Salvaging shot out of damaged shotgun shells

I was down out my friends house fixing his truck again....LF hub this time.

while I was there he gave me a huge dog food bag full of live shotgun shells that have water damage to the steel part of the hulls.

His hot water heater sprung a leak in the basement at some point and ruined all of them and he didn't want to take the chance on firing them.

So now I have about 400 rounds of 16 gauge #6 shot and 200 rounds of 16 gauge #7-1/2, some 12 gauge #4's and 7-1/2"'s and a handfull of slugs to salvage the shot from...a few primers maybe and the few I cut apart last night still had dry powder in them that I'll use for fertilizer I guess.

Should be fun!

good luck for you. honestly they probably are still good. the worst thing that could happen would be a fizzle. and that being the case just get a stick and push the wadding out of your barrel. I would imagine that if the primers are wet they arent any good I will find out however as I had a major water leak on several thousand of my shotgun shell primers I let them dry out and am going to see if they are any good I just cant bring myself to toss them.

These were not found water damaged until too late... most of them are very rusty and so are the primers. So far the shot has been clean and most of the powder is dry....some of the really bad ones have corrosion on the inside of the primer cup and is visible looking into the shell.

I wouldn't trust them...but I'll trust the salvaged shot to work just fine

It's not too hard ....just cut the shell in half with a fine serrated knife....the shot falls out one side and once the wad is removed the powder falls out the other.

i would call that making lemonade out of lemons...

That sounds like a good score! I've cracked-open a coupla' rusty shells and I noticed the same thing; sometimes the powder seems dry and okay.

I'd probably save the powder and use it to build... er.... never mind

BigAgitator wrote:
I'd probably save the powder and use it to build... er.... never mind

...Blanks! LOL

Idk... I am saving it in ziplock bags....separated by each type of shell of course. It's large flake powder...but I don't have a clue as to what kind.

The xxxxx of it all is....none of this stuff was the cheap target loads. it was all high grade hunting ammo..."high brass" stuff. I guess he learned to keep his ammo off the floor,LOL

were they reloads or factory stuff?

All factory....he doesn't reload shotgun, which is why he gave them to me.

I might try to transfer the innards out of some of the 12 gauge shells into some good shells with fresh primers and give them a try. I don't have a 16 gauge....so they are for salvage only.

well then there is absolutely no way to tell what powder it is. I would fertilize with it. but Lead is Lead unless of course its steel. a magnet will tell you that. you could save the wads.

Yeah, let's say I was talking about blanks

That's a good haul! Little bit of work on your part and you got some new loaded rounds and some fertilizer

fertilizer is powder good for plants????

you should see how nice they make tomatoe plants grow!!!

DUDE! is there nothing reloading cannot do!!!!!

seriously this is so cool I have about 8 lbs of old powder from some WWII pulls....

Dont use too much, you can burn the plants as well. They do your grass good to if you toss them out. For Tomatoe plants I use about a table spoon full and not often.

thank you Tommy..... this is absolute a first for me.... this is so cool.... cheaper than miracle grow....

this is a tease for you land-locked staters but seaweed right off the beach, still wet, makes the grass grow faster than you can cut it. Too bad it doesn't double as a propellant for small arms ammunition.