Shooting someone else's reloads?

FITASC said:
And yet lots of folks over the years have bought and shot "remanufactured ammo" which is nothing more than reloads in mixed headstamp brass and never gave it a second thought.
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...But, when you make them for sale you need a manufacturer's FFL and to be working in a space approved of by the local zoning codes and to carry expensive fire and liability insurance and provide an approved of powder magazine. We've had a few board members look into it from time to time, and they have all concluded you have to be making and selling rounds in the range of a hundred to a hundred-fifty thousand rounds per month to break even, so it's not a casual undertaking. The day when grandpa could get an FFL for $10/year and rent a table at the local gun show for little more than that and legally sell the fruits of his hobby are long-gone.
 
Unclenick,

Thanks for explaining it so eloquently, far better than I could. Reman'd ammo is way different than someone's reloads.

Plus the person/company has to carry insurance to protect you.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by FITASC
And yet lots of folks over the years have bought and shot "remanufactured ammo" which is nothing more than reloads in mixed headstamp brass and never gave it a second thought.
...But, when you make them for sale you need a manufacturer's FFL and to be working in a space approved of by the local zoning codes and to carry expensive fire and liability insurance and provide an approved of powder magazine. We've had a few board members look into it from time to time, and they have all concluded you have to be making and selling rounds in the range of a hundred to a hundred-fifty thousand rounds per month to break even, so it's not a casual undertaking. The day when grandpa could get an FFL for $10/year and rent a table at the local gun show for little more than that and legally sell the fruits of his hobby are long-gone.
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But that insurance does you no good if you're dead from poor quality. I have seen "commercial operations" that were several guys using Dillon progressives, not the latest commercial automated stuff, so bad reloads can still be an issue.

And BTW, I am old enough to have had that $10 FFL...... ;) and yes I have shot those "commercially remanufactured" ammo; it all went bang as I suspect this labeled ammo will do.
 
FITASC,
Yes, the neighbors reloads could go bang and he'll be fine. Same as reman'd ammo being junk and could blow up in your face.

I've seen pics of the same set up that you're talking about. I don't have an issue with that, I'm willing to bet that the ammo loaded on the Dillons is better. When I first started loading I couldn't believe how much better my reloads were from the factory ammo I had been using.

With all the replies, I think the OP should ask the neighbor if he wants to go shooting. After a day of shooting, he should be able to make a decision to keep the ammo or reload it. Heck, bring the ammo, ask him casually during the day if he's shooting his reloads. If so, give the ammo a try.
 
The load is 130gr LRN over 4gr Universal. It is his own casting that he powder coats.

I pulled one to check the charge. I lost some of the charge using the kinetic puller, but the good news is it was a bit light of 4 gr so that charge looked on.

I've never used Universal, and I don't know much about it, but the charge volume looked pretty small, like it could double charge in 9mm.

Can anyone else confirm or deny if the fill rate for universal would allow this?
 
Just doing some quick math for you: 4g of powder x 125 rounds of loaded ammo is 500 grains of powder. Assuming powder is $25 a pound you are looking at 1/14th of a pound = less than $2.00 worth of powder. How much are your fingers and eyeballs worth?

Pull them, dump the powder and reload to your specs.
 
When you lay it out like Mike did, it's hard to beat that logic!

Just be nice to the neighbor, tell him thanks for the reloads and give him something nice in return.
 
I took my daughter and her best friend shooting a couple years ago. Her best friend is a big time lib and had never shot a gun. I brought along a .357, 9mm, and a .22. I had her shooting mostly .22, and she wanted to try 9mm so she bought a box, then she wanted to try the .357 but didn’t want to buy any ammo because of cost. She asked if she could just try it with the handloads I brought with and I said no can do. The load I had with that day was a relatively warm load using Titegroup and I had probably shot about 2000+ rounds of this load through this gun over the last couple years. A couple months later I blew the top off that gun with a negligent double charge, and my first thought was what if I’d let my daughter or her friend shoot it and this had happened. I’ve been loading for upwards of 35 years and had never had a single incident of a squib, dud, or overload, until it happened. And all my ammo is labeled etc. Bad things don’t happen until they do and past performance is no guarantee of what’s going to happen today.
 
You have to look at it in a serious way..

COMMERCIALLY available REMANUFACTURED AMMUNITION, such as offered by Ultramax, Magtech, and Black Hills are NOT actually handloads or reloads. they are genuine "first-run" ammunition that was simply made using once-fired cartridge cases from most typically a military installation depending on caliber.
Those cases go through MORE inspection that some first-run production ammunition made in foreign countries get.

Magtech and Black Hills remanufactured ammunition is MORE SAFE to use than MOST ammunition made in South Africa for its own military usage since 1960.
 
ghbucky said:
My neighbor got some of my orders delivered to his house (reloading and shooting stuff) and he brought them to my door with a gift of 125 9mm and 60 .223 reloads.

They are well labeled, and the labeled data showing is well under listed max.

It is certainly a lovely gesture, and I'm excited to find I have a new shooting buddy 2 doors away.

But I've never had this happen before. Is there any kind of rule of thumb about shooting someone else's reloads?
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The rule of thumb is, "don't".

If you reload, disassemble the ammo, discard the powder, reuse the other components.
 
If they are well labeled with safe data I would shoot it, but after I did a weight test on about 20% of them. If they have a small spread I would consider it safe.
 
How set are you for 9mm? It's currently not available in stores or online. (I don't know about .223) Maybe put it on the shelf for emergencies until you can stock up; it has value just sitting there, and you can thank you neighbor for it w/o actually shooting them.
 
I would need to know the person's load habits; and his/her method of doing things in general.

On the other side of the coin, every person I have ever invited to join me for a range day has shot my handloads (too many to count). Funny, when the tables are turned, I usually don't even give it a second thought. I guess if I did, I wouldn't shoot my own stuff :p.
 
COMMERCIALLY available REMANUFACTURED AMMUNITION, such as offered by Ultramax, Magtech, and Black Hills are NOT actually handloads or reloads.
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And now throw in American Ammunition (AMERC) Justice Brand, 3-D, and a whole host of Gun Show Commercial Remanufactured and I will say the only difference is that in THEORY they have liability insurance for when the violently disassemble your firearm and body parts. How many local ranges require you to fire THEIR Reloads in their rental guns? Would you trust THEIR ammo in your guns?

I will shoot other peoples reloads IF I know the person. That means I know the care that they use and their skill level.

Do you want to try my 375 RUM? It's either my loads OR Pay the steep price for a box of ammo and thank you for the left overs. CTD has it for only $58 a box... it usually runs $100. It seems to have come down a bit.
 
how many times have we seen the posts here about how "joe" who has been reloading since he got home from vietnam, has to pull hundreds of loaded rounds of ammunition down because he loaded up that 30-06 for example the day after he loaded up a few hundred rounds of 357 magnum with 2400, and couldnt remember if he had changed the powder over to varget like he assumed he had loaded all night long into 165 round btsp 30-06 loads
 
Funny how 95% on here will load for someone else but will not shoot someone elses loads.
Pretty much all I've ever shot were reloads from someone. We never bought the junk from the store

That being said, after I started reloading and new what it was about, I did find out how sloppy one friend was with his procedure and never I shot his stuff again
 
reloader28 said:
Funny how 95% on here will load for someone else but will not shoot someone elses loads.

Pretty much all I've ever shot were reloads from someone. We never bought the junk from the store



That being said, after I started reloading and new what it was about, I did find out how sloppy one friend was with his procedure and never I shot his stuff again
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And your last comment is the crux of the matter. I will let others shoot my reloads, in my guns, under my supervision. I will shoot reloads from some close friends and family, and they will use mine. But I'm skeptical of ammo from someone I'm unfamiliar with. I've had way too many conversations about simple questions with supposedly knowledgeable shooters and reloaders to make me believe more than half of them have a clue.

Where do we start? There's the "why can't you sub large rifle primers in pistol cases like you can with small ones?" Or the "the .300 Savage can be loaded up like a .308" (stretched the headspace on a nice Savage 99 to prove it). Or "the factories really water down .357 Magnum ammo." Or "I'm using these .44 Magnums in a rifle, why would I use pistol data?" Or "my 16" .223 wasn't matching the book velocity even though I kept loading it up."

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