buddy. and no, i wouldn't drink anyone's backyard distilled cup of death.

 

[Mistman]

I'll echo the NO!

Been there, done that. Years ago I got a bag of 40 cal reloads from a private party w/the purchase of another firearm. I loaded up a couple mags for the Hi-power. 1st mag, everything's fine, 2nd mag fine until the 5 or 6th shot when the grips blew off and bruised my hands a bit (the gun is fine BTW).

I still have the rest of the bag (over 100 rnds). I haven't taken the time to pull them yet, eventually I will so they're not a danger to anyone else who thinks they might be ok to shoot in the future.