What to do with bad ammo

[MA5177]

I have about 250 rounds of 223 that we loaded up back in 1992,it was loaded for a bolt action rifle that I no longer have.

Fast forward to now and I am reloading again, these won't chamber properly in my AR so I checked them on a Dillon chamber guage and they aren't headspaced properly.

So what if anything can I do with them? I don't have a bullet puller or really want to get one.

[edgerly779]

Sell them as components. I have a couple kinetic bullet pullers. Any handloaded ammo I get I pull the bullets and reload to my specs. pm me.

[Vicious_138]

How can a reloader not or not want to own a bullet puller?

Get a bullet puller and take them down, resize the brass, re-use the bullets.

[J-cat]

Run them through a Redding body die and they will chamber properly.

[MA5177]

Run them through a Redding body die and they will chamber properly.

Is that safe? Will the dillon size die work without the decapper?

[J-cat]

It's safe.

No the dillon won't work. You can't size the neck with a bullet in it. That will destroy the bullet.

[BigBronco]

Redding body die is designed just for that.

Using a standard die with the Decapping rod remover will ruin your rounds. It will over shrink the necks among other things. It will also resize the diameter making them too small, that is if it does not get jammed in to the internal threads of the die.

[Bert Gamble]

Spend the few dollars on a bullet puller.

[rsrocket1]

The Redding body die is your answer, but make sure you lube the cases properly. You don't want a live round stuck in the die.

If you are serious about reloading, you should get a bullet puller anyway.

[Divehobo]

Take em' apart, re-run the brass and load em' back up.

Lee Bulge Buster might be an option.

[Carcassonne]

I have about 250 rounds of 223 that we loaded up back in 1992,it was loaded for a bolt action rifle that I no longer have.

Fast forward to now and I am reloading again, these won't chamber properly in my AR so I checked them on a Dillon chamber guage and they aren't headspaced properly.

So what if anything can I do with them? I don't have a bullet puller or really want to get one.

I had the same problem with some 223 reloads. I resized them with a Lee collet die. Didn't have to remove the bullets and powder.

http://leeprecision.com/collet-dies-223.html

.

[MA5177]

I don't have a problem buying a bullet puller but don't want to pull them all if there is an easier fix. So a redding body die will fix the headspace issue? Seems it's the shoulder that may need sizing. I'm just getting back into the game and just got a 550 for 9,40 and 45. Adding 223 soon

[J-cat]

The redding body die sizes only the shoulder and the body minus the neck.

[Sky_DiveR]

The redding body die sizes only the shoulder and the body minus the neck.

That's what I used when I had that problem.

Or you could break down each cartridge, resize (after pulling the decapper off), reuse the bullet, and if you know the powder (since you were the one who reloaded them), measure, and reload.

[J-cat]

MA5177:

If you are worried about this, understand that primers do not discharge from a gradual application of pressure from the side. They need a sharp blow from the rear to compress the mix between the anvil and the primer cup.

I routinely rescue mangled ammo I find on the ground using my Redding small base body die. This is ammo that has been chewed up by malfunctioning AR's, ran over by trucks, stepped on by obese gender unspecified individuals, etc.

Running this kind of ammo through a body die straightens out the body and pops the shoulder back where it should be. The ammo feeds and cycles just fine.