Question about disposal of cartridges

V

Venom1956

New member
Hey guys,

I am curious what do you do with rounds you don't shoot or fail to go off? I my range has a mud issue so when rounds fall into it during shooting I just toss them in a gallon ziplock and if it's a dud or anything I toss it in there as well. I try and police brass and such also but I've noticed these rounds I've brought back kinda laying everywhere. Bags, boxes, safes, Jean pockets in dryers:o I usually clean them off but I'm not entirely sure what to do with them I mean I suppose they are still live I can't just toss them in the garage and I doubt I'll fire them again due to possible issues or unneeded wear on my guns in the form of potental dirt or sand. I got a ice cream bucket from work I'm going to start filling with them but I was just curious what u guys do?
 
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Not a big deal.
Take them apart and use the components if you reload.
If you don't, just throw away the pieces.
If having a live primer in the trash is a concern, ignite it with a pick and hammer, while wearing protective gear of course.
 
The number of pice's of rrifle brass that had hit the ground on me in the last 30 or so years I can count on the finger's of one hand. If I have a failure to fire, I've always re-cocked the rifle and fired one more time, seldom have one go off the second time so those go home with my and taken apart. I save the bullet and the case, soak primer in oil and throw away the powder.
 
If I'm breaking down duds, the powder goes in the garden, the brass and bullet get reused. If it is a shotgun round where the hull is messed up, I save and reuse the primer, powder, wad and shot, and get rid of the hull.
 
I break down 'duds', dummies, and other crap that I find lying around (or used myself). Decap or pop the primers. Recycle or melt down the bullets. Reload or recycle the case. And collect the powder for a controlled burn. (Dumping powder 'in the garden' is illegal dumping of Hazmat and harms aquatic species.)

But, on the rare occasion that I do have something I see as essentially useless to me, I throw it in the garbage at the range.
They have a "live round" collection barrel. Anywhere else, that's all I would need to know. How they take care of it wouldn't matter to me.

But, at this range, I know the stuff gets broken down. Scroungers clean out the barrel and dumpster every Friday, just before the garbage truck comes for the weekly pickup. Those scroungers take everything that's recyclable (even staples and steel cases, when the market is up).
 
OUtdoor range where I was a member and sometimes worked, a 55-gallon
drum was kept handy and bad cartridges were tossed in with other trash and burned. Most you'd ever hear was a popping sound. Of course, you didn't
put your face over the open end of the barrel lest a primer come flying up.

Under those circumstances, when a round cooks off the bullet simply plops, flops or is knocked loose of the casing and sometimes the primer might
back out with a bit of force.

Talking about smokeless powder charges; don't know the results of black powder but I suspect it is the same.
 
I crush duds - center fire rounds that refuse to go off after three or more tries - with a pair of pliers, just enough so they can't chamber.

Then I stick them in a box both centerfire and rimfireI have on the ammo shelf with the reloading stuff.

IIRC, there's maybe a dozen rounds in that box - which is the culmination of nearly 40 years of shooting & reloading.

.22 rimfire duds, I just pry the bullet out and toss the case in a pail of water.

I think you're being way overly concerned with what really shouldn't be a problem.

Dumping powder 'in the garden' is illegal dumping of Hazmat and harms aquatic species.)
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Shouldn't be. Smokeless is nothing more than Nitrogen based fertilizer.

I know primers are Hazmat, but, I thought powder (smokeless) was merely a propellant & not considered Hazmat.

'course, local restrictions can be all over the place - depending on how ignorant the ones making them up are.
 
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Oil will make a primer inert. Just put some oil in the case and stand it up so the primer gets soaked. (Of course, you must remove the bullet and powder first. )
 
Smokeless is nothing more than Nitrogen based fertilizer.
Click to expand...

Smokeless powder is mostly nitrocellulose whose near relation, celluloid, was an early plastic used in many products. For the 13% nitrogen in NC to be available to plants, it would have to break down into soluble nitrates. I don't know if there are soil microbes that will do that, I was on the engineering side, not agronomy.
 
Pull the bullet, save it if you reload, or give it away or throw it away.
You can do this in a couple of ways, the easiest if you're not intent on saving the bullet then a pair of pliers will do the trick just fine.

powder burn it, it just goes poof outside of a barrel.

smash primer -> trash.
 
Mud can be cleaned off with no fuss. Nothing's going to happen in a dryer either. Real duds that are cf, pull the bullets, try the primer again some place safe and deprime 'em. Even if they don't go bang live primers can safely be deprimed on your press.
"...Oil will make a primer inert..." Maybe. Maybe not. Nothing is 100% reliable except a firing pin.
"...Dumping powder 'in the garden' is illegal..." Where? Smokeless powder isn't hazardous. As mentioned, it's primarily nitrogen just like most fertilizers.
 
"...Dumping powder 'in the garden' is illegal..." Where? Smokeless powder isn't hazardous. As mentioned, it's primarily nitrogen just like most fertilizers.
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Where: In the United States.

"Primarily nitrogen" is not the same as "all nitrogen".
There are additives in smokeless powder, dinitrotoluene being a popular one, which are harmful to humans, and even more harmful to aquatic species.
And, of course, double-based powders with nitroglycerin have added concern.
Both of the above are listed as toxic substances by the EPA and are high concern pollutants for aquatic ecosystems.

If you want to see the classifications yourself, pull up an MSDS for a few different smokeless powders.
Then look up the ingredients in the various EPA databases.

The only legal methods for disposal of smokeless powder are:
1. Recycling. (:rolleyes:)
2. Controlled burn.
 
Venom, there have been some reasonable suggestions from members here. FWIW, our local PD routinely accepts ammo people don't want for whatever reason. Perhaps your local jurisdiction does too?
 
If you want to see the classifications yourself, pull up an MSDS for a few different smokeless powders.
Then look up the ingredients in the various EPA databases.
Click to expand...

That's a start. But it leaves out more than a few things. Like what the legal limits are. and how to calculate a PPM (parts per million number) in to an actual amount. And how, even though the material contains toxic chemicals, the few milligrams (or less) in a the small amount of powder from a few rounds may not even come close to the legally allowable amount. Or it may, I don't know, there are variables involved, and calculations that must be made before one can say "its against the law". EVERY toxic material has standards about how much can be where. There is a legal amount of mercury ALLOWED in your drinking water (for example). It's a tiny amount, one deemed not harmful, but it is there, an allowed amount.

If you look deep enough, you'll probably find carbon somewhere in the chemical formula too. You know, that dreaded, evil carbon that makes CO2 and causes global warming!! The same carbon we are made of, and breath out, the evil carbon that plants live on, the basic building block of life on earth...

Table salt (NaCl) would be a listed hazardous material under our current system, due to its components. But it isn't a listed hazardous material, because it's covered under the "food item" exemption.

Our environmental laws and regulations began with the best of intentions.
one can look up and see many other things that began with the best of intentions...few of them have turned out well...
 
I have a reloading friend who has a rather unorthodox way of disposal. Well too do he is. And doesn't bother with pulling bullets as he considers it a menial task. {said in a political correctness way}. He just walks to the end his boat dock and pitches em. As told "the fish won't eat em nor will the ducks & geese so where's the harm."

As for me. I'm a little more frugal than my old Pal. I strip everything for its latter use.

Had too. In my earlier reloading years trimmed or cut {split or cracked mouth} 06 brass down so to fire in my Colt National Match 1911. {N/M models are pre-Gold Cup} Times were tough in those days. As a home reloader's had to make due with what was available.
Quite unlike today's Home Reloaders.
 
Powder is not primarily nitrogen, it is primarily plastic that won't biodegrade for years. Throwing a half pound of powder on the lawn will get rid of it and that is all that matters, I guess.
 
I have decommissioned a whole lot of rounds in the past. Set a bucket of bleach outside and add the ammo, let it soak for a while, drain it off and rinse.Nobody will ever consider firing those rounds.
That's hazmat site will accept old ammo if you surreptitiously carry it in hidden in a bag like movie candy, hide it, and run. I wear nose glasses when I take in my recycling.

Every time I go to my range I find live rounds everywhere. That makes me curious. The guy burns the paper trash in barrels, and mows the firing line so people can use it.

Don't make excuses for walking away and leaving what live rounds you drop. This range is privately owned, and it next to his house. It's his property, his rules, one of the rules is clean up after yourself.

His range is his private property, it's not a teenager's bedroom. He's the owner, not your mother, he has no responsibility to pick up your laundry. Police your unexpended rounds, shotgun hulls, boxes, targets, whatever. Someone sweeps the lot collecting brass.

Some days I go and spend a half hour just cleaning the place up.
 
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