Unfired

[PECKER]

I'm sure a lot of you spend copious amounts of time on the range testing new loads , new guns or just shooting your favorite piece and sooner or later your gonna be looking for spent cases or retrieving something you dropped, and low an behold a unfired round laying on the ground. Question is, do you pick it up chamber and fire it, or do you leave it for the next guy to find, or do you pick it up just because you found it. Myself, I pick it up and take it home but don't fire it just keep it. Maybe in my suspicious mind the guy that left it is a jerk and thinks it'd be funny to load up a round to a dangerous pressure and leave it for a unsuspecting shooter to find . Question is , what do you do?

 

[Bear Paw Jack]

Pick it up and put it in the trash.

 

[RugerHound]

I pick 'em up and tug the slug out of the casing

 

[loaded round]

Drop it in the dud box at my range for safe disposal.

 

[ArmedinAZ]

I pick them up and don't shoot them but don't think that poorly of my fellow man either. :?

 

[SamV]

I drop them in the ammo can at the range. I don't use any ammo that I didn't bring.

 

[Pat-inCO]

I pick 'em up and tug the slug out of the casing

The definitive answer!

 

[contender]

I pull apart a lot of dropped loaded rounds. I get many from cleaning up after a USPSA match. I re-use the brass, & have a pretty good bucket of pulled bullets.

 

[gramps]

I am odd man out. If it is factory ammo or rimfire I shoot it. Otherwise pull the slug and reuse components with my powder.
gramps

 

[wizofwas]

I pick them up, pull the bullet, reuse the brass and if there's any lead in the bullet, melt that and recycle it also.

 

[toysoldier]

It seems like I'm finding a lot more .22 duds left on the ground. Anyone else seeing this?

 

[J Miller]

I am odd man out. If it is factory ammo or rimfire I shoot it. Otherwise pull the slug and reuse components with my powder.
gramps

gramps posted what I was going to post. I see nothing wrong with shooting free factory ammo. Someone's reloads .... ummm, no. Those go home and get pulled down for the components.

Joe

 

[Kevin]

I guess about the only unfired rounds i see are .22's and then not very many. I have yet to find a .45 or .357. Or any other calibers. I certainly wouldn't shoot it.

And yes, urban myth or not. I too have heard stories of people loading up extremely unsafe rounds and leaving them to be found. Like bus stops in the bad part of town.

 

[Jimbo357mag]

I asked the range officer and he said to just toss them in the used brass bucket to be sorted later. Where I shoot hardly anybody reloads so there is often a lot of brass and steel cases in the buckets and I guess a few live rounds.

 

[Zorba]

Throw it downrange as hard as possible and see if it goes off?

No, seriously, if its a perfectly fine looking factory load in a caliber I have, I'll shoot it.

 

[opos]

Only found a few over the years and they went in the "black box" at the range...I don't shoot anything that isn't factory or my reloads..ever. I don't mess with anything "left behind" at all. Too many weirdo's around that like to create havoc.

 

[Bob Wright]

I usually bring them home and add them to my cartridge collection. If I deem them n on-collectible, then drop it in the brass bins.

Bob Wright

 

[toysoldier]

Where I shoot hardly anybody reloads so there is often a lot of brass and steel cases in the buckets and I guess a few live rounds.

For the past couple of years, pickings have been slim for a brass scrounger like me. Lots of .22, aluminum, and steel, but I rarely come home with more than a handfull of assorted cases.

 

[bobski]

and the guy who empties the range box does the same thing you should do.....pop the projectile and pour out the powder on your garden. oil the primer and make some money on brass salvage.

 

[Rick Courtright]

Hi,

Unless I dropped it myself, I don't shoot any live round picked up off the ground. They go home to be disassembled and components are reused/recycled/disposed of best as possible.

My old gunsmith boss had a couple of horror stories about factory "pick ups" that got shot after sitting in the sun for unknown amounts of time. I've got the kind of luck that might add to his stories, so erring on the side of caution hasn't hurt me yet.

Rick C

 

[deac45]

I toss them in the bucket at the range. If it's factory, no telling how long it's been there. If it's a reload, pulling it apart for the brass isn't worth it. No way to know how many times its been reloaded or what primer is in it. Even oiled up I'm cautious about punching out live primers.

Deac45