Reusing bullets from old round

eddie

Well-Known Member
I have approx 80 308-7.62x51 winchester match fmj from lapua,180 grain. I bought them from my local rfd approx 18 months ago. They look quite old judging by the packaging. When cleaning brass after firing i noticed a small split on the body approx 4mm up from the head of brass. Bit of a shame because they performed reasonably well in my gun. Can i reuse the bullets if i strip them out, they are quite old. Are there any issues in reusing the bullets. They are the d46 bullet, which means very little to me due to lack of experience. What has caused the small split in the body? Thanks.
 
That brass IS probably pretty old. Even in stored - unused brass - a sort of workhardening takes place, which might be blamed on excessive hardening and not enough annealing at the case mouth so splits can occurr. I found it once in a very old batch of H&H 300 mag Remington cartridges.
Be sure to examine the unfired cartridges for splits, but as they are now suspect - I'd ditch or dismantle the lot and re-use the bullets if you feel the need.
A can of used sump oil is excellent for immobilising the primers in the emptied and unfired cases. Just dump them in.

Cheap and cheerful - the Kinetic bullet puller by RCBS is an easy tool to use. It now has a nylon shank owing to my interfering as the original alloy ones continually snapped.
If you can find any, cut or punch some tight fitting circular wads from high density foam kipmats and stuff a couple of them in the bottom of the puller well. This ensures no bullet nose damage when they flip out of the case.
Any fine foam stuffed in will do at a pinch.

Good luck.
 
Finn - can you humour me please ? How does the Camlock work ? I know that there are various pullers about but never researched them. Is there a website whereI can see one ?
 
Have a quick look on Midway UK , Hornady etc, essentially a die body with a calibre specific collet wich grips the bullet(not the head:D), on bringing down the cam lock lever , you then withdraw the bullet by moving the press lever back, (loading the bullet in reverse), no marks, no deformation, no loud banging of hammers, no swearing , etc.:D around £20.00 ish. Steve.
 
Allow me...

puller 001 (Large).JPG


  • Pull black lever back, loaded round goes up
  • Red lever down, collet locks around bullet
  • Push black lever forward, case comes down minus the bullet

:D
 
A useful tip is to seat the bullets a tad deeper before pulling them. Laquered or just oxidized bullets will pull easier if you break them free first.~Muir
 
Thanks Steve. Also thanks for the comments on bats. I find life a lot more fun if I have a sense of the ridiculous and don't take myself too seriously - despite my somewhat long-winded dissertations.
 
Thanks Admin. :D Much obliged. I confess to wincing a bit at the racket I have had to make - AND the thought of the primer sitting in there above a load of powder.

The alloy collets which seat into the extractor groove tend to rip away after a bit of sustained battering as well.

Maybe I'll treat myself - although I don't busy myself at reloading so much as I used-to now that I'm retired.
 
Thanks Muir - that makes a lot of sense. I don't get much opportunity to browse my way through game fairs etc. in order to see how things actually look and feel as I'm in a fairly isolated area and it's a bit of a task to travel - an hour up and down from sea level to 2,500 feet on single track roads before the journey across the country to 'civilisation' even begins.
Then an hour at a fair and I wonder why I went in the first place.
No place to sit in peace, and little peace to look at anything without being jostled. The hay hanging down from under my hat gets untidy !
 
I would hazard a guess that the brass that has split would be due to de-zinctification. This is where the small amount of zinc in the brass is lost to the atmosphere due to the effects of the gases around us in air, the brass takes on a slightly pink hue when snapped or cut. This is a common problem when removing plumbing fittings...ie brass taps, gate valves etc and was a bain when I was plumbing years ago, it does take that long for the effects to make the brass soft and crumble when grips are applied....seen it in brass only 20 years old.
If it is the above there is no cure.

Cheers

Pete
 
Pete, I've seen that pink effect in some old ammo where cracks have appeared in the brass.

Then again - not in different ammo of roughly the same vintage. I wonder if the packaging - sealing in greaseproof paper - might be involved in protecting the unaffected cartridges in some way, or if in other instances the makeup of the bullet jacket alloy has some reactive element to zinc ?
 
Hi Eco

I cant really comment on that as I only have a basic knowledge as such. What I do know is lots of metels varey hugely in quality. I recall when I was plumbing, copper pipe for instance was a lot thicker walled and softer... so better quality...but these days its dire stuff , thin walled and hard as nails so splits when bent with a spring ..unless annealed. I have no doubt that the same applies to brass cases...I bought some Lake City and had to anneal the necks of them all due to cracks showing in the necks.

Pete
 
I suppose the only appraoch should be ...if in doubt bin any defective brass...infact anything that causes concern and your not sure of its history..ie primers,bullet heads and powders etc........it just isnt worth the risk.
 
Yes Pete - like trying to tighten a union onto a modern water cylinder :evil: Like tissue paper !
 
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