Would you buy some one else's reloads?

[Ala Dan]

AGREED~!

I must know the person that handloaded the ammo, his or her persistence
in paying attention to detail, and study the manuals on his/her loading data.
I use to handload for a lot of handgun calibers for various persons myself,
and I would certainly want them to scrutinize MY work; as even under the
best circumstances accidents can (and do) happen~!

 

[plexreticle]

I wouldn't shoot that ammo even if you paid me.

 

[PrimaryB]

Absolutely not. Even from a friend. Good way to ruin a friendship. Now if I asked him if he would reload some for me that's a different story. I haven't won the lottery yet but you just never know. Same w/reloading mistakes. Mistakes are unintentional acts. Being compensated for those acts are completely different.

PrimaryB

 

[mustanger98]

...had a hard time cranking open the bolt.

Sounds to me like they were loaded to too high a pressure. Kinda reminds me of a guy around here who likes to load his .22-250 (fox/coyote) to run 1000fps faster than it should. All it's gonna do is burn the barrel out faster. A guy who knows him saw I was reloading too... he asked me how did I like loading stuff hotter. I told him actually I liked toning it down some. You can imagine their surprise.

 

[Roadkill]

Nope. I reload all my ammo. Too many variables. If I shoot my own I know its my body parts at risk.

 

[byf43]

I bought someone else's reloads, once.

A local guy that loaded 9mm ammo that several sheriff's deputies used for practice offered 2,000 rounds to me and a deputy.
The deputy verified that the ammo is safe and accurate.

He and I shared the 2,000 rounds.

I have been offered a box of 12 ga trap loads by a fellow club member.
I'm now hooked on this load.

Now. . . I won't buy anyone's ammo except factory, or my own reloads.

I'm not as trusting in my old age.

 

[MikeFF]

Never !!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[lee n. field]

I told him actually I liked toning it down some. You can imagine their surprise.

Ditto. I've got no desire at all to load things hot. I usually end up somewhere in the low to middle part of a published range for a given bullet and powder.

 

[M2 Carbine]

It just depends.

Truth is, over the years I've had more problems with factory ammo than handloads.

Just recently the first round from a box of .380 MagTech +P JHP "defense" ammo was a squib load. The bullet made it out of the barrel but just barely. Good thing I wasn't counting on that round to save my life.

 

[NailGun]

No.

 

[Radagast]

Would you pick a round out of the grass at the range and shoot it? This is equivalent.

I do occasionally purchase reloads, from a friend, who is a trained machinist, who I can watch while he does my loads to my recipe. 95% of my shooting is with factory ammo. I've seen a 270 remington blown up with shotgun powder, a couple of Glocks that have kaboomed, a couple of Sigs that bulged barrels, etc.

I once asked my gunsmith for some cheap ADI milsurp ammuntion, the soft point rounds he gave me were loose in an ice cream container. The first one I fired jumped my old .308 israeli mauser off my shoulder and knocked my ear muffs off. I stopped shooting. Turns out the ammo was from ADI, it was a special load for use in M14s shooting out of choppers for one shot kills on asian water buffalo in a government culling program. Not for commercial sale and not for use in rebuilt world war II rifles. I count myself lucky. I now prefer to get my ammo in unopened packets.

Shooting involves minimising risk.Things such as always be aware of your backstop, wearing glasses and hearing protection, etc, are something we take for granted. Not shooting unknown ammunition is another thing to add to the list.

 

[fatelk]

I'll add my two cents worth, though it is pretty much the same as the others here. Reloading is inherently dangerous if you don't know exactly what you are doing, and are meticulously careful. The wrong powder, wrong charge, or a double charge can ruin your day, to put it mildly. I've had my share of close calls and I am very careful.

That being said, if unknown reloaded ammo is cheap enough and I can use the components, I will buy it. Powder of course gets used for fertilizer.

 

[thebaldguy]

Years ago, I found an interesting round in a box of "remanufactured" .357 Mag ammo. When I picked it up out of the box, I felt a bulge around the base of the case with my fingertips. Sure enough, the case was badly bulged at the base. I took it back to the gunshop and they just shrugged. I got a box of .38 Special JHP reloads I got at a gun show years ago. I've already inspected the rounds, but I think I'll have to use them in a beefy .357 for peace of mind.

 

[gezzer]

Commercial reloads no problem, individuals reloads NO!

 

[mustanger98]

What I've already said about reloads I still say, BUT, get a load of this... ya'll ever shoot that HMS orange box stuff Cabela's sells? I got some in .30-30 and .30-06, 100rds of each, several years ago. The .30-30 stuff was good though a bit hotter than a CoreLokt and that's comparing 150gr loadings. The .30-06 stuff, OTOH, was bad... hard primers that acted like light strikes and caused at least one missed deer. Also, initially, the bullets were seated so long they stuck in the rifling and dumped the powder charge on extraction of an unfired round... those had to be re-seated to a useable length. I haven't bought any since and won't fool with HMS orange box any more.

 

[answerguy]

A friend of mine bought a few hundred rounds of reloaded shotshells, I think 28ga. Got misfires on a few of them, and then one of them kaboomed and blew the gun in half. He was lucky he didn't lose any body parts.

I'm having a hard time accepting that. What could you do to a shotgun shell to make it blow up a shotgun?

 

[JCF]

Some unknown person's handloads? Not commercial?

Ummm... no. Not in this lifetime.

 

[Hokkmike]

I pretty much get the picture. Gonna dump the stuff.

 

[Harry Paget Flashman]

Bad idea to shoot an unknown's reloads. I reloaded several hundred .38's up to near .357 specs and had them stolen from my car in November 1974 in Oakland, California. I always hoped no one but the perp ever shot them. Probably wasn't the case though.

 

[ABTOMAT]

I'm having a hard time accepting that. What could you do to a shotgun shell to make it blow up a shotgun?

Beats me, reloading's not my thing. He showed me a nasty scar going up the side of his arm from a fragment of the forend that impaled him.

 

[Robert Hairless]

Only on days when I get the discount price on two-month-old milk, pick up fresh roadkill along the Interstate, get the vegetables out of the dumpsters behind the restaurants, and drain what's left of the soft drinks in the bent cans that people leave in the men's room. We call them "party days." Good eats, good drinks, good shooting. Nothing like it.

 

[USSR]

Sure. I bought hundreds of rounds of reloaded .308 in LC Match brass. I promptly broke the ammo down, sold some of the components, and re-reloaded the rest.

Don

 

[qajaq59]

Time for a little math.

Let me see now.

I can save maybe $4 on that ammo. But the surgeon may charge $600 a minute and he'll need what? Roughly 2 hours to patch me up? ($600 x 120) - $4 = ?????

Nahhhh, I'll pass on that ammo.

 

[trubluedog]

There are exactly two people on earth besides myself I would trust their handloads, and neither one of those charge me for the loads.

 

[DesertShooter]

50 years ago, I was 10 years old and my dad started teaching me how to reload. One of the MANY rules that he gave me was "Never shoot anyone elses reloaded ammo, and don't hand your reloads over to anyone else!"

I've stuck by that rule for 50 years, and haven't had any problems. In your post, you'd get ammo from a total stranger...and, so what if that stranger pasted some sort of loading data on the box!

What if it went "KA-BOOM"? Oh, you would be quite upset! Who would you sue? Heck, if I were you, I'd even say something to that gun store about selling "questionable" reloaded ammo! THEY could probably fall victim to a shrewd lawyer for having sold it!

Reloaders that sell their ammo are covered by liability insurance. You, as "Joe Average", would probably never even think of getting liability insurance before handing over some of your reloaded ammo to a "friend"! Well, "friends" quite often become "enemies", and if your reloaded ammo is faulty, you might end up in the "homeless" category after paying for medical bills, loss of work revenue and "punitive" damages!