How do I get rid of some bullets?

Dump them in a river or other body of water.

sell them or turn them in.

Take them to the local Police Department, I’ve done that several times. I metal detect and have done that more than once. Live rounds at the beach, .22’s and a couple of .45 ACF.

You can give them to a shooting range.

I don’t want any connection to them by name or anything else. I don’t want to answer any questions. I don’t want any trail. I don’t even want to call the police department and ask where I could turn them in, because I don’t want the call associated with my number. I’d like to get them out of my possession cleanly and anonymously, without saddling someone else with a problem.

The river option would sound pretty good if there were a running river anywhere near here. I’m in California and we’re in a drought. And I’m not by a lake or the ocean.

I hope there’s no shooting range anywhere in my vicinity that uses bullets this big. They’re thicker than a pencil and about an inch and a quarter long.

I gave the first lot I found to a private investigator, who made them disappear, but he’s not around any more.

Why not just bury them in your backyard.The odds of them ever being discovered or exploding are extremely slim. I’d just dig a narrow hole about 18 inches deep and plant them.

Apparently “high temp, high humidity, and direct sunlight” are the enemies of live rounds.

Dig a hole, add a handful of salt, put the shells in, water, and cover with dirt.

Corrode/disarm.

What @coloma beat me to!

@ibstubro Aaaah…but the salt is a great idea to speed corrosion. Cool!
High temps too, well, then putting them in the oven or microwave is a bad idea. haha

Why make it more complicated than dropping them off at the “cop shop”?

I found these and I don’t know what to do with them.

You’re turning them in. You don’t have to answer any awkward questions. I walk/hike my area and find all sorts of things. I wouldn’t hesitate to turn in ammo to my local police. “Here. Now it’s your problem”.

I’d drop them off at the police station. I get you don’t want to be associated with them, but I’d be worried about someone digging the bullets up in the future and them still being live (I know nothing about bullets!) Can you just leave them inside the door of the police station? Or call them from a pay phone and say they were found in a friend’s attic. Nobody knows where they came from, who they belong to or how they got there. If you do leave them inside the door of the police station, they might think it’s a bomb or something and all hell could break lose!

As a former kid who played with bullets, I ask that you not bury them.

It’s not easy to fire bullets without a gun, but I assure you that a couple of curious ten year olds can make it happen.

Nobody was hurt but only because we were very lucky.

There must be an American Legion or VFW post somewhere near you. Just walk in and speak to whomever is in charge.

Tell him you found them while cleaning out the attic (or whatever white lie is convenient) and you want to do the responsible thing and ensure that they don’t endanger anyone.

Thank them politely and leave without giving any further info.

These are retired soldiers. I’m sure they can figure out how to get rid of them without them falling into the wrong hands.

They might ask your name but they certainly can’t force you to give it. Likely they won’t care. These guys are retired. They don’t really have any official authority to report to. Chances are slim they give a hoot about getting the police involved or pursuing any further info.

You are an upstanding citizen trying to to the right thing. Nothing to be afraid of.

And if retired soldiers don’t know what to do with old unused bullets, then nobody does :)

They’re not dangerous or explosive without a barrel to direct the energy somewhere. If they were to somehow ignite, the bullet wouldn’t go anywhere. That said, just throw them away or find a reloader to give them to (someone who remanufactures their own ammmunition. Lots of hunters and target shooters do this.)

Or call the NRA (National Rifle Assoc.) and ask for their advice. Look in the yellow pages for a local chapter.

They are anti-government enough so you won’t have any worries about them reporting to anybody :)

They might be able to steer you to some of the local reloader guys that Fiddle refers to.

But at least they’re worth a phone call. Believe me, they won’t be reporting anything to anybody, that’s for sure :)

…or send them to me. I have a small cartridge collection and if they’re an inch and a half long and the size of a pencil, they may be something collectible. What do they say on the bottom? (The not pointy end?) That’s called the headstamp and it can ID if they have any value…

I agree that since they are in your possession, it is your responsibility to see that nobody comes to harm because of them. Pack them up in something like a padded envelope and turn them over to the local police. They will respect your desire to act responsibly. Give then a simple explanation of how you discovered them in the attic or basement of the house in which you have lived for years. Insist that no one you know has any information about how they came to be in your house. Keep it simple and thank them for disposing of them safely.

You need to be the responsible adult and take care of this. You can’t tell them what you don’t know.

After we go shooting or hunting I turn the leftovers to police. They don’t ask many questions.

I drink to much to keep live ammo in the house.

On another Q you mentioned court and your family, I understand why you might not want more interest in you or your family.

Can you do something like put them in a coffee can/glass jar with dirt and salt and water and bury it somewhere unlikely to be associated with you?

Could you ask a friend to “find” them and take them in?

@Jeruba I like the way you think. You want safe disposal without involving any outside authorities .

Placing them sideways in salt water will eventually destroy the powder and primers rendering them useless. Once sufficiently saturated, the powders will not explode even if dried out.
Depending upon your surroundings I would either
1) Drop them in a body of water that remains wet all year.
2) Put them in a plastic baggie filled with salt water and bury it in a muddy area.
3) Visit the local gun shop or sporting goods store and offer them.

Note: Some states have a database of ammunition purchases. The box might have numbers on it that could potentially identify the purchaser so be sure to take the bullets out of the box before disposal.

If you trust fellow jellies you can send a PM to a certain player of stringed instruments so he can tell you if they have value. .

I understand that you don’t want to “burden” anyone, but I’m sure there are people who would be so happy to take those of your hands and anonymously drop them off at a police station or any of the other excellent suggestions mentioned above. Perhaps you’re concerned that someone else wouldn’t honor your anonymity.

If I lived close to you, I’d be happy to do it for you.

I hope you find comfort in a relatively easy solution.

Please, whatever else you do, do not attempt to dispose of them by throwing them in a body of water as “out of sight, out of mind”. Likewise do not bury them, even if they won’t be discovered before archaeologists find them in 10,000 years or so. Aside from the explosives in the cartridge, which does make them at least somewhat harmful until they decompose, and aside from the fact that “someone” either irresponsible or criminal may find them before they decompose and put them to a bad use – which you could have prevented – they most likely contain toxic elements that will be a source of pollution for a very long time. I don’t think that you can legally send them via common carrier without answering the very kinds of questions and permit applications that you want to avoid, so that’s also a no-go.

The advice to turn them in to an NRA site, police, shooting clubs, gun stores, reloaders, hobby shooters and hunters (any “Rod and Gun” clubs in your area?) is good. I doubt very much whether any police will be interested in who you are.

However, if none of those ideas appeals to you, I am sure that you could take them – hand-carried in a secure container, even a cardboard box – to a waste processing facility, where they handle toxic, explosive, flammable and other dangerous waste on a routine basis, and could easily handle “a few random bullets”. (I’m assuming that you’re not talking about case loads of the stuff.)

You could also call a gun shop and just ask them for advice, if you prefer not to show up in person. They’ll have a safe, legal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted and otherwise unusable ammunition, I’m sure.

I don’t know if you got this resolved, but your best bet would be either a gun range or police station from what I’ve read. You don’t need to explain how you got them, just say you need to get rid of them.

Update: I received some reliable-sounding advice via PM and followed it. The bullets are gone. Thank you all for taking an interest in my problem.

Throw them in the trash.