How do you dispose of bad ammunition?

[dickttx]

Over the course of time I have accumulated numerous rounds of unusable ammo.
Primed cases and/or with powder and bullet.  For example, in trying to work up a load for .223 I distorted the case mouth, set back the shoulder to far, etc.  I also have several rounds of unknown (now) reloads.  These are taking up a couple of loading blocks.  What do you do with such ammo?

[necchi]

Our local tri-County run Hazardous waste site takes ammo, same place you'd take old paint and stain, insecticides, herbicides.
no name, no charge,,

[gypsyman]

I'ld put them in a coffee can with enough water to cover them. Leave them set for a couple weeks. Deprime by hand with a long punch. Put the brass in my scrap bucket, and throw the rest in the trash. gypsyman

[Czech_too]

Where possible, I would use a bullet bullet, either inertia or press mounted, pull the bullet, toss the powder, makes good fertilizer or so I've been told, deprime, and scrap the brass.  22 rimfire can be done with pliers.  It's worked for me without a problem, at least so far.  Any lead bullets get melted.

[dickttx]

OK, those are good, but how do you deprime a live primer?
When I started reloading it was with a Lee hand loader (.38) and I popped a few primers while seating them.  It is not something I really want to do on purpose?

[GH1]

Wouldn't soaking the proimer in water render it useless?
GH1

[Bart Solo]

I use a tool designed for to disassemble bullets.  There are several designs. If it is just a few bullets, I use a hammer like device. I can't remember the name.  Insert the bullet and slam it on the concrete floor.  The bullet comes apart.  That separates the bullet and powder from the brass.  I then run the bullet through the resizing die to remove the primer.  Once the bullet is all disassembled I don't worry too much about the primer.  Eye protection is a really good idea.  

I have never figured out a way to save primers.

[Smokin Joe]

Water doesn't work. WD-40 works in a few seconds.

[jasonprox700]

Send them to me!!!

You could use an inertia puller to pull the bullets.  Dump the powder in your food plot (or wife's flower pots!).  I'm not sure about the primers though.  You could soak them in water or something.  I'm not sure if the regular sizing and de-priming operation would set them off.  I have done this without any problems, but I may have been lucky.  I hope somebody else can chime in.  I'd like to know if that is a big no-no so I don't repeat. 

[DANNY-L]

I use a bullet puller (collet or inertia depending on the cartridge) then run the brass through the resizing die. I wear safety glasses as a just in case and I dont have any powder near the press I also reuse the primer if its loads are some that I've done because I would know what the primer is.

[mechanic]

I've deprimed bunches of live primers and never had one pop.  If you squeeze a primer with a pair of pliers, it will not pop.  If you hit it with a hammer, it will.  I'm not recommending you do so, but I do often.  I also wear face and eye protection and leather gloves...just in case. 

Ben

[Dand]

If  you have a reloading press but no fancy puller, you can just set the cartridge in the shell holder, run it up thru the die hole (without a die in), grab the bullet with vise grips or pliers then draw the handle down and pull out the bullet. Dump powder. If you don't want to salvage the brass spray wd40 or other oil into the case to kill the primer. Don't oil a case you want to save. I have carefully deprimed live primers with the size / decap die with no problems; I go slowly and run the decap rod out a bit so I don't have to size the case. And yeah safey goggles are a good idea.

On 22 rimfire - DON'T grip the case with pliers. I hold them with my finger tips and slowly bend the bullet out - LR that is. Never tried on 22 mags. Mine's not the safest method. But in high school a friend used pliers on bullet and case. He squished the case enough to fire the primer. The case flew into his shoulder to make a nasty cut and he lost a bit of blood by the time he was patched up.

[dickttx]

Dand, you answered my question.  Don't really have enough of anything to justify buying the collets. I do have a bullet puller but not collets for these calibers.  I guess that is why these items have accumulated. 
Thanks everyone for the info.

[wncchester]

"How do you dispose of bad ammunition?"

Trash can.  It ain't toxic nor is it dynamite.  ??

[necchi]

Trash can.  It ain't toxic nor is it dynamite.  ??

Must Respectfully Disaggree,
IMO Bad Idea! Too many peices of heavy equipment handles our trash nowadays. It gets tossed, dumped, crushed, then transfered, sorted, compacted,,,,,
 Just plain too many ways to crush or stomp a primer and set it off. Yes that's a way to get rid of it,,but I'd never do it!

I know a kid years back that was hitting his dads 7mm bullets with a hammer just for the bang, case split, schrapnel hit his arm and walked up cutting a bunch of arterys,, he almost bled out before he got to the hospital.

[calvon]

I pull the bullet, dump the powder in wife's flower beds, and toss the primed case into my wood stove where it makes a satisfying snap when it goes off. The brass then goes into my scrap box.

[SHOOTALL]

If the load is a safe load and the round will chamber even with a nudge i fire it and re load. Even set back or dented cases can be salvaged. I have punched out alot of primers that were good and never had one go bang while using a press and decaping die. On the other hand the lee tool for knocking out mil. crimped primers makes them go bang. I think it takes a good hit  If you look at the primer it has nothing to hold it for the decapping pin to pinch aginst.The one ( and only one) that went bang was when punching out primers with a lee tool and somehow picked up a primed case and didn't get it centered over the hole in the base . But don't let me talk you into anything. And those that are beyond help get WD-40 . If i want to save cases then place in press without a die and use side cutter to hold bullet while backing brass away. If the bullet or both are to be save the ineart puller is good but slow. Reclaimed bullets that were taken out with side cutters are saved and used in low pressure fire forming loads or for breaking in an action.

[moorepower]

If it is a brass case, a side cutter will cut open the case, and you can throw it in a bucket of water. A few years back I got 5k pc of unfired .223 demiled brass, and in it was a live round.

[wncchester]

"Must Respectfully Disaggree, IMO Bad Idea! Too many peices of heavy equipment handles our trash nowadays.'

Guess it depends on how easily frightened anyone is.  It's REALLY unlikely any would go off but so what, it ain't dynamite.  Even if it does, all that would happen is the primer would pop out; devoid of a chamber and barrel a loaded round isn't much to be concerned about.  The "pop" would be less hazardous than a squished can of hair spray or spray paint and they run over and compact thousands of those every day.  All that heavy equipment is built to take it without blowing the tracks off and the operators don't have their heads down at the ground level.    ??

[Dezynco]

Pull the bullets, dump the powder, decap with safety glasses and gloves.  If the case is deformed so that it won't go into the decapper, just throw it away.  Like wncchester said, there are much worse things in the trash than a live primer from a cartridge or two.

Don't believe it, throw an empty paint can into a fire, then throw a live cartridge into the fire and see which one makes you run the farthest!  LOL!

[SHOOTALL]

"Must Respectfully Disaggree, IMO Bad Idea! Too many peices of heavy equipment handles our trash nowadays.'

Guess it depends on how easily frightened anyone is.  It's REALLY unlikely any would go off but so what, it ain't dynamite.  Even if it does, all that would happen is the primer would pop out; devoid of a chamber and barrel a loaded round isn't much to be concerned about.  The "pop" would be less hazardous than a squished can of hair spray or spray paint and they run over and compact thousands of those every day.  All that heavy equipment is built to take it without blowing the tracks off and the operators don't have their heads down at the ground level.    ??

Guess you never saw one go off , its the case that takes off like a rocket . I have seen 223 rounds an idoit threw in a fire dent an alu. dog box .

[BCB]

If I get a bad round or a couple that have been in an ammo case for some time and I ain’t sure what they are, I have a couple of open cells in my basement—cement block wall foundation.  The open cells are at the top as the plate didn’t completely cover the 10” block.  I simply put them in there and they fall to the bottom of the wall or at least they move that direction…

If I have many from some years of accumulation, or old ammo that I have acquired for whatever reason, I dig a hole about a foot deep and place them in there.  Cover with the dirt, stomp in place and let Mother Nature do her thing…

Good-luck…BCB

[wncchester]

"Guess you never saw one go off , its the case that takes off like a rocket "

Goodness!  So, some cartridges ARE dynamite??     

Never saw a puny lil' .223 go off in heat but once experimented by cooking off a .30-06/150 gr load in a cardboard box, about 18" square, and using a candle to provide the heat.  It did pop out the bullet and primer but nothing exited the upside-down box.   That was about twenty five years ago, maybe things are more dangerous now?  

The laws of physics strongly suggest that, the case of a .223 being heavier than the bullet, a free case can't move nearly as fast as the bullet due to the high inertia of it's greater mass.  But, in this modern world, maybe the really old laws of physics are no longer true??

Whatever....        

[SteveHawaii]

You don't need a puller of any sorts to remove a bullet from a cartridge.  Just push the bullet sideways against a hard surface, back and forth a few times, enough to open the case mouth, and out comes the bullet.

[SHOOTALL]

"Guess you never saw one go off , its the case that takes off like a rocket "

Goodness!  So, some cartridges ARE dynamite??     

Never saw a puny lil' .223 go off in heat but once experimented by cooking off a .30-06/150 gr load in a cardboard box, about 18" square, and using a candle to provide the heat.  It did pop out the bullet and primer but nothing exited the upside-down box.   That was about twenty five years ago, maybe things are more dangerous now?  

The laws of physics strongly suggest that, the case of a .223 being heavier than the bullet, a free case can't move nearly as fast as the bullet due to the high inertia of it's greater mass.  But, in this modern world, maybe the really old laws of physics are no longer true??

Whatever....        

Lets exzamine what the laws are - the case holds the powder ? the bullet once seperated from the case has nothing to push it ? BUT the case still has the powder (fuel) burning at a high rate that has to escape thru the small opening in the end LIKE A ROCKET !
If you care to dispute that feel free but you will never convince my wife , I once laid several 30 carbine rounds on the counter next to the range. The next morning i picked up all but the one . Somehow when the wife places a pot on the stove the round found its way onto the heat elem. next to the pot. When it went off the case put a dent in the pot and went thru the element . She was pizzed when I got home as it was her new faberware pot.

[Blackhawker]

Send it all to the Mexican drug dealers or the Taliban.