Shooting someone else's reloads

Status
Not open for further replies.
My youngest brother once bought a used S&W bodyguard that came with a bunch of reloaded 380. Pistol wouldn't cycle that ammo for crap. I don't know if it was gun or ammo, but when he tried to sell me the gun, it was the ammo. Later tried to sell me the ammo and blamed the gun. Lol.

I only shoot mine BTW.
 
barnfrog said:
I know how we all technically SHOULD answer this question. I'm wondering how folks WOULD answer it.

As some of you know from the "Yard Sale Finds" thread, I just had the opportunity to buy a heap of stuff from an estate sale my brother in law is handling. Among the items are 1200 rounds of reloaded .357 ammunition. I obviously don't know the person who reloaded it. But he reloaded at least eight different calibers from what I can see, and he used a Dillon press to do it. Neither of those facts are definitive, but they SUGGEST that he was experienced.

Would you buy and shoot that ammo? I don't shoot .357, so I have no reason to buy it, but I have two friends who are interested in it. My advice to them is that while it's very tempting to get that much ammo for what will probably be around $0.30 a round, it's a pretty risky proposition.
Click to expand...
Not just no but hell no!
 
The list of people who's reloads I'll shoot is short and gets shorter as the years pass.

Just like driving, reloading safely is a skill that can fade with time, age and memory loss.

I would no longer trust reloads made by my main handloading mentor, a man who's forgotten more about the art than most of us will ever know.
 
I’d talk to the family and see how experienced he was, ask if his load data is available, and pull a few to see if it looked right. If they were jacketed bullets I’d offer $50 for the lot and pull them all, save the powder for bonfire night, and reload with a known powder. Cast bullets being harder to pull down I’d probably offer less. I’d explain to them why they shouldn’t try to sell them as viable live ammo and only as components and the amount of work involved in pulling them apart and the liability involved. See what else there may be and make an offer on it all. Not trying to screw anyone, but if the average shooter bought them they could be in real trouble. I’d get them at least for the components I could use and most likely not even shoot them in the GP-100 unless I pulled quite a few and the powder charge was extremely close and not s very hot or mild load.
 
Nope...

Was at a gun show a couple of years before Covid invaded us.

Saw many boxes of reloaded .44 Rem Mag for sale at a table.

Asked the kid, (well, lots of people start to look like kids when one gets older) if he had a license to reload?
No, he said, just selling these for the components....

OoohKay...

That is the route I would take,,, (just saying) ;)
 
Years ago, wkile working in Kurta Quality, a friend at work asked me to look at some .357 rounds that another "friend" gave him. Said he had to use a screwdriver to punch cases out of the cylinder. He had all the info: bullet wt, powder type, primer.....

I deconstructed the rounds, checked the load manual for the powder type, and reloaded rounds for him to nice middle weight loads. I also gave him back a plastic sandwich bag with the xtra powder I had removed from the overloads.

He shot my loads in his long bbl S&W with no problem. Now...I would have deconstructed to the components and offered to show him how to reload on my single stage.
 
Mark_Mark said:
some of the best food I ate was at a Gas Station!

Kansas City, Joe’s BBQ and Gas
Click to expand...

I used to be a traveling tech for a company, and one of the few perks besides the paychecks was finding unassuming looking little "hole-in-the-wall" places to eat. Our lead sales guy often times went with me for the first couple days and it didn't seem to matter where in the US we went, he always knew of the best places. I do miss that part
 
I have advised my two friends that it is highly inadvisable to shoot the rounds in question without a knowledgeable person checking them out first, if they shoot them at all. Having started reloading less than a year ago, I have also advised them I am not the guy who should be checking the ammo out for them. One of them still seems interested in buying them. I guess I can't stop him from doing so, but if something goes catastrophically wrong I'll feel bad that I even made him aware of the opportunity.
 
bluejay75 said:
Slow powder has much less of a chance to blow you up than something like Bullseye, 231, Titegroup etc. Just saying.
Click to expand...

It, of course, depends. I would be less likely to shoot a maxed out charge of TiteGroup, vs a mid-range charge, for example. There are hundreds of variations on any example. I've pulled cartridges that I've loaded... after looking at what I loaded, scratched my head, and wondered why on earth I did that.
 
I'd come closer to shooting some THR members reloads than some yardsale reloads. Guess it depends on the situation and the person. If I met the person and they seemed intelligent and not full of sheep dip, that helps. If we were at the range and they were shooting their loads and had data on the box that I could tell was reasonable, then I'd likely shoot some. Given that the report was consistent and everything seemed right of course.
 
I have been gifted reloads a few times. 8x57, 357 mag., 9x19, and 380s. I have picked up factory ammo with light primer strikes, along with 22 lr left on the ground. I consider it all to be of the same. I don't know the origins and don't feel like it's worth the risk to shoot.
They all get broken down and the primed cases get thrown into a ziplock bag for some future hairbrain idea.
 
Did the Dillon have a powder check, cop etc? Did the collection indicate a meticulous personality? If not, value should be brass and bullet component value minus time cost minus opportunity cost (very little if not negative).
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

S
  • Locked
Buy or Reload?
2 3
Replies
57
Views
3K
RustyFN
R
R
  • Locked
Is reloading really worth it
2 3 4 5 6 7
Replies
157
Views
6K
Larry Ashcraft
Larry Ashcraft
M
  • Locked
  • Poll
Should I Pay Someone To Reload For Me?
2 3
Replies
53
Views
3K
SharpsDressedMan
S
C
  • Locked
Reloading question.
Replies
8
Views
777
Paul "Fitz" Jones
P
Tallball
  • Locked
Save Money Reloading Handgun Ammo?
2 3
Replies
52
Views
3K
Dudedog
Dudedog
Back
Top