Gun Show Reloads? 44 Mag advice needed.

dredd said:
From the looks of the packaging, I am going to GUESS that these probably were picked up at a Gun Show years ago.

I have over 400 of these.
They were included with a recent toy purchase.
A Ruger NM SBH.

Based on the 100 or so empties in the box with these and the empty bags,
I am going to GUESS that they were ran through the Ruger.

I have no other information. The original owner is no longer with us.

For starters, I'd say these need a Crimp!!!

Next..... Should I even trust these rounds?

As we say around here, trust your gut, or if you have to ask..... you already know.
I'm kinda tossed up on this one.

I doubt I could come up with a credible answer by pulling a couple down and trying to identify the powder.
Nothing says the same powder is in all of them.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Make me feel warm and fuzzy about shooting them? LOL



View attachment 1134636 View attachment 1134637 View attachment 1134640
Click to expand...
Yeah I had a guy at our last gun show say something about a 45acp round blowing up his Glock 21 and he took the box afterwards and weighed the remainder of them and they had the same amount of powder in them so idk. I think he said they were reloads. His hand was jacked up and had a good scar from it.
 
It's just too easy to make a mistake even if you're experienced and use good practices. I loaded a 50rd box of 45colt the other night. Got to the end and my intelledropper said I only dropped 49. Fortunately I separate these by weight before loading , so I just had to weigh each round and all were within a grain or two. I must have pulled the charge from the scale before it gave me the final beep.
 
image.jpg I wouldn’t but I would still investigate. What kind of brass, does it all match? On the fired brass does that match the reloads? What does the fired brass look like? Signs of pressure? Like @GeoDudeFlorida stated you have a good start on reloading components. Put a cotton ball in the end of the bullet puller if you’re using a kinetic, those bullets will damage without a cushion. But to sum it up, not worth taking the risk shooting those. Here is data from the Sierra Handgun Manual 3rd Edition if it helps.
 
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wcwhitey said:
View attachment 1134915 I wouldn’t but I would still investigate. What kind of brass, does it all match? On the fired brass does that match the reloads? What does the fired brass look like? Signs of pressure? Like @GeoDudeFlorida stated you have a good start on reloading components. Put a cotton ball in the end of the bullet puller if you’re using a kinetic, those bullets will damage without a cushion. But to sum it up, not worth taking the risk shooting those. Here is data from the Sierra Handgun Manual 3rd Edition if it helps.
Click to expand...
good tip on the cotton ball, never thought about that
 
Hugger-4641 said:
It's just too easy to make a mistake even if you're experienced and use good practices. I loaded a 50rd box of 45colt the other night. Got to the end and my intelledropper said I only dropped 49. Fortunately I separate these by weight before loading , so I just had to weigh each round and all were within a grain or two. I must have pulled the charge from the scale before it gave me the final beep.
Click to expand...

This is why you have to concentrate while you load, even one small mistake can have dire results.
 
dredd said:
From the looks of the packaging, I am going to GUESS that these probably were picked up at a Gun Show years ago.

I have over 400 of these.
They were included with a recent toy purchase.
A Ruger NM SBH.

Based on the 100 or so empties in the box with these and the empty bags,
I am going to GUESS that they were ran through the Ruger.

I have no other information. The original owner is no longer with us.

For starters, I'd say these need a Crimp!!!

Next..... Should I even trust these rounds?

As we say around here, trust your gut, or if you have to ask..... you already know.
I'm kinda tossed up on this one.

I doubt I could come up with a credible answer by pulling a couple down and trying to identify the powder.
Nothing says the same powder is in all of them.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Make me feel warm and fuzzy about shooting them? LOL



View attachment 1134636 View attachment 1134637 View attachment 1134640
Click to expand...
I recently purchased a S&W 460XVR.
Along with the XVR came over 150 reloaded rounds and a set of dies.
The previous owner admitted that he didn’t reload these. They were handed to him by the previous owner. He didn’t want to attempt to shoot them either.
index.php

As you can see they are not confidence inspiring with different color markers covering the bullets.
There are both 460 and .454 Casull loads.
There were notes stating which powder was used and how many grains in each load with the 454 Casull.

I disassembled all the 460 loads and dumped the powder since I didn’t know what it was. I started to disassemble the 454 loads but I began weighing the powder from each one.
The paper with the load data stated 31.0gr H110
It was a maximum load according to my reloading books.
All of his rounds were +/- 0.1gr of his load data. Seeing how close his powder charges were, the way the load filled the case not allowing a double charge, and having the notes of what powder was used I felt confident enough to load and fire 1 round to test.
Being a S&W 460XVR I was confident enough that the gun wouldn’t come apart. It was definitely a stout load but I ended up shooting them all.

Just remember that it is your hands and your eyes.
Don’t trust what someone on the internet tells you.
 
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Palladan44 said:
MDI- So your advice is to simply sub in one bullet for another, disregard OAL (if that's the case, then why even measure it) and just seat to the cannelure?
Bad advice, especially when loading with H-110 which has a narrow pressure window, and when loaded properly has 100% case fill. I'm glad you've not had any problems, though.
Click to expand...
YES! I seat all revolver bullets to the crimp groove or cannalure and disregard book OAL (the quoted OAL in manuals is what the testers used or found to be when seating, not necessarily a hard and fast spec.). And I have found no reason to measure revolver OAL, so I don't and all handloads fit the cylinders of my revolvers.. In my 357 and 44 Magnums, never a sign of over pressure and I loaded a few with Win 296. Many of my magnum handloads were loaded with WC 820n, very close to Win 296/H110 and even with near max or on occasion max loads no pressure problems/signs (I measure case heads as a more reliable method of checking for high pressures than looking at primers). I had a raging case of "Magnumitis" in the '80s and '90s and shot many, many "hot" 44 Magnum handloads with many 429421s at 250 gr and quite a few Ranch Dog 265 gr. RNFPs, all seated to the crimp grove. (I liked the huge roar and wrist breaking recoil in my Ruger SBH and my S&W 629).

There is nothing unsafe, haphazard nor cavalier about my handloading (I started in 1970 and have had one squib and zero kabooms or near kabooms and I have produce thousands of safe, accurate handloads for 6 revolvers, 7 semi-autos and 5 rifles...
 
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Okay.... I pulled one apart.

I am pretty sure this is what was called Clown Powder.
I think it only came in loaded cartridges that were produced / distributed by the Bozo Group. (Many... Many... Many years ago)
That's probably why I can't find any viable load data.
(YES! I'll be pulling all of these down)

The good news is, the recommended method of disposal is to sprinkle liberally on Cup Cakes, Cookies etc.







44powder.jpg
 
dredd said:
Okay.... I pulled one apart.

I am pretty sure this is what was called Clown Powder.
I think it only came in loaded cartridges that were produced / distributed by the Bozo Group. (Many... Many... Many years ago)
That's probably why I can't find any viable load data.
(YES! I'll be pulling all of these down)

The good news is, the recommended method of disposal is to sprinkle liberally on Cup Cakes, Cookies etc.







View attachment 1134958
Click to expand...
Lol, are you messing with us, or did that really come out of that rd ?
 
Cool! Where can I get some of that rainbow powder? Is load data available? I'm looking for some new powder for my 32 S&W Long and 45 Colt handloads (the ones with orange and black PCed bullets)...
 
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dredd said:
Okay.... I pulled one apart.

I am pretty sure this is what was called Clown Powder.
I think it only came in loaded cartridges that were produced / distributed by the Bozo Group. (Many... Many... Many years ago)
That's probably why I can't find any viable load data.
(YES! I'll be pulling all of these down)

The good news is, the recommended method of disposal is to sprinkle liberally on Cup Cakes, Cookies etc.







View attachment 1134958
Click to expand...
this Load would do well Seattle! lol
 
dredd said:
Okay.... I pulled one apart.

I am pretty sure this is what was called Clown Powder.
I think it only came in loaded cartridges that were produced / distributed by the Bozo Group. (Many... Many... Many years ago)
That's probably why I can't find any viable load data.
(YES! I'll be pulling all of these down)

The good news is, the recommended method of disposal is to sprinkle liberally on Cup Cakes, Cookies etc.







View attachment 1134958
Click to expand...
This definitely is reloads from the Breaking Bad!
 
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