Filing down FMJ'S bullets

[Carman]

I haven't ever tried this but I am sure someone has. I was just wondering if anyone has ever tried filing down the tip of a FMJ bullet, just enough to expose the lead, to see if it expands on impact, and by how much.

[justgoto]

Supposedly, since the back end is open, the lead shoots out the tip of the bullet before it gets out of the barrel.

http://www.go2gbo.com/forums/index.p...#msg1099268455

[Carman]

That would be interesting to see....but only if I could find somebody else to try it.

[Topshot]

I have shot thousands of them.
I didn't bother filing the tips. I just cut the tips off with a pair of metal snips.
We used them years ago to cull Roos because they were cheap and we needed plenty of them.
Accuracy with the tips clipped was not great but good enough for the job. They were very explosive and did the job quite well at the close distances that Roos were shot at in the light at night.

[justgoto]

Originally Posted by Topshot

I have shot thousands of them.
I didn't bother filing the tips. I just cut the tips off with a pair of metal snips.
We used them years ago to cull Roos because they were cheap and we needed plenty of them.
Accuracy with the tips clipped was not great but good enough for the job. They were very explosive and did the job quite well at the close distances that Roos were shot at in the light at night.

So it is a myth that they'll shoot the core out then. I learn something new every day.

[hnts4fun]

I had to smile when I saw this thread posted. As a kid we had a pretty good supply of 30-06 Lake City ball ammo and even a bunch of corrosive stuff laying around. Like Topshot, I would use tin snips to cut the tips of the bullets off. I would take it one step further and try to smooth out my work using a bench grinder. It's a wonder I didn't blow my hands off, or worse, as some of those rounds got pretty hot.

I don't know how those bullets would have shot at long-distance, but for us shots were typically under 100 yards and the results were indeed explosive. No core separations that I was ever aware of but these things created one heck of an exit wound.

[Topshot]

Originally Posted by justgoto

So it is a myth that they'll shoot the core out then. I learn something new every day.

Never had a problem with core spitting.

We played about with how much of the tip to snip off. Too much and it effected accuracy quite a bit. Too little and the odd one would not expand.

In the end we would snip off just enough to see a good amount of lead, then make a second snip at 90 degrees to the first to make the point look a bit more even and square.

We got them cheap because some shooters were buying ex-mil ammo, pulling the bullets and replacing them with soft points for use on pigs. We were happy to collect their rejects and use them for the cost of a six pack of beer.
A lot of the gun shops also sold them very cheap.