Ideas for destroying live rounds?

[Lariatbob]

Ok. Here's the deal. First of all, I know some of you will tell me how dumb I was to try it, yada yada and so on. I know, I know- please don't.

Anyway, after reloading about a thousand .223 rounds, I found that the brass didn't resize correctly and wouldn't chamber.
I have since corrected my problem with different dies.

When I first got the new dies, I thought I'd try full length re-size on loaded rounds. I lubed and very gently ran them thru the press. After about a dozen, I found they still weren't right, so I pulled all the rest apart and started from scratch. Problem solved, reloaded them and all work great.

Now the problem. I now have several rounds left that won't work. I want to decomission them and salvage what I can. I put them in my inertia bullet puller and went to work.

Turns out that when I resized the loaded ones I resized the neck deep into the bullet. I got a few out after a hundred smacks each on the concrete. The bullets have deep grooves compressed into them. They are so difficult to unload it is hell on my arm, the bullet puller and the concrete.

I actually thought about using a hacksaw to cut into the brass or even a drill, for about a nano second before I thought of what the heat might do.

I can't shoot them, I can't pull them apart. I don't want them around for an eternity.

Any Ideas on how to get the things apart? I guess I can go back to the inertia puller if I must, but each one is a buttload of work. I guess I get what I deserve. :banghead:

I was even thinking of taking them to the police station and saying that I found them in an alleyway or something, and let them destroy them however they see fit.

Lesson learned, won't be trying anything like that again. Thanks for any ideas you all might have.

LariatBob

 

[Jeffersnian'Eer]

Collet type puller. Unload and reassemble.

 

[Cypress]

I've used a copper tubing cutter to cut brass in half for inspection. Pretty fast and no heat.

 

[The Bushmaster]

Get one of the two or three types of bullet pullers, such as collet puller or inertia puller and pull the bullets and resize the cases and reload them...

 

[rcmodel]

It would seem the bullets are already ruined, so:

Put the round in the shell holder, run it up through the press, and grab the bullet with a pair of dyke's or channel-lock pliers.
Lower the ram, toss the bullet, and save the powder

The primers can be removed by running the cases back through the de-capping die.

I haven't had great success with collet pullers on .223.
Usually, the bullet ogive is all that is sticking out of the neck, and you can't get a grip on it with a collet puller.

As you have found, the bullets are too light to pull well with an inertia puller if they are heavily crimped.

rcmodel

 

[TEDDY]

unload

you can take a large plier and bend back and forth.or take a small hammer and tap the case around the bullet.also roll a bar on case neck.if its lead bullets you can resize to length of bullet.I dont like impact pullers but some cart you have to use it.I rather use hornadys lever puller.
oh aand use the powder for the grass or plants.

 

[454PB]

Pulling cast lead bullets presents some of the same problems. I use a set of "nippers", the kind of tool used in fencing repair. I run the loaded round up through the press die hole, grab the bullet with the nippers, then pull the press ram down. This ruins the bullet for reuse, but salvages everything else. The bullets are then remelted and recast.

 

[richejr]

I would take the die out of the press , put a bullet in the holder, run it up all the way, clamp a pair of vice grips to the bullet, then lower the ram. You will ruin the bullet, but save the case , powder, and primer. beats chucking the whole thing out, a collet type puller would be better, but vice grips work.

 

[JRadice45]

when you are in a bind you can try this. It will not however save your projectile, just the brass powder and primer.

Take an adjustable clamp type plier and clamp/lock down on the proj. really well. Insert the round through the top of your press and hook the rim on the shellholder. Lower the ram keeping the pliers on the top of press and your proj should be free.

I had to do this on 24 rounds of overloaded ammo.... PITA but quicker than the impact puller. The impact puller does not work very well with crimped ammo.....

 

[jim147]

Try seating the bullet deeper in the case and then try the kinetic puller again.
I've used that for stubborn bullets a few times.

 

[Lariatbob]

Thanks everyone for your ideas.
I thought this one made sense-

I've used a copper tubing cutter to cut brass in half for inspection. Pretty fast and no heat.

so I tried it first.
No need to go on. Works great.
Thanks, Cypress. Thanks again, THR members!!

 

[Bartkowski]

I've used a copper tubing cutter to cut brass in half for inspection. Pretty fast and no heat.

Glad this works for you. Whenever I tried it the taper of the case made it less than satisfactory. It just took to long to do.

 

[Claude Clay]

'hot bucket' at your club

 

[Sunray]

"...on the concrete..." As daft as it sounds, concrete isn't the best thing to bash a kinetic puller on. It's porous for one. A granite rock isn't.
"...resized the neck deep into the bullet..." Crimped too much, not resized. Reduce the crimp.

 

[orionengnr]

I use a foot-long chunk of 4x4 fence post to whack my inertia puller on.
Stand it on end and whack away. A loose grip on the inertia puller saves youe elbow and allows inertia to do it's job (the puller and the case rebound rapidly).

I like the idea of seating the bullet a bit deeper first to break the crimp a bit--saves the case.

The other suggestions to use vice grips, dykes, etc, to grab the bullet while using the leverage of the press in reverse also allow you to save case, primer, powder--only the bullet is lost. Great suggestions.

 

[rogn]

If you want to salvage all the components, use a heavy pair of automotive combination wire crimper/stripper. The jaws you want are taperred to one edge and the wire size is present int he jaw (8 gage hole). with no die in the press run the cartridge up into the hole until the bullet is exposed, grasp the bullet on the ogive with the largest hole in the stripper. taper down flat side up. It takes only a little presure to grasp the bullet, then raise the handle slowly and the bullets in the stripper. slowly lower the handle the rest of the way and dump powder out of the case. The bullet will have 4 small indents or cuts inthe ogive. these will not affect acurracy and probably wont affect function Of AR(havent mine for a few now and again). Takes a while to do this and a slow cautious approach is indicated. Saftey factor is very good. The cases will deprime safely if you operate through sizing die slowly. Have done this too many time to count, with no(0) incidents.I suppose the primers can be reused. You could remove deprimeing punch from sizing die and eliminate one more risk factor.Wouldnt have to reprime and bullets could recycle in same ammo, for practice shooting if concerned about cuts on ogives. rogn

 

[R.W.Dale]

I've found the best anvil to use a kinetic puller against is a steel plate although concrete works pretty good too. Woos flat out sucks, it's extra compressibility easily quadruples the number of blows required.

For that much ammo though I would collet pull the bullets, resize the empty primed cases <decap pin removed of course> and the reload.

Collet pullers are cheap BUY ONE

 

[sniper5]

Just put them all in a coffee can and get a propane torch and . . .

Just kidding! JUST KIDDING! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, I'M JUST KIDDING!

Kids don't do this at home!!!

Seriously, tho, I'd go with the collet puller and recycle.