300WM 'gunsmith' loads

brasscollector

New member
Recently acquired about 25 loaded 300WM rounds from a co-worker whose father is downsizing his collection. I was told the other 25 or so rounds were fired from his fathers rifle and the remaining rounds might be 15+yrs old. Unsure on the origin of the ammo I figured I would disassemble the rounds and re-use the cases/bullets separately. The first and only bullet I've pulled came out normally, the bullet that is, the powder is a different story. I eventually got over 50% of the powder out come out but what is left is firmly stuck to the inside of the case. Not sure how to safely proceed other than to just shoot the remaining loaded rounds. They've been stored in a bedroom closet in a climate-controlled house. The powder does not look or smell weird. Should I shoot them? If they aren't safe to shoot then what? I certainly do not want 25 loaded rounds, unsafe to shoot or disassemble, laying around gathering dust.
 
I would not shoot an unknown load with powder gluing itself to the brass.

I would scrape the stuck powder out with something nonferrous like a brass rod or bamboo skewer.
 
If you don't care about the primers which I wouldn't considering what you have said, remove bullets, wash them out with hot water and decap them.
 
CAUTION: The following post includes procedural information beyond or not covered by currently published handloading technique. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Neither the writer, The Firing Line, nor the staff of TFL assume any liability for any damage or injury resulting from use of this information.


May be just stuck from compressed load packing, but I've also pulled down old surplus with grains stuck together because it was a double-base powder whose nitrocellulose had started to break down and the oily nitroglycerine had come out and jammed it up. Such powder may or may not have deteriorated deterrent coatings, too. If so, then the burn rate can be higher than it originally was, also posing a danger.

The fact it was stored properly is not a guarantee it is good. There have been several instances of powder recalled by its manufacturer because it began to deteriorate prematurely. In particular, one lot of IMR4350, a powder sometimes used in your chambering, and a lot of IMR4007 (though that was too recent to be of likely concern in 15 year old loads). The problematic 4350 lot, though, was in the early 2000's, IIRC, which is right in your time frame.

In your shoes, I would not try to fire the loads. Old powder makes good lawn fertilizer, though, so I would figure out how to remove it. For myself, I would probably wrap a strip of rubber around each case to allow me to grasp it with pliers. Wearing appropriate eye, ear, and hand protection, I would then submerge it in a bucket of water, holding on with the pliers, and use a 1/4 inch by 1 foot long electrician's drill bit (these were available at Lowe's last time I looked) on a variable speed hand drill to carefully drill the powder loose down close to the flash hole. This should remove enough of the bind for a dental pick, O-ring pick, or even bent coat hanger wire to remove the rest. Should inadvertent ignition occur, the water offers considerable protection, but I would have a full face shield on anyway.

Primers can be hard to kill. They may or may not survive the submersion. But if you want to reload the brass with your favorite load and you don't know which primer he used, I would consider knocking them out with a Lee manual decapper, also under water, or else decap on a press very slowly. Again, wear appropriate protection doing that.

If that is all too much trouble relative to the value of the cases to you, I would pull the rest of the bullets to reuse, but ask the local fire department to dispose of the primers, cases and powder, and buy new cases with some of the potential savings in medical bills from not having fired them.
 
25 rounds? I would pull the bullets, scrape the big chunks of powder out, and let the cases sit in oil about a week. Then throw them out. I used to be a range picker too. I just got tired of trying to clean junk cases. I probably throw out 2 cases per order of 100 after inspecting.
 
I did get them pulled down to bare cases. Gently poked the powder out with a dowel and pressed the primers out carefully using my decapping press and some welding gloves I had from the garage (using eye protection of course). Some of the powder created a green corrosion on the bases of the bullets but I cannot see anything that aggressive inside the cases. I will tumble them now they're inert and see if I can see any pitting inside. There were 4 brass cases that the powder all fell out of as soon as I turned them upside-down. A quick glance inside revealed the nice shiny walls of what appear to be unfired brass. Also had 3 nickel cases that emptied out the same although I have no plans to use the nickel. I'm not quite cheap enough to pry the shoes off a dead horse but good brass is good brass ;).
 
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