DEACTIVATE 45-60 CARTRIDGES
I have some loaded 45-60 cartridges I want to neutralize. I heard I could soak them in penetrating oil. Is that true? If so for how long? If they are neutralized or inert can they be shipped as non-hazardous? Is there a better way?
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Bullet hammer. Stick it in the hammer, wack it a few times, the bullet pops out of the casing and all the powder spills out.... 
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Answering a question w/ a question ... why do you want to ship them?
Are you selling or trading them to someone?
Yes you can soak them, but that's no gurantee, some rounds could soak for a week or more and still go BOOM!
Pulling the bullet and dumping the powder down the toilet or spreading it thinly and burning it will handle the charge but you still have the primer to deal with, and you could handle that by popping the primers in your rifle after pulling the bullet and dumping the powder charge.
Course with all that said you can go to UPS and ship the darn things as ORMD small arms ammo that will go ground delivery. A box of 20 cartridges will ship for say $6.00 and more cart. will obviously cost more, but after the initial shipping step the rate comes down.
As an example I placed an order for several items, including a large can of Kroil which requires ground shipping just like ammo. Any way the total order came to something like $9.50 shipping, but everything but the Kroil was on backorder and to ship me just the can of oil was $6.25 which was more than the oil cost. Needless to say I cancelled the Kroil part of the order and the 2 stocks and barrels shipped for just under $9.00 when the backorder was filled. Goofy supplier would not hold the oil till the other stuff was ready to ship ... so they lost a couple bucks and I bought the oil at the next gun show for a dollar more than the suppliers catalog price without shipping.
If you only have time to do two things so-so, or one thing well ... do the one thing!0 -
dw: live, loaded ammo can be shipped via common carrier as ORM-D (Other Regulated Material - class D); you only need to inert the rounds if shipping USPS. I ship hundreds of ORM-D packages containing live ammunition via FedEx ground or UPS ground every year.
Original rounds in this caliber are a collectible, with individual specimens retailing for $6 and up. Depending on the headstamp and condition, each such round could bring up to four times that amount.
So before I provide instructions on destroying their collector value, if you would explain your goal in shipping them, I may be able to suggest some alternative approaches which will serve your needs equally well.
"There is nothing lower than the human race - except the French." (Mark Twain)0
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