Would you shoot someone else's reloads?

Gil Martin

Generally, I would not shoot reloads if I did not know and trust the competence of the reloader. I trust my twin brother and have no problem shooting his reloads. A fellow gave me six boxes of what was supposed to be factory .280 Remington ammo. Five of the boxes were factory loads. One box was obviously reloads as indicated by the resizing marks on the cases. I pulled all the bullets and saved them. The brass went into the disposal barrel. What would you do? All the best...
Gil

shrpshtrjoe

If I didn't no who reloaded them I wouldn't shoot them. I would have to no and the trust the reloader..

dhc4ever

Gil Martin wrote:

Generally, I would not shoot reloads if I did not know and trust the competence of the reloader. I trust my twin brother and have no problem shooting his reloads. A fellow gave me six boxes of what was supposed to be factory .280 Remington ammo. Five of the boxes were factory loads. One box was obviously reloads as indicated by the resizing marks on the cases. I pulled all the bullets and saved them. The brass went into the disposal barrel. What would you do? All the best...
Gil

Same thoughts.
I would have pulled the bullets and primers,disposed of the powder,full length resized the brass and thourghly inspected the brass for web thickness and any sign of stretching, if it looked at all sus, ditch it.
The other thing to ponder is that all firearms are law upto themselves and a reload near maximum that works safely in one firearm wont neccessarily be safe in another, nor may it be accurate in another firearm.

lesterg3

I guess I would have to not only know the guy but also be very familiar with how he reloads.

I would have probably done the same with the reloads, allowing time.

Pumpkinslinger

Like the folks above I'd usually NOT shoot someone else's reloads, at least in my gun. I might try them in HIS gun. I have one friend that I trust enough to shoot his loads in my gun.

Many years back I learned that lesson when I bought some reloads to use n my Mini-14. The first few shot OK then I had one that produced a ball of fire at least as big as a basketball, in broad daylight! Luckily the gun wasn't damaged and I just threw the rest of those loads away.

Joe Boleo

I agree with Gil. When in doubt and if I do not know the reloader, I will not shoot them. I am very careful when I reload and prefer what I roll. Take care...
Joe

camel

Yep, I agree with all the above. After all its your rifle, fingers, eyes, ears and life that is on the line if something goes wrong. Someone years ago gave me some .222rem amunition that was sposed to only be reloaded once, I pulled the bullets and saved the brass. Thank god I did, cause there were three different charge weights, and Im not sure if it was all the same powder. Once bitten, comes to mind.

MacD

I reload for a friend. I weigh every charge all the time and verify OAL. The brass is FL sized and either new or once fired or it is from his rifle and neck sized. I keep charges below maximum. I would not reload for a stranger or even a casual acquaintance. My friend loads shotgun and I would trust his reloads if I was into shotgunning.

Pumpkinslinger

MacD brings up the flip side of the coin, would you reload for someone else? I have a few times, being EXTRA cautious. I've also refused to load for some people.

Elvis

Ive been bitten by shop reloads. the first were very soft and would double discharge baaboom!!! barstards of things did theaccuracy no good either. then another sports shop loaded some for me BOOOM plurry accurate but man did they kick not to mention primers that flat and squashed out that the boys at the NZDA range told me not to shoot any more. brought my own gear after that. I reload very carefully for my brother in law. and have done so for another mate.I load shotgun for my son.

PaulS

I will shoot anything but shotshells that my brother loads.
There are a few on this list that I would probably shoot their cartridge reloads but as a general rule if I don't know how you reload, I won't shoot it in any gun.
One of my "shooting buddys" blew up a Ruger Black Hawk with reloads after spending most of the day we were at the range hammering the empty 44 mag cases out of the cylinder - weeks after but when I questioned him about his load he said something like...
its only a few grains ove the book max - shouldn't be too much for the Ruger.

???!!! I looked it up and it was a 50% overload of Unique!
Ruger repaired the gun for free.
I only shot with him that one time.
I hope he learned his lesson.

Elvis

thats just a wee tad hot!!!!

Vince

MacD wrote:

I reload for a friend. I weigh every charge all the time and verify OAL. The brass is FL sized and either new or once fired or it is from his rifle and neck sized. I keep charges below maximum. I would not reload for a stranger or even a casual acquaintance. My friend loads shotgun and I would trust his reloads if I was into shotgunning.

Good points Mac. I used to reload for a mate, but haven't done so since he moved a couple of thousand kilometres away. All the loads that I did for him were hand weighed and below max. He was more than happy with them.

As for someone else's reloads...I will not use reloads from an unknown loader or source...it simply is not worth the risk. If I am given some reloads, like the others here, I will dismantle to rounds and save the components, with the exception of the powder which I use to fertilize my roses. At a pinch, if I can positively identify the powder I MAY consider retaining it, but not unless I am 110% positive as to what it is.

There is one guy whose loads I trust, even beyond my own, but he is the only one whose reloads I will use.

Cheers, Vince

lesterg3

Nope, I will not reload for anyone else either. But, if they want to I will help them use my stuff to reload themselves. I don't want the liability and I ain't talking about legal liability I am talking about my conscience.

I make it a practice not to use other folks stuff, I won't drive anyone else's car or truck, won't borrow a boat, or garden tools, or firearm, or wife, I meant knife. On the other hand I have lent all the above to friends, neighbors and family--with one exception, you guess which one.

SingleShotLover

I hear too many tales of double-loads and questionable loading techniques to fire loads from someone else. Even my friends are not immune. If they have a pet load, they can tell me about it and I will load my own if interested. Same goes the other way. If they want to try one of my loads I give them the info along with the usual warning about starting low and then it's on their heads.