[Raellus]

The one time I fired reloads, the Glock 19 jammed multiple times. Apparently, there wasn't enough powder in the cartridges to cycle the action and fully eject the spent brass. That must have been why the range was selling reloads cheaper than new factory-made rounds. It was a disconcerting and frustrating experience but, thankfully, it happened on the range and not the battlefield. I haven't had a single jam with new ammo (knock on wood).

IIRC, spent brass has been used as currency in at least one T2k campaign I've participated in. 4e has bullets being used as commodity money.

In Mad Max: Fury Road, a community called the "Bullet Farm" is mentioned. You can guess its primary export. It's implied that the Bullet Farm trades bullets to other communities for water and/or gasoline. The trailers for the upcoming Furiosa prequel movie hint at a more featured role for the Bullet Farm. I'm interested to see if/how the idea is developed.
Back to real life...

In the Vietnam War, the USA expended 10,000 rounds for every VC/NVA killed. At that ration, surely all ammunition made before the TDM (including pre-war stockpiles) would be nearly spent by mid-2000. If armies want to keep fighting one another with firearms after the TDM, ammunition manufacturing will have to continue. It stands to reason that most of that post-TDM production would use spent brass.

Can someone confirm that plastic shotgun shells can't be reloaded (or shouldn't be, rather)? Also, I seem to remember reading that steel cartridge cases are more difficult (if not impossible) to reload and reuse safely. Is that true?

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