Buying someone elses handloads?

[Shipyard]

i noticed on another site someone has .357 +p for trade. I have never reloaded nor do i know too much about the practice, but it seems like a terrible idea to me.

I'll put the question to the experts: is is a good/bad idea to purchase another persons hand loads and why?

[DeanC]

Wouldn't do it unless I was buying them to disassemble them for the components.

[Vlad]

I agree with Dean. I will take it one step further and say for the brass and the bullets only. I would pitch the powder.

[MaddMedic]

One time, when I was younger and desperate, I had trap league to shoot and no shells, a friend gave me a box of reloads. At the first station my shot went KAABOOM instead of boom. The elderly gentleman next to me looked down his nose at me, with a "What was that?"
I finished the round with a horrible flinch, ringing ears and funny looks. Although any birds I hit were dust!!
Never again did I do that!!!

[jac714]

Wouldn't do it unless I was buying them to disassemble them for the components.

Yeah, what he said!

[jac714]

I agree with Dean. I will take it one step further and say for the brass and the bullets only. I would pitch the powder.

I might even decap them, who knows what primers are in there.

[ComradeBurg]

To answer the question I agree with the general sentiment that buying another person's reloads is a bad idea.

You simply don't know what you're getting. Maybe the person who reloaded the ammunition is one of those guys who overloads with powder because "it's cool" Some reloaders don't understand there is a difference between standard and magnum primers, and you don't want to get ammo from one of those people. You also have no idea how consistent the rounds will be (some may have 10 grains of powder while another may have 10.5 and another have 9.3). There are too many variables to consider.

[JFettig]

ESPECIALLY +P! bad idea!

[Seismic Sam]

Yup - using somebody else's handloads is even a worse idea than wearing gunhorde's Gold Lame' Thong - In addition, it means that you are buying from somebody who doesn't have the least idea what product liability is all about, and probably isn't incorporated and doesn't have any insurance coverage for what they are selling. That's pretty clear proof that they are not too bright about the fine points of handloading and liability to begin with.

[DeanC]

ESPECIALLY +P! bad idea!

And 357 mag +P - WTF?

I don't think there is such a thing actually.

Nope, there isn't:

...I have seen ammo from one or two small manufacturers offered in calibers such as .40 S&W and .357 Magnum with the +P designation. Since SAAMI does not specify +P ratings for these cartridges there are only two possible explanations. Either the ammo is loaded to higher pressures than SAAMI deems safe or the +P designation is just marketing hype.

[selurcspi]

One time a shooting partner and I were reloading for each other on my press. We had to change powder due to a dearth of our normal fodder and even though we had worked up the loads previously with this other powder and it was simply a matter of reading our log and set up the press, my friend misread the scale and set it up 1 grain too light. It doesn't sound like much, but at about 25% it made a big difference in a Steyer GB, in the middle of a stage I had a bullet that didn't leave the barrel, but it cycled like a normal load, and I pulled the trigger again, this time the second bullet met the first and it bulged my barrel and blew the hot gasses into my glasses an embedded unburnt powder in them. That was the last time anyone loaded ammo that I shoot.

[David]

Wow! That's a bummer. And one of the worst guns to have that happen in. I love my GB but it's an odd one, that's for sure.

[selurcspi]

Wow! That's a bummer. And one of the worst guns to have that happen in. I love my GB but it's an odd one, that's for sure.

Actually David, if it had been almost any other gun I would probably been picking pieces of steel out of various parts of my anatomy. As it was all the gas was able to vent into the slide through the retarding ports and just blew back past the firing pin and down the magwell etc. I was able to get it rebarreled, but I sold it shortly after that.

[Pat]

There's a guy on GunBroker selling his home made ammo: http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewIt ... =130377046

[DeanC]

Description for Item # 130377046

100 rds. 45ACP 230 grain Full Metal Jacket commercial reloads