The Columbine Shooters Used Mostly Reloaded Ammo (possibly dummy rounds)

Where did they get it and why didn’t investigators point this out?

The Columbine investigative documents reveal an interesting fact that has been overlooked (or ignored) for decades: the majority of their ammunition was reloaded. You’d think this would be an interesting talking point for investigators to point out. However, nobody on the inside of the investigation has ever said a word. To my knowledge, it has never been discussed in any article or book. So let’s dive into this.

The shell casings collected from the crime scene that were traced to the shooters’ firearms consisted of ammunition with 18+ different headstamps including:

WIN 9MM LUGER – Civilian
CBC 9MM LUGER – Military
9x19 L Y 92 – Civilian
R-P 9MM LUGER – Military
CCC 88 – Civilian
WCC 86
WCC 87 (+) – Military, NATO
WCC 88 (+) – Military, NATO
WCC 89 (+) – Military, NATO
WCC 95
A-MERC – Civilian, poor quality
PMC 9mm LUGER – Military, law enforcement, civilian
FC 9MM LUGER – Civilian
GFL 9MM LUGER – Civilian, poor quality
3-D 9MM LUGER
I> 9mm PARA 92 – Could be military, but requires seeing a photo
SPEER 9MM LUGER – Civilian
FC 87 – Made for the Mexican military

We know this ammo was reloaded because:

1. Many of these headstamps are from ammunition manufactured decades before the shooting

2. There were extractor marks on some of the live rounds

3. There was superglue found on the shells (CBI, p.2453) and

4. The primers were already dimpled on live rounds

The Winchester 9 mm luger was the ammunition Mark Manes allegedly bought from K-Mart for Harris the night before the shooting on 4/19/1999. Manes allegedly purchased two 50-round boxes for 100 rounds total. However, we don’t know if the rounds and casings recovered were factory or reloads, so it’s impossible to say with any certainty that any of the rounds Manes purchased were fired during the incident. In fact, I question whether Manes even purchased ammo for them because ¾ of it is unaccounted for and was never recovered during the investigation.

Out of 27 total Winchester 9 mm luger bullets & shells recovered, only 23 were fired.

JCSO #675: fired casing, Hi-Point, East library

JCSO #691: live round, East library – tool marks in extractor grooves

JCSO #952: fired casing, Hi-Point, West library

JCSO #953: fired casing, Hi-Point, West library

JCSO #954: fired casing, Hi-Point, West library

JCSO #955: fired casing, Hi-Point, West library

JCSO #956: fired casing, Hi-Point, West library

JCSO #957: fired casing, Hi-Point, West library

JCSO #958: fired casing, Hi-Point, West library

JCSO #965: fired casing, Hi-Point, West library

JCSO #966: fired casing, Hi-Point, West library

JCSO #1105: fired casing, Hi-Point, West library

JCSO #1066: fired casing, Hi-Point, found in Harris’ ammo pouch on his body

JCSO #1096: live round, West library

JCSO #2127: fired casing, Hi-Point, outside

JCSO #2129: fired casing, Hi-Point, outside

JCSO #2131: fired casing, Hi-Point, outside

JCSO #2145: fired casing, Hi-Point, outside

JCSO #2147: fired casing, Hi-Point, outside

JCSO #2148: fired casing, Hi-Point, outside

JCSO #2159: fired casing, Hi-Point, outside

JCSO #2160: fired casing, Hi-Point, outside

JCSO #2229: fired casing, Hi-Point, outside

JCSO #2233: fired casing, Hi-Point, outside

JCSO #2234: fired casing, Hi-Point, outside

JCSO #2359: live round, outside

JCSO #8680: live round, found in Klebold’s boot – tool marks in extractor grooves

Question 1: If Manes provided the shooters with 100 rounds of Winchester 9 mm ammunition, where are the remaining 73 bullets? There are only 27 documented in the evidence logs. Surely those bullets would have been recovered from somewhere… perhaps recovered from one of the shooters’ homes or in their vehicles… but no, they are nowhere to be found.

Question 2: Why did the bullet found in Klebold’s boot have tool marks? If that was his “suicide bullet,” why wouldn’t he drop in a live round out of his stash? The tool marks indicate the bullet was forcibly removed from the chamber of a gun.

Question 3: Why did they use reloaded ammo, and who made it? Reloading ammunition isn’t cheaper than buying factory bullets. It costs thousands of dollars to get all the equipment and takes both time and skill to reload properly. The time it takes is not worth the cost savings. Once you have the equipment, you can save a few bucks, but it’s not significant.

In 1999, 100 rounds of factory 9 mm ammo cost $25. Most people who reload their ammo do it to have control over their loads – not to save money. If Harris & Klebold bought 250 rounds of factory ammo, it would have cost them maybe $70 total. I can’t imagine they’d buy reloaded ammo just to save something like $10.

However, since we know this case is bogus, victims never died, Harris is alive, the suicide photos are fake, and the investigation wasn’t real, the reloaded ammo may have been dummy rounds supplied to them by a professional gunsmith who was in on it. Dummy rounds fire just as loudly as real ammo, and nobody would have known the difference. To me, this makes the most sense.

According to Robyn Anderson, Harris and Klebold purchased “two boxes” of shotgun shells and “three boxes” of rifle ammunition at the Tanner Gun Show. The media reported that they bought 250 rounds, but I can’t find an original source for that number. Anderson told police she never saw the ammo they bought. Since 9 mm ammo usually comes in 50-round boxes, they may have purchased 150 rounds of 9 mm ammo and 100 shotgun shells (50 rounds per box). However, this can’t be confirmed.

It is possible that they purchased reloaded ammo without knowing, but why would anyone go to the trouble of making ammo just to sell it for a few bucks at a gun show? There are no receipts for their ammo purchases, and the people who sold them firearms were government agents, which raises even more questions.

Here's what some random people online had to say about buying ammo at the Tanner Gun Show:

“People that buy ammo from gun show vendors are like people that visit prostitutes. Ya really never know what you are going to come home with.”

“As a general rule, unless you’re a Milsurp shooter buying surplus ammo, or the seller is someone you know for sure is reputable, avoid buying ammo at gun shows. Will almost always be overpriced and/or (as is likely in this case) someone’s reloads or remans their trying to pass as factory.”

“I went to Tanner yesterday, it was like going to a gun show in a sex dungeon, but the worst of both. I should have brought my bloody headlamp.”

“Don’t even think of trying to find good non reloaded ammo either. These crooks say its factory non reloads but the crimps have all been reamed.”

“I've never been to a gun show, but it sounds like it's a place where newbies get suckered into buying other people's leftovers in terms of ammunition. Hard pass.”

Now let’s look at some of these headstamps.

There’s nothing strange about collecting shells and using them for reloads. However, based on the age and military origin of some of them, they had to have been reloaded by someone who had been collecting for many years and someone with access to a law enforcement/military shooting range. That’s not uncommon, since some of the best shells from law enforcement ranges.

According to the CBI documents on p.2318, Klebold had 9 mm ABT ammunition. Some was sold commercially, but it was originally for law enforcement and military use. I was told this ammo is subsonic and commonly fired through a silenced MP5.

The following head stamps are M882 NATO ammunition manufactured in 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, and 1995. It was manufactured to NATO military specs. The cross inside the circle is the NATO mark.

WCC 86

WCC 87 (+)

WCC 88 (+)

WCC 89 (+)

WCC 95

The A-MERC ammo is said to be one of the worst and worthy of the trash. When reloaded, this ammo does not fit properly in the chamber, which could be why Klebold had to use a tool to pull his rounds out of the chamber and why his gun jammed to the point where he ditched a nearly-full 50-round magazine outside.

Item #38A was a magazine found on Eric’s body. It was full of live, reloaded ammo.

The Cartridge Case Worksheet from the CBI states:
“Examined live rounds of 38A – note all have slight indents on primers [this indicated a reloaded round], some have apparent extractor marks. Used 3 of 38A live rounds w/38A for testing of #21” (#38A is a 9 or 10-round magazine and #21 is the Hi-Point Carbine)

Source: (Full CBI, p.2322)

CBI 60/JCSO 2109
One fired S&B round of 9 mm Luger caliber FMJ bullet ammunition found outside.

This round was also reloaded.

The notes read: "numerous extractor and ejector marks; appears to be a reload."

This casing was not traced to any specific gun.

Source: (Full CBI, p.2340)

We are missing hundreds of Cartridge Case Worksheets, so we don’t have all the details for every round and shell recovered.

I have a master spreadsheet that details every round and shell recovered, where it was found, the CBI and JCSO evidence number, the gun it was traced to, and the description from the documentation. I will post this when I figure out how to turn it into a file that retains its formatting after being exported.

So all in all, I think the reloaded ammo was most likely dummy rounds. Some of their shotgun shells were reloaded, too. Quite possibly all of them, but we don’t have all the worksheets to know.

Why has nobody pointed this out from inside the investigation?

Inquiring minds want to know…

*Edited on 3/2/25 to correct the number of rounds and boxes of ammo purchased at the Tanner Gun Show.