Specifically, on .45 ACP Hydra-shok. I've been cleaning up the random ammo from the fort lately. Found some older Hydra-shok of uncertain history, about 300 rounds or so, all loose. Some of the rounds have the bullet set well back into the case to the point it's visible (and obviously unsafe to fire). Others look to be GTG.

Has anybody got some of this ammo in new condition and would be willing to measure it for OAL? That would give me a starting point. And what does the tribal wisdom say as to how much is too much? I'm out of my depth here, and can't afford to guess wrong.

I'm in the same boat. A case of 45 arrived and the corner where the box was dropped had some damage. Upon inspection of the box that took the brunt of the impact, 3 of the rounds got some setback.

For a low pressure round like the 45, I am not worried and will probably shoot them. I discard any setback rounds in hotter loads such as 40, 10mm, 357 etc.

It's always the safest bet to dump any ammo that looks off but I doubt you could smush a 45 enough to cause issues.

edit: I do not have any old style Hydrashok to measure for the OP, sorry.

My problem:



Those are two semi-random I grabbed outta the bag. I've got about 150-175 suspect rounds. Rather not just shitcan them.

Find someone who reloads .45 ACP and has an inertia type bullet puller. Use it to tap the projectiles out slightly past the factory OAL, re-seat them and add a light taper crimp.

The round in the pic would worry me more in regards to it not feeding more than anything.

Do you have calipers? If so, measure a sample of rounds with a "normal" appearing length to get an average and go from there.

^^^

Thats pretty much what I did. I gave 200 rounds to a buddy who's going to reprocess them and return me half. The remainder (the longest ones) I'm keeping for range/testing use. I'm sure I've got $$$ in them. But they're vintage pre-1995, so it's not that big a deal.