30-30 Auction Reloads

[foxx11]

I was at a auction 2 years ago and bought a green 100 round ammo case with handle for $4. New they sell for $15. It came with 80 reloaded round nose jacketed cartridges.
Now I will only will fire reloads from one person I know. These reloads have corrosion on the brass and some has cracked necks and so on. I was reorganizing my reloading bench and
found then in a container. The brass is junk but the bullets are fine so I got out the hammer and stated pulling bullets. (Finally here is the question).
I pull the bullets and there is a wax plug between the bullet and the gun powder. I have to scrape it out with a small screw driver then dump the powder.
I never seen a wax plug before. Any idea why and how one would put it there?

[TSKNIGHT]

The only time I have ever seen a filler used is with black powder where the powder doesn't completely fill the case.
Never heard of using wax though.

[OldmanFCSA]

nope

[Seismic Sam]

Like the animal itself, duckbill platypus ammo is poisionous!!! Maybe you can save the bullets, but I would junk all of it considering the weird loading technique and cracked necks.

[Rip Van Winkle]

I've seen wax plugs used in leu of a bullet to fire form cases, but never heard of using it to take up airspace in a case.

Make sure you weigh and mic those bullets before reusing them. You never know what the reloader was thinking.

[DanM]

The 'wax plug' may be filling the role of a gas check. Alternative materials have been used in place of a traditional brass cup-type gas check on the base of cast lead bullets. I have read of plastic, Teflon, aluminum (made in a die from pop cans - was sold on eBay), and wax being used for gas checks. Use in the .30-30 cartridge makes sense being it's a relatively low pressure rifle round and there's some space above a typical load of powder. Unfortunately the .30-30 brass is relatively thin and prone to cracking over time, which the corrosion may be indicating.

[linksep]

Distortion of the base of a cast bullet, particularly a rifle bullet, is a constant problem. Smokeless powder of the coarser granulations will be forced into the base of soft alloy bullets peppering them with small dents and often gas-cutting the sides to a degree.
...
From time to time there is a resurgence of interest in various types of lubricating wads for use with both cast and jacketed bullets. Wax wads and grease wads have demonstrated effectiveness in improving accuracy and lengthening barrel life.
...
According to G.L. Wotkyns and J.B. Sweany, the developers of the 220 Swift, grease wads directly behind the jacketed bullets decreased erosion and improved accuracy.

Just got to the end of the bullet lube chapter in my 8th Edition ABC's of reloading (pages 87,88) and it reminded me of this thread.