Accubond Fail?

Sounds like the plastic broke down for some reason. I'll have to check the 338 AB I have had for 10-12 yrs. I had some broken and wobbling tips in some Barnes TTSX bullet a few years ago and switched to the non tipped TSX. Barnes became hard to get so I switched to Hammers. As mentioned earlier, I'd contact Nosler for replacements and ask if this is still an issue
 
A friend of my fathers and a former coworker of mine just had some 30 cal AB's replaced by Nosler for this very reason. He had the boxes for about 15-20years unopened. He called Nosler and they wanted the run number off the box. They sent replacement boxes. That was earlier this year and he has received them. SPS still has 30 cal 180g AB's show up regularly as blems.
 
I was doing a little inventory and discovered this mess. Out of 50, 35 had the tips broken or more like crumbled off the bullet nose. I've had this box for probably 10 years on my shelf in my reloading room which is a spare bedroom. Temps always stay between 65-75. The smell from these resemble rotten fish at low tide.
I had this happen with some 30 cal AB's, called Nosler and they sent our a replacement box. I gave them the PN and Lot number.
 
"I just have one word for you...plastics"
IYKYK

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Hi, I had this happen to me 9 or 10 years ago with two boxes of Weatherby 300 Mag ammo. It was branded Weatherby with the 180 gr ABs. Not all broke but about 75% in each box. Weatherby replaced both boxes. Never had it happen with BTs.
 
I was doing a little inventory and discovered this mess. Out of 50, 35 had the tips broken or more like crumbled off the bullet nose. I've had this box for probably 10 years on my shelf in my reloading room which is a spare bedroom. Temps always stay between 65-75. The smell from these resemble rotten fish at low tide.

I had the exact same issue when opening an older box of 308-180gr AB in 2016 (edit - just found the email). About 50% of the tips were broken off, so I emailed Nosler and they sent about a dozen of replacements. Not the whole box mind you, but only a few.

I believe there was a time they had an issue with the composition of the white tips that were decomposing over time and maybe reacting with the lube used during bullet swaging. All my bullets before and after certain dates were fine, but that specific range were not.
 
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I had a few with 7mm 140 grain Accubonds. It was a new box to me, but with the scarce supply things come out of the closet to be sold sometimes. Not sure of the age. I noticed a powdery white powder. I'm leaning towards a reaction to the swagging process rather than aged plastic.

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I've had several old boxes of Accubonds that did the same thing. It should only happen with older, vintage Accubonds.

Nosler was aware of this problem when I contacted them a few years sgo, and replaced my bullets with newer product. I was told they determined it was caused by corrosion associated with their bonding process. Some corrosion byproduct of bonding the lead core to the jacket. As corrosion formed under my plastic tips, the tips were pushed up out of the bullet.

Since Ballistic Tips aren't bonded-core bullets, this problem should not affect Ballistic Tips.

Nosler either added a corrosion neutralizing step to prevent this longer term corrosion with the Accubonds, or changed their manufacturing process in some manner, to resolve this problem. It takes a while for the corrosion to build up under the plastic tips. That's basically what I was told by Mike, the Nosler staff-person I talked with on the phone.

It shouldn't be happening with recently manufactured Accubonds. My boxes of Accubond bullets that lost some of their tips were more than 15 years old. One box had been sitting in my reloading room for ~20yrs before I opened them and found multiple deteriorated tips and tip-less bullets.
 
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