Greetings all, this is my first post to this forum, and as a reloading noob, it's a couple of questions. I've been reloading for about a month now, and I've made probably about 1200 .40 S&W rounds so far. Along the way, I've made some mistakes, like the primer tube in my Dillon 550B jamming, which left me with a few completed rounds, sans a primer. I didn't just stick a primer in there, because I had no way of knowing how much powder had leaked out of the flash hole, so I used a kinetic puller to take the cartridges apart and loaded the brass withs fresh bullets. I'm wondering, can I use the bullets I pulled from these cases?

The bullets in question are copper jacketed, and now they are kind of "mushroom" shaped because of being stuck into the case and taper crimped (even though they aren't crimped much in this load). If I can load them, will I need to increase the crimp?

I also,just today, got the dies and parts necessary to load .45ACP. I loaded a couple hundred 200 gr jacketed rounds using the load specs given by hodgdon for titegroup powder. They specified an OAL of 1.155. The factory 230 gr ammo I'm used to shooting is way longer, around 1.130, so the completed .45 rounds look funny. I realize that the 200 gr round is smaller, and the set needs to be deeper because only 5.0 gr of titegroup is used, but they just look funny. Is this normal?

Thanks in advance for the help.

As an aside, I'm really liking reloading. Between my wife and I we've put about 650 of my reloads downrange already without a problem, and that's a lot more than we'd normally be able to shoot paying commercial prices. I still haven't gotten into reloading rifle cases, yet but eventually I will. The relative scarcity of decent, non-corrosive, .303 British is what got me to look at reloading in the first place.

quote:

Originally posted by John Anderson:
I didn't just stick a primer in there, because I had no way of knowing how much powder had leaked out of the flash hole,

G'day John A, I'm John L. Mate, NEVER even think about sticking a primer in a loaded case.
It's sort of refusing a bomb.
Good with the puller, I'm not sure why your bullets look like a mushroom. The crimp shouldn't be that tight. Maybe they hit the bottom of the puller too hard?

I like to slacken off on the effort when I expect the bullet to come out, and you can put a little cushion in the bottom also.

Normally one can reuse the bullets if they'll chamber and feed OK. If you can't turn or move the bullet by finger pressure the crimp should be enough, even if only for single shot practise.

Don't know about .45 reloading but someone else will.

quote:

The relative scarcity of decent, non-corrosive, .303 British is what got me to look at reloading in the first place.

Watch out for the dreaded head seperation after a couple/few 303 reloads. It's been mentioned here on AR if you know how to search. Or someone will go through it when your ready.

A big welcome to you John! And also welcome the insane world of metallic cartridge reloading. Your 45ACP loads sound OK to shoot as long as they feed through your pistol, and I am assuming you are shooting a semi-auto. Your future loads can be loaded out further if so desired, but you might find your present load is just right. Going back to your first question about the mis-shapen bullets. I have pulled bullets and have seen them have a "waist" which is narrower than they were originally made and have reused them without a second thought, but if the are actually mushroomed so that they are now larger than their original diameter I would trash them. I have had this happen with my Hornady progressive press, but finally solved the primer feed issues and rarely ever have a case without a primer. Good luck and good reloading.

P.S. I load 230 grain slugs over 6 grains of W231 for my 45ACP, so if you ever get bored and want to try something different....

I would load them and shoot them. I use a lot of once 2x 3x fired bullets. I shoot a lot into a snow bank in the winter about 90 percent of the bullets I recover have very little damage to them I run them through a sizing die load them and reshoot them. I am talking pistol bullets shot at under 1300 fps I find higher vel does damage most of them to much.

Hard cast bullets normally come out shootable but I do resize and relube them. 148 gr wad cutters at around 700 fps take very little resizeing. I lube them with Alox size them load and shoot them saves money and lots of work.

Thanks for the welcome everybody!

quote:

Originally posted by JAL:

G'day John A, I'm John L. Mate, NEVER even think about sticking a primer in a loaded case.
It's sort of refusing a bomb.

Yeah, I thought that might be a bad idea, so I didn't do it. Along similar lines, I also have an issue with a primer that I guess I picked up upside down. So now I have a fully assembled cartridge with the primer flipped 180 degrees. I took that apart with the kinetic puller, but I obviously shouldn't deprime it as-is. How do I go about recovering the brass? I was thinking of just taking it out back and taking a nail and hammer to it. How loud is this? .22 loud? .32 loud?

quote:

Originally posted by JAL:
Good with the puller, I'm not sure why your bullets look like a mushroom.

Well, after doing some carful measuring, they just "look" like a mushroom, because they have a band around them where the .001" crip took place. So it's really just an optical illusion. The bullets measure .400" right under that line and right above it, but when you look at them they look like they are skinner below the line with the .40 S&W flat nose on top. Now that I've measured them instead of trusting my eyes, I think I'm going to use them.

quote:

Originally posted by JAL:
Watch out for the dreaded head seperation after a couple/few 303 reloads. It's been mentioned here on AR if you know how to search. Or someone will go through it when your ready.

I'll check into that before I start loading .303.

quote:

Originally posted by LuckyDucker:
A big welcome to you John! And also welcome the insane world of metallic cartridge reloading. Your 45ACP loads sound OK to shoot as long as they feed through your pistol, and I am assuming you are shooting a semi-auto. Your future loads can be loaded out further if so desired, but you might find your present load is just right. Going back to your first question about the mis-shapen bullets. I have pulled bullets and have seen them have a "waist" which is narrower than they were originally made and have reused them without a second thought, but if the are actually mushroomed so that they are now larger than their original diameter I would trash them. I have had this happen with my Hornady progressive press, but finally solved the primer feed issues and rarely ever have a case without a primer. Good luck and good reloading.

P.S. I load 230 grain slugs over 6 grains of W231 for my 45ACP, so if you ever get bored and want to try something different....

Ok, I'll take these loads to range then and see if they feed correctly. That's what sucks about reloading when you live in a city. I've read about reloaders who cart their gear to their back 40 to load and test at the same time. Most of my neighbors would get all sorts of bent if I tried that. I also solved the primer feed issues with my Dillon. I had the bracket that holds it in place torqued too tightly and the bar could make it's full range of motion unless I really pulled on the lever.

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:
I would load them and shoot them. I use a lot of once 2x 3x fired bullets. I shoot a lot into a snow bank in the winter about 90 percent of the bullets I recover have very little damage to them I run them through a sizing die load them and reshoot them. I am talking pistol bullets shot at under 1300 fps I find higher vel does damage most of them to much.

Hard cast bullets normally come out shootable but I do resize and relube them. 148 gr wad cutters at around 700 fps take very little re-sizeing. I lube them with Alox size them load and shoot them saves money and lots of work.

You re-load and re-fire projectiles that you previously shot? That's pretty cool. Never did I think that would work or that was possible.

I've got one more question. If you have a CCW, or otherwise carry, do you use your own hand loads as carry rounds? I mean, do you trust your rounds more than high quality factory rounds? Currently I'm carrying Federal Hydrashocks, which seem to be a pretty good defense carry round. Arizona court and Arizona laws are pretty clear in that a round is round no matter where it comes from, so you don't get extra "liability" of any kind from carrying your own hand loads. I was thinking of working up a jacketed hollow point round that I can put good rapid fire groups up with and carrying that load. Would any of you do the same?

quote:

The relative scarcity of decent, non-corrosive, .303 British is what got me to look at reloading in the first place.

John Anderson, I have been reloading for the 303 Brit for 25 years and am still using the same cases. (I don't shoot it that much). Max loads are a no-no and do not be shy of lubing your reloaded cartridges and do not full length resize your cases. Heavier, round nose bullets are more forgiving and ....... that wasn't your question....!

Hi John,

A couple of observations:

1. Regarding the reversed primer - Spray the primer with WD-40, Break Free, or any penetrating type oil. Let it sit for 10 minutes and the primer will be dead. You can do this to live primers that you need to remove because they didn't seat all the way or seated crooked. When I use this procedure, I use a hypodermic needle to inject the oil all the way to the bottom of the shell case.

2. Regarding crimping - On the loads that run through a semi-auto, the bullet has to be crimped enough so that the bullet does not move deeper into the case. If the bullet ends up shoved into the case it can change the pressure. Also, you want to be sure that you don't over crimp. An overcrimp condition would be rare with a taper crimp die. However, a roll crimp can absolutely put too much crimp which can result in very dangerous overpressure. I have a friend that made that mistake with a Glock 21 and it blew the bottom out of the case and the magazine out of the gun. There was slight damage to the trigger mechanism which was repairable by Glock. No injuries to my friend but a very significant lesson learned.

Always remember that it's better to throw away a round, or bullet, or primers, or power, than to take a chance on damage to your gun, or damage to your body, especially your eyes.

Good luck

quote:

Originally posted by SD Shooter:


Always remember that it's better to throw away a round, or bullet, or primers, or power, than to take a chance on damage to your gun, or damage to your body, especially your eyes.

Good luck

I'll second this statement and here's why:

It is good practice.

To be honest, you can salvage this without any difficulty, just put it in you kinetic puller, disassemble and then deprime.

However, it is really really a good idea to trash it as it will get you realizing it is better to toss stuff that can be hazardous. You will not believe the energy stored in those primers, and the little anvil if it were to hit you is guaranteed to pass through your clothes and stick in, possibly up to an inch! Once you get into the mindset that it is OK to toss rounds that "don't look right" you will not be as tempted to do something that "doesn't feel right"

Believe me, I'm as cheap as the next guy (probably cheaper if you ask my wife) but when you even have to wonder if something will be safe to do it most likely isn't necessary, just toss the round and chalk up the 20 cents cost to experience.

And welcome to the forums here! It is a great place with tons of knowledge and friendly people...