Gun Show Reloads

[goglesby3]

My son picked up a bag of reloads at a gun show 3/4 years ago. Tossed them in the gun locker and forgot about them...Getting into reloading and have been reading a lot lately...So my question is if i measure them (weight and length) and they are correct (weight and length) they should be good to shoot......they are 38 spl...

[ysr_racer]

My son picked up a bag of reloads at a gun show 3/4 years ago. Tossed them in the gun locker and forgot about them...Getting into reloading and have been reading a lot lately...So my question is if i measure them (weight and length) and they are correct (weight and length) they should be good to shoot......they are 38 spl...

Weight is really meaningless. There's enough variance to make up for no powder, or double powder.

.38 Special can easily be double or triple loaded with powder.

That being said, I'd shoot them in a .357

[goglesby3]

Will do thanks, so once the round is made weight variance can't tell you anything about your powder load, thanks i'll file that away in the grey matter....

[BajaJames83]

It's hard to tell powder on pistol loads as the variances in brass and bullets will throw things off a little however it can be done you just need to find the average.

[goglesby3]

I ordered a kitchen scale thinking I'd weigh them all and remove any over the average, but shooting them in my .357 makes more sense...

[BajaJames83]

Kitchen scale wont be accurate enough you need a scale that will be accurate withing 1-2 grains. As 38 special may have 4-6gr of powder and bullet variance and case variance will be between 2-3 grains

[bohoki]

i bought a hi-point just for some dubious gunshow reloads

[stevec223]

[goglesby3]

Thanks guys...guess wife gets new kitchen scale...LOL

[AGGRO]

Ok, first off, what projectile are you shooting? Are these cast?

The point being, gun powder is light compared to lead. Your load can be REALLY overcharged and not show much in weight for an overload. I shoot some reloads that are from say Turners. Not bubba my next door neighbor.

[ysr_racer]

I wouldn't worry too much about squibs, now doubles is another story.

Op how many rounds are we talking about here?

[newbie1234]

Remove the bullet with cam lock bullet puller, keep the bullets, throw away the powder and reload again. Primers, bullets are expensive. Powder is cheap.
And buy a reload digital scale ($20- Amazon), the kitchen scale is not accurate enough on grain unit.

[the86d]

Uh, if they were from a seller, the seller should have gotten them from a kosher source with insurance to cover your gun if it blow up. Have the receipt?

I wouldn't worry about .38 SPL if I bought them at a gun show.

The problem with variance is powder, and projectile weight for .38 SPL, so here is some data just pulled, so it is also dependent on powder used:
85gr projectile, 3.4-4.6 with Vihtavuori powders

180gr projectile, 3.7-5.9 with Vihtavuori powders

However for another MFR's powder, say Hogdon:
77gr Proj, 3.1-9gr

158gr proj, 3.0-10gr...

You don't know what powder is used, you didn't mention proj.weight, so see there is a LOT of variance.

[goglesby3]

I took them out of a plastic and tossed them in an ammo can, never planning on shooting them. So i have no info on bullet weight, the idea of pulling the bullets, dumping the powder and reloading is where i'm going. I need 38 spl ammo...Thanks guys...

[bruce381]

Weight is really meaningless. There's enough variance to make up for no powder, or double powder.

.38 Special can easily be double or triple loaded with powder.

That being said, I'd shoot them in a .357

yeah thats the safe way