I'm with old growth just shoot it. Have some excitement in your life.

Hard to say. Some of the oldest reloaders are the best, and some are the most complacent and likely to make mistakes.

I'd at least open 1 and weigh the powder charge. If it's red dot or a similar low volume powder as PMB mentioned weighing the ammo may be pointless since the charge weight is so light (around 5 grains IIRC) A variance of 5 grains on a loaded round could easily be due to an over or under trimmed case, slight variations in projectile weight, different projectiles used in different rounds, etc.

It's a crap shoot. Ultimately you either disassemble and reload them all for complete safety, or cross your fingers and hope that after you shoot it you still have fingers left to cross.

Got any friends that always want you to take them shooting but never chip in on ammo...?

You fucking guys!

No "hey, congrats on quitting smoking" just "nice vape, dbag!" I see how it is.

VAPING!?!?! what is next a Man bun and skinny jeans?

One thought... what did the reloader die of?

A kaboom??!! Was he an alcoholic? Drugs? Lucid until the end?

If he died of things that might make you question the quality of the reloads, then I would not shoot them.

If he died in a boating accident, different story.

LOL ... a fair question! Haha.

Snozzberries, weighing the loaded rounds will be a waste of your time.

Decide how much you trust your friend, and either shoot them or pull them.

I would still weigh the ammo, either in groups of 50 or individually if not many. It's not a conclusive answer but a data point. I would have added assurances if they are all exactly the same. If you see wild variations on the weights, then it's a data point to just pull them and do not shoot them.

Good question. I'll check.

If I'm not satisfied with the results, maybe I'll take them to the new years shoot and leave them in an ammo-can. Maybe whoever stole the one last year will steal this one too.

No worries there. Hair's too short for a bun and ass is too fat for skinny jeans.

I use to buy any cheap ammo I could find at the gun shows or on the different forums until i had a super charged 357 magnum reload I got in a reload bag of cheap ammo.
After that wrist breaking shot I never bought another reloaded bullet to shoot.
I did buy some reloaded rare hard to find ammo that I broke down for the brass.

I have seen two revolvers and a semi that blew apart from being over charged. I dont trust any ones reloads.

That is why I spent the cash and set myself up to reload, I spent a shit load of money and time to.get where I am in the reloading circuit. If any of my friends want any ammo reloaded they ate welcome to use my stuff to reload what ever they want.
I have a shit load of dies in a bunch of calibers I dont use, just for friends to use.

There no way I would chance old reloaded ammo ever again.

A good reloader does not use powder that can be double-charged. Meaning if it was double-charged, it would over flow the round.

I refuse to use powder that uses less that 50% of the available volume of the round. You just asking for trouble when the primer can possibly light off the entire powder charge. Some reloading manuals advise not doing light loads for this very reason..Extreme pressures can result.

I've had ONE bad squib reload in my lifetime. I caught it, before lighting off the next round.

By the same token, I've have several bad factory rounnds in my lifetime. One time i didn't catch it in time. (Fun rapid fire) The rifle barrel got bent. Ruined. Cartridge? A lowly 22 rim fire.

Moral of my rant? Don't buy cheap factory ammo.

If I received reloads from a unknown source, I'd pull 3 or 4 rounds. If it's a light charge...... I'd dump it all.

Yeah! They could explode like a squirrel in a microwave.

,

It was reloaded by a retired AirForce Colonel. Died of cancer.