How to Link and De-link Ammunition by Hand

Video Transcript:

We're back with another video in our 50 BMG series. Today we're going to be talking about one of the most dangerous 50 BMG cartridges you can get, but it's not dangerous for the reasons you may be thinking.

What this is is a Dominican Surplus AP Yellow Tip 50 BMG. Before we get into the specifics of what makes this cartridge so dangerous, we first need to know how to identify it. The first and most obvious thing that you'll notice is the yellow tip. Next, you're going to want to look at the head stamp. In the 12 o'clock position, it should always have the number 50, which denotes the caliber 50 BMG. In the 6 o'clock position, there should be a two-digit year, in this case 61.

This ammunition was imported onto the US civilian market years ago as a budget-friendly option for 50 BMG match shooters and plinkers alike. It didn't take long, however, for people to discover how poor quality and dangerous this ammunition was, and subsequently it was actually banned from use in 50 BMG matches.

There are several things that make this ammunition unsafe to shoot, the first of which is the storage conditions prior to importation. So the Dominican Republic, of course, is a tropical climate, and it is believed that this stuff sat in crates out in the tropical sun for multiple years at a time, which caused the powder to degrade.

Even if this ammunition had been stored in optimal conditions prior to importation, this from the beginning was plagued with quality control issues, the first of which was the brass itself. Many shooters noticed once they started using this stuff that there would be case neck ruptures and sometimes even the case itself down at the bottom would split.

One of the biggest issues that shooters noticed with this particular ammunition was in the projectile itself. It was very poorly made, the projectile was asymmetrical, and to make matters worse, the copper jacket a lot of times was not secured to the core, even before firing. So we know that you don't want to fire this cartridge as is.

Sometimes you'll see people selling these as use for pull downs or components only. But that's also a bad idea because if the projectile is bad, the powder is bad, and the case is bad, that means using any of these components in a new hand load is also going to be dangerous.

So now what we're going to do is we're actually going to take this and pull it apart, and we're going to get a close-up look at how degraded this powder actually is. We're going to look at the projectile and we'll try to get a view down inside of the case and see what it looks like.

So now that we've got the projectile pulled out of this thing, we can get a real good look at just how asymmetrical it is. Keep in mind there are scuff marks on the top and on the bottom of the projectile that's caused from us pulling this thing apart. Those were not originally there. What we're interested in is up here toward the tip. If you look right about here and right about here, there's a sharp dip in until it comes to a point. What it should do is gradually curve until it comes to a point. So that's going to affect stability and accuracy.

So now you can see just how badly separated the jacket and the core are. We're actually going to grab this. We're going to give it a shake. If you hear that, that's the sound of the core and the jacket hitting up against each other, which is a very bad sign.

Now we're going to pour out this powder and take a look and see what kind of condition it's in.

Okay, so at first glance it doesn't appear to be too degraded, although looks can be deceiving. I still wouldn't recommend using this. It looks relatively consistent, but again, knowing the way this stuff was stored, I would recommend you don't reuse this at all. Powder doesn't cost that much and it would be foolish to risk your rifle or yourself just to save a couple pennies and reusing this powder.

All right, now we have the brass case here and keep in mind it is a little bent up and banged up from when we pulled this apart. Now just by looking at it, you can't really tell if it has any weak spots. However, this would not be any use for components or reloading anyway because this is Berdan primed. So you would at most be able to use this primed case one time only.

So now that you guys know the dangers of this Dominican AP yellow tip ammo, you know that it is not suitable to fire as is and it is not suitable to use for components. It's just like when you see a really good deal on a Land Rover. It's not actually a good deal. We'll catch you next time.