I would be afraid the grooves of the rifling would allow gas to pass by on the second firing, and gas cut your barrel. It would for sure be reduced velocity, and possibly get a blockage.. Any dirt would also wear your barrel faster. Basically damage more than just shooting new projectiles.
IF you have a M1911 .45 and a couple of extra barrels, try it! Let us know. When in AK, I recovered a lot of 300 grain .375 H&H WW Silvertips at ranges of 300 to 400 yards after they had travelled a long way along the snow-covered ground. They looked new except for the engraving....
quote:Originally posted by Mauserkid: I would be afraid the grooves of the rifling would allow gas to pass by on the second firing, and gas cut your barrel. It would for sure be reduced velocity, and possibly get a blockage.. Any dirt would also wear your barrel faster. Basically damage more than just shooting new projectiles.
Later....
I was thinking about that, but thought an "aggresive" crimp might work.
I've only got one barrel- The 150 or so bullets I've collectd are only worth about $20- considerably less than a new barrel!
Posts: 3082 | Location: Pemberton BC Canada | Registered: 08 March 2001
I would not reuse a bullet, a fired bullet might seem fine to human eyes but only a machine can tell if they are truely in-spec. .311" bullets can look like .308", 458" bullets can look like 452"....
Pyrotek
Posts: 638 | Location: O Canada! | Registered: 21 December 2001
I reuse bullets all the time. Lead ones, I melt them down and cast them into new bullets. Seriously, think about all the forces those fired bullets have had acted on them. Also consider all the abrasives that can't be seen by the human eye. I do remember Elmer Kieth writing about an Alaskan Indian He met that would reload and reuse 30-30 bullets in a Winchester to shoot deer. He told Elmer the trick was not to hit a bone!
Posts: 34 | Location: VA, USA | Registered: 12 September 2001
At the pistol range at Fort Richardson, Alaska, they used to push up a berm of snow each winter and it would catch thousands of .45 ACP bullets which were like new except for the engraving. A friend of mine used to mine the bullets and reload them for his Colt Gold Cup. I don't recall what kind of accuracy he got (this was nearly 30 years ago). The ones that were'nt any good he used for fishing sinkers (he installed small eye screws in the lead base).
I would never take that kind of chance. Even micing them out isn't that accurate. It doesn't take much to deform a bullet, and like it's already been said, it's small enough that you wouldn't even see it. You just shouldn't take those kind of chances. I shoot Montana Gold bullets at 8 bucks per 100, and the jacketed hollow points for 7.50 per 100. Just sacrafice a day or two of buying soda pop and you'd have the money for bullets. . The other day I picked up some 44 bullets 240 fpj in the montana gold and it was only 8 bucks. Cheap when compared to a hand or 700 dollar gun.
I have found Magnus cast bullets (direct @ [URL=http:// www.magnusbullets.com] Magnus [/URL] or through Midsouth)and Meister (direct @ Meister or at Gander Mtn.) to be EXCELLENT as well.
Casting is the answer. I melt everything I gather, I do not know why I got so hooked on casting a year ago. Partly it was the 45-70 bullet shortage,a friend sent me a surprise mold from Alabama and the rest is...casting.
I have two loads for my handguns,a cast one and a jacketed one. Err... also a "Cast-Lady-One" for wifey who likes Gold Cup and SBH.44!
Now is the time to go pick up bullets,snow has finally gone.
Posts: 81 | Location: Finland | Registered: 10 May 2003
I was always afraid that the spent bullet could have picked up abrasives. That's why I havn't done it just to try it (Not economical to do so on a regular basis).
I doubt that you'll get any gas cutting though, ironing in the new rifling should obliterate the old stuff.
I just dump 'em in the lead pot, and scavenge the lead out of them.
NEVER DONE A TRAP RANGE BUT WE DID CLEAN OUT AN INDOOR RANGE BULLET TRAP ONCE. I'VE GOT ENOUGH LEAD TO LAST MY LFETIME FROM THAT ONE TIME DEAL. I WENT ON A BULLET CASTING MARATHON THAT SUMMER AND CAST ABOUT A DOZEN VELVEETA BOXES FULL OF 150GR SWCS.THERES THOUSANDS OF SLUGS THERE ALL CAST AND LUBRISIZED AND READY TO GO.
If you saw some of the bullets pulled from military ammo and reused, you wouldn't think twice about reusing those bullets! Some of those pulls are actually oval to the naked eye. They still shoot, badly, but they shoot.
As far as the used shot, they have special machines to recover lead from trap ranges. They mine the Grand American every year and sell the shot. We used to buy it by the 100lb bucket. Worked just fine for Trap league night.
If you want to make a habit of shooting used bullets, why not buy a used barrel. I see used, nearly new take off barrels at gun shows from time to time. You might even find a barrel cheap on ebay. If you lucky, a stock barrel will fit well enough as is. Just a thought...
The bore to bullet fit can't be anything to write home about when you re-use bullets.
Get some casting equipment and continue to harvest the spent slugs. When you get several hundred pounds melt it, clean it and cast it into ingots. Mix these with an equal amount of cleaned wheelweight ingots and at .45 ACP velocities you should have some nice shooting, cheap bullets.
These will without a doubt perform better than used jacketed bullets. If you need advice on casting e-mail me or there are a heck of a lot of people here who can help. Steve's question was right on the money.
Paul
Posts: 130 | Location: Davenport, IA | Registered: 20 March 2003
Just so happened that I had loaded some 155 Sierra Palma bullets which had been fired into a snow bank this past winter and were recovered in amazing apparent condition. So I went and loaded them with a known accurate load for my Rem 700 and shot them yesterday. The result surprised me in that they were horrible in the accuracy department. It was only seven rounds, but the normal average is .75 inch groups at 100 yards. This experiment yielded 3 full inch spread with no real pattern. So that ends that quere for me.
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