[Triggw]

I bought a flat of Federal Top Gun 12 Ga 1 ounce shells. Almost one shell per box has failed to fire. Primer dented, tried on both barrels, no go. So now I have a handful of these shells. How can I safely dispose of them? I don't reload, so I'm not interested in salvaging shot or power. I just want to get rid of the things in a safe way.

 

[The Happy Kaboomer]

Trashcan. no problems.

 

[jwsmith1959]

Leave them with your club. The ones I go to don't mind taking care of FTF ammo.

Good luck and all the best.

 

[oneounceload]

See if they'll work in one of your friend's guns; if not, in the trash; since I reload, I save any OOPS and disassemble everything to reuse except the hull

 

[Triggw]

Thanks, guys. I guess in the trash = in the landfill, so that's probably as safe as anywhere.

 

[Hard H2O]

I would look to your shotgun and try to see why they will not fire.

Do you have a problem with your firing pin? Is it gunked up and not hitting with enough force? Is it worn? Is there a weak spring? Is the shell not being held against the bolt? is the bolt not fully going into battery?

One shell per box in an entire flat would have me searching for a cause other than the shells.

If it is truly the shells then Federal should hear about it.

 

[Triggw]

I would look to your shotgun and try to see why they will not fire.
...

This is a Cynergy CX with only about 2500 rounds through it. I'm suspicious that the problem started with the Federals. If it doesn't go away with the Federals, then I'll certainly dig into the gun. Thanks.

 

[packrat]

Quote"Thanks, guys. I guess in the trash = in the landfill, so that's probably as safe as anywhere.
If the shell does not fire after two tries just leave it on the ground, I have found lots of bad shells when sorting hulls{if you do not want the shot or powder}

 

[jwsmith1959]

There has been a lot of commentary lately of the Federal Promo shells (especially the Walmart 4 packs) having some primers that have been set too deep causing some firing pins to not quite hit hard enough to fire.

I am guessing that due to shortages and the attempt to get as much ammo out as possible, QAQC might have fallen just a tad. I would still rather see you leave them at your club instead of just chunking them in the trash. As a former Solid Waste Manager, ammo was a specific no-no along many other items.

Good luck and all the best.

 

[Flash]

I like finding other people's bad shells. I take them apart and use the components. The powder becomes fertilizer, though.

 

[oneounceload]

Most of gunpowder isn't really that great for fertilizer and never use for food plants. Makes a great flash for firing up the fire pit though!

 

[Triggw]

...As a former Solid Waste Manager, ammo was a specific no-no along many other items.
...

I checked it out. You're right. In my county they don't even take ammunition as hazardous waste. The county just north does, but only from county residents. I wonder what my club does with theirs.

 

[Hard H2O]

You can also check with your local police or sheriff. Sometimes they will dispose of unwanted ammo.

 

[[email protected]]

I like finding other people's bad shells. I take them apart and use the components. The powder becomes fertilizer, though.

A man after my own heart, I usually do the same thing. Because I reload I will transfer the components to a freshly primed case and crimp it closed. Sometime the primer is set off before the powder id added in the manufacturing process. - Gun Nut

 

[The Happy Kaboomer]

And the beat goes on.......an on........an on.

 

[packrat]

QUOTE"You can also check with your local police or sheriff. Sometimes they will dispose of unwanted ammo.

You do not want to do that, they will have the bomb squad out to your house and close down your street. Some one here reported a ammo can on the street that had fallen out of a truck, the police closed the street and sent in the bomb people with a robot only to find some tools in a ammo can.??

 

[Jack Ryan]

Save it for a dull moment in camp, when everyone is about to fall asleep and toss it in the camp fire.

 

[jwsmith1959]

A man after my own heart, I usually do the same thing. Because I reload I will transfer the components to a freshly primed case and crimp it closed. Sometime the primer is set off before the powder id added in the manufacturing process. - Gun Nut

I don't think I would transfer components from an unknown FTF shell to another primed shell. Who knows what powder the previous owner used? Unwise decision.

Same with rifle components. Any unfired shell I find gets either thrown in the brass bucket or if it is interesting...gets put up on a shelf of my reloading bench. Too many empties around to take a chance.

I have a portion of a shelf on my bench where I put interesting shells/bad crimps/bulged hulls/etc. to be dealt with later or kept for prosperity.

Good luck and all the best.

Joel

 

[jwsmith1959]

Save it for a dull moment in camp, when everyone is about to fall asleep and toss it in the camp fire.

I was working at a Shooting Range in 1983 that pretty much got destroyed by Hurricane Alicia on the Texas Gulf Coast.

We had just taken deliver of about 40K 38 special wadcutter reloads from a Houston reloader. They wound up being buried under a bunch of ruble and stayed in their paper board boxes for a couple of weeks which were soaked with rain. After we dug them out, we peeled them out of their boxes as best we could and ran them through a cement mixer with walnut hulls. This cleaned them up beautifully, but after some testing, about 10% were duds. The owner wound up just giving them to me and I took great advantage of that. Me and one of the local police officers wound up shooting them up over the next year. I had a Smith Model 15 and 19 and I don't know how many NRA 25 yard targets we went through...but I know that not knowing if a round will go off or not, will cure any flinch you might have. I was probably shooting 200-300 of 45 ACP per week during the same time as I was shooting some IPSC and Bowling Pin.

We had a ton of factory rifle and pistol ammo that we wound up selling for about $0.25 on the dollar after making purchaser's sign a waiver of liability.

The shotgun ammo was too suspect to even chance that. Because the Range was a few hundred acres and shut down for awhile, the area between the rifle range and skeet/trap fields was used as a burn area for a bunch of the tree debris that the City collected.

We probably had close to 30 or so cases of shotgun ammo that needed to be disposed of...so me and one of my co-workers did what any 20-something guys would do. We tossed them into one of the HUGE fires that were going on at the time...pretty much a box at a time. At first we hid behind our trucks...but after a case or two...it was pretty obvious that they did little more than a little bit of a light show in such a huge fire.

I was also shooting about 20-25 rounds of Skeet per week. Best time of my life.

Joel

 

[DaveSy]

Misfired shells

Even if you don't reload I would recommend dismantling the shell for safety sake. Nobody plans an accident...