OK so what you do with ammo you're scared to shoot again?

[Tallbald]

Never had thought of posting this. Brain fart I guess, as life at the time was very hard and complicated. Buddy of mine at the time had some factory loaded .357 ammunition from a country south of our blessed USA. He bought it maybe 10 years ago at a gun show. It's handsome ammo, being brass cased and JHP configuration. The first time he fired it in my beautiful SP101, the cylinder locked up. What the heck?? Took a little heel-of-the-hand pounding on the cylinder to open my gun up, and examination showed a flattened primer that had actually extruded a little into the firing pin hole!! I told him I thought something was wrong wrong wrong and advised him to return the remainder of the ammo to the seller, but he said that wasn't an option because he had had it for years and didn't even think he could locate the seller again. I said that in that case I'd use a kinetic bullet puller and disassemble the ammo, fire the primed cases and salvage what could be salvaged of the components once they were checked for being in SAMMI specs. I told him to NOT shoot the rest of the ammo and make sure nobody else did either.
Could it have been trouble with my beautiful SP? My SP has NEVER let me down with any ammunition, but this one scared me a tad. I looked my SP over well with a jewelers loupe for any sign of damage and found none, and still have faith in my little revolver, carrying it daily. Glad it was a Ruger.
What else could have been done at the time. Anyone else ever experience this firsthand? How did you handle the situation? Don

 

[buckeyeshooter]

can break it down to componets with a bullet puller, then load with a safe powder charge.

 

[DGW1949]

Sounds to me like you did exactly what I'da done.....as-in, stop shooting immeadiately, inspect the gun, and put the rest of the ammo away untill it could be disassembled. Better safe than sorry, that's what I say.

That, and maybe send a thank you note to the CEO at Ruger.

DGW

 

[5of7]

Before I broke it down or discarded it, I would shoot a few rounds in a GP100 or another larger frame gun to see if it presented problems there.

It just might be such a thing as soft primers and a somewhat oversized firing pin hole. 8)

 

[k22fan]

Unless you're buying from one of the few table holders who has a well established business gun shows are a “buyers beware” market. I’d bet a nickel those .357 cartridges were not assembled by one of the large ammunition manufacturers. While the cartridge that was fired could possibly have extruded an unusually soft primer with normal pressure, I’ve been reloading since 1973 and never had that happen. “If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck ….” From a reloader’s perspective one box of cartridges does not have a lot of value. Pull them.

 

[Rodfac]

If I didn't do the handloading, I don't fire it...family, friends, people I'd otherwise trust my life to, I still don't use their handloads, ever. In your case, I'd break them down for the brass and bullets, but not the powder or primers. As to trying them in another gun, not in a million years. Rod

 

[wwb]

Before I broke it down or discarded it, I would shoot a few rounds in a GP100 or another larger frame gun to see if it presented problems there.

It just might be such a thing as soft primers and a somewhat oversized firing pin hole. 8)

If I was going to fire it in another gun (which I wouldn't.... I'd pull the bullets, burn the powder, and deprime the cases) it would be a Contender.... the chamber is a whole bunch stronger than a GP cylinder, and there's no barrel/cylinder gap.

 

[gmartinnc]

Thats why they make bullet pullers.

 

[dougader]

Same thing happened to me. I pulled them all, which was a total pain in the asterisk.

 

[Chuck 100 yd]

Pull the bullets. Powder makes good fertilizer. Spread it on the lawn.
Punch out those primers and discard (wear a face shield), save the brass. The bullets are your call,I don`t save them, I cast. .357 brass is hard to come by at this time. I was looking just the other day and found some through a friend but none to be had otherwise.

 

[gramps]

Yep pull the bullets, reload with appropriate powder(plinker level), and reset the bullets. I see no need to trash anything, but the powder.
gramps

 

[Hondo44]

Personally I'd still be curious as to what was going on. I'd pull them all eventually but 1st I'd pull one, keep the primer in it, load it with my stiff but safe load and shoot it in my strongest 357 gun to test the primer. If it flows again into the firing pin hole, then I'd be pretty darn sure it was a case of soft primers , pull all the rest and de-prime them before reloading them.

If the primer was satisfactory after shooting it, I'd pull 6 more and reload them and shoot them. If still OK, I'd reload all of them using the original primers.

 

[Jimbo357mag]

Sell it as 357mag+P to some of those people that think you can't make the 357mag too hot. I won't name names.


..ok I'm kidding. :mrgreen:

 

[JmE]

I was thinking pretty much what Hondo44 wrote. If the primers test okay then I wouldn't waste them.

 

[Mohillbilly]

I'd try one in my Desert Eagle , and inspect .

 

[montegomx70]

just throw it out.

 

[Joe S.]

I have a 50 cal ammo can of a guy's reloads i use for components. I don't shoot 357 much so I've sold (for salvage brass price) to my 357 shootin buddies with strict "use as is at your own risk" advice. They break em down. Ive pulled probably 20-30 bullets and all have been consistent. I have fired a few in my Vaquero but did so nervously.