Winchester 22 KABOOM

Riddle me this...

From the recall notice...

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DO NOT USE WINCHESTER® M*22™ 22 Long Rifle RIMFIRE AMMUNITION WITH LOT NUMBERS GD42L or GD52L. The ammunition Lot Number is imprinted (stamped without ink) on the left tuck flap of the 500-round carton as indicated here. The 1000-round intermediate carton does not have a Lot Number.
(Emphasis mine)

If the 1000rd carton has no lot number, how is one supposed to tell whether it's subject to the recall? Did I miss something? :confused:

(NOTE: I don't have any of this ammo. I just can't make sense of this part of the recall notice, and this bugs me.)
 
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You have to open the intermediate box (1000 round box) to access the two 500 round boxes with the stamp..
 
I've seriously got to check some lot numbers. I've acquired a good bit of this stuff in the past 3 weeks!!
 
You have to open the intermediate box (1000 round box) to access the two 500 round boxes with the stamp..
OK, that makes sense. I was stumped by the term "intermediate carton". (I've never purchased a 1000rd carton of Winchester M*22.)
 
I checked all of mine. It's interesting how there is a gap between 42 and 52. Anyway, all 4000 rounds of mine say 51, but I'm still skeptical. Given the gap in the numbers maybe some in my 51 lot are bad. I had an idea which involves me getting some of my other 40 grain rounds and comparing their weights on my jewelry scale, but I think my only other 40 trainers are mini mags.... Wouldn't mini mags and all other high velocity ammo have more powder in them?
 
Just a curiosity, but what does a manufacturer do with thousands of potentially double loaded rimfire cartridges? Surely it's not cost effective for them to break them down to reuse the components, is it? Do they destroy them EOD style, grind them up, box them up and bury them in a hazmat landfill? Anyone know?
 
I can tell you that when ammo companies have a lot of centerfire ammo that they reject, it all gets sold to an intermediate who agrees (probably by signed or otherwise "enforced" contract) to be broken down and pulled apart.

As end-buyers, we know this for sure because we end up purchasing lots of component pull-down bullets and we use them for our own handloads.

In rimfire, I would imagine the rounds are pulled down and the powder is (most likely?) simply disposed of, while the brass and the lead slugs are both recycled. There's obviously money in those components.
 
Its probably not hard for a machine to quickly pull the bullets from a .22 round. Send the bullets back to be remelted and remade. Not sure what they would do with the primed case though. Maybe they just reuse them or maybe they have some way of washing out the priming compound and recycling the brass.
 
If automated machinery were going to be used for this operation, I would think the best way to ensure the safe result would be to set the machinery up to hit each piece in multiple places and discharge the teeny little poof of a "bang."
 
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