How can you tell if ammo has been reloaded?

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The_Duke

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I bought some 243 off of a forum that were advertised as commercial a little over a year ago but now I am wondering if it has been reloaded.
)First clue was the cases are Winchester but they came in a Federal shell holder.
)Second the primers are silver, all of the Winchester I have is gold
)Third thing I notice some of them, not all, have a ring around the base of the case.

Probably the safe thing would be to pull the bullet and see what I find but just wondering if there was a sure fire way of knowing.

Thanks
 

12gabackup

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Sounds very suspicious. The ring indicates that it's been resized. Miss matched packaging is sign of careless handleing.
I've got some WW 243 that has silver primers. Also, FC w/silver & RP w/gold primers.
You could pull a bullet from a case with the ring and one from a case without a ring and compare the powder? Also check the overall length and see if it's consisent.
 

Ksmirk

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I would just pull the bullets and trash the powder and knock the primers out, weight the bullets if you want to keep them, keep the brass and start over if you don't feel comfortable shooting them. Looking at the powder will not tell you a lot since most of the powder looks real close to the same. Dude I'm always here to help so if you don't want to mess with them I can take them off your hands to dispose of them :woohoo1: Later,

Kirk
 

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