Best and safest way to dispose of ammo

[CT.HNTR]

I was not sure where to post this question so I am hoping the reloading page will work. Organizing my gear and ended up with a dozen boxes of older ammo that are half empty. They were either loads that did not shoot great or for rifles I no longer have. I need to destroy and/or safely dispose of this ammo and am not sure how to go about doing so. I would appreciate any and all suggestions.

Thanks!

 

[clearwater]

If factory loads, most any shooter that has that gun in that round would take it to see if it shot well in their gun.

If reloads, some handloaders would take it to dismantle and make use of the components in their own loads.

So if you are part of a club/range etc. ask around.

 

[RL338]

Depending how many you have , this will allow you to save the brass and bullets.

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[Slimfinn]

When i run into older live rounds I'll pull the bullets dump the powder for fertilizer, then toss if i dont have a use for the components.

 

[NYDAN]

If it is factory ammo, I try to find someone who has a firearm in that cartridge and give it to them. Reloaded ammo, I disassemble as per Slimfinn, above.

 

[jimbires]

if these are reloaded , I'd pull them apart . keep the bullets , primers , and brass . if the brass isn't what you use , find it a home . throw the powder in the yard . factory ammo , try to find it a home . with the cost of this stuff I'd hate to just discard it .

 

[hunter24605]

Like all the others I would donate if it’s retail ammo or pull it down into components if they’re reloaded. However, if making them inert is the preferred option, soaking the rounds for a week in wd-40 or a penetrating oil should render them inoperable.

 

[Guy Miner]

I was given 100+ 25-06 handloads several years ago. A friend's father had loaded them, but there was no info with them.

Eyeballed them for a bit and decided to disassemble them... Mix of 85 and 87 grain bullets along with a few 100 grain bullets. No idea what the powder was. I ended up keeping the bullets for plinking/coyote loads sometime in the future but got rid of the powder. Culled quite a few of the cases as well. Just wasn't quality stuff. Wasn't a real fun chore, but simple enough to accomplish.

Guy

 

[salmonchaser]

Ammo that just didn’t measure up accuracy wise I usually save for field practice. If your range allows shooting from standard positions, shooting from sticks, those kinds of things, shooting steel plates from kneeling, sitting or standing thats the place to burn it up. Most of use won’t see the difference, when shooting a plate at 100 or 300 yards, between 3/4 MOA loads and 1 1/2 MOA loads. When I find a box of some cartridge I no longer own I’ll usually give it to some one who does. (Factory only). I only load for myself and a few family members. I would never give away any reloaded ammo and I’ll never use some one else’s reloads. I may pull a few bullets from time to time. Load up 10 to test and know by the time I shoot five the test is over kind of thing. But even in that scenario I’ll stand up and shoot my plate with the last five rounds.

 

[Charlie-NY]

My buddy passed away recently. He had a load of misc ammo in boxes, jars and containers. I'm not sure if it was all handloads or just some of it. I put all the ammo on a shelf at our club with a sign that said "free ammo". In two weeks, it was all gone. It could have been tossed out for all that I know but it was the only idea I had other than pulling it all apart.

 

[TackDriver284]

I just pull the bullets and keep the bullets / brass / primers, and dump the powder in the yard as fertilizer. I will try to identify the brand of those factory primers before using them and use them as plinking or sight in rounds.