Thinking out loud........pulling factory ammo.

[223Rem]

Long story short, sold all my 7mm WSM handloading components with the intentions of selling off my custom barrel. Well, things did not go as planned. I was given over 400 rounds of varying factory ammo with having at least 3 boxes of each.

Unfortunately, I am unable to buy any new components due obviously the shortages and I will not participate in the price gouging that is going on.

My barrel is loonnngggg throated for 180 VLDs. I can only assume the jump for these factory 165 bullets will be about a tenth of mile, kidding, 2/10". Can't find my old notes to compare previous COAL Regardless, I don't want to shoot this ammo as is.

Plans are to pull the bullets from each factory loading and cull the bullets and powder separately. Most of the ammo is from the same mfg, so the powder will most likely be the same, but not willing to take the chance or should I?

Neck the brass and start the LD process with seating the bullets further out and using same the powder. I will use Quickloads for my starting charge as there will be definitely more case capacity available.

Am I missing something?

 

[squeeeeze]

If you've got a bullet puller style (Non Kinetic) that you put in your press, you can possibly just pull the bullet partially out and avoid all the other steps. Pull long and seat to COAL needed.

I've done this with bullets I've loaded that were seated too deep. I have a 7WSM as well and when brass was hard to get a few years ago I just bought boxes of the Federal blue box 150grn soft point for the brass. I used the ammo for break in new barrel and some for fowlers. That gave me fire formed brass. The rest I just pulled the bullets and used the brass as new unfired with my load.

The reason I say "possibly" pull the bullets is because my Federal SP's were like the danged bullets were glued in there. It took so much pressure that when they broke loose they popped out like pulling a tooth and BAM. I personally wouldn't reuse the powder but that's just me. But, if it makes it go boom it's up to you.

 

[Dosh]

223, varying factory ammo will almost certainly contain varying powders. There is no sure process for the average reloader to accurately identify powders. Perhaps after dumping the powder from the cases, a match in the pile outdoors in a clear area would be in order. Contrary to some reports, nitrocellulose gun powder does not make good fertilizer. Don't ask me how I know.

 

[AZShooter]

Seeing you have several boxes of each type, why not shoot a few to see what ammo is accurate in your rifle? You could be pleasantly surprised. If any shoot well use them. Cannot see pulling them without trying them first.

So you have a bit of a jump to lands, there are many chamberings that have large jumps and shoot accurately. Immediately the 7 RUM and All Weatherbys come to mind. Sure there are others.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

I ran into a problem with a minimum spec chamber in a 30 Nosler custom rifle. With barely .001" of neck clearance I wasn't willing to shoot the factory ammo that I bought on sale for the brass.

I pulled the bullets, turned the necks, and sized the brass before reseating the bullets on their original charge. It wasn't long before I experimented with seating the bullets much closer to the lands. Interestingly enough I was able to find a very accurate seating which produced .5moa in the rifle.

 

[Tripodmvr7]

Most European hunting rifles (7x57, 7x64, 9.3x62) have long jumps to the lands (6- even 12mm) (.24 to .47 inch) and some give excellent groups. I agree with AZShooter. Try them and you might be surprised. Two different weight Federal factory ammo out of my 30-06 really surprised me.

 

[waspocrew]

I'd shoot it as is to see if your rifle likes the ammo- you may be surprised and might save yourself some time. Like others have stated, if you have a non-kinetic puller, you can try to pull the bullets and seat further out.

For my 6 creed, I tried bought a few boxes of factory Berger ammunition and was less than impressed with the > 1 MOA groups. With a few more boxes left, I decided to experiment a bit. I had some 105 hybrids laying around and did some measuring. The factory 105 hybrid ammo was jumping somewhere around 0.142". I pulled the bullets long and reseated longer in 0.020" increments to decrease the jump. I was surprised to see the results. If anything, it made shooting a little more fun as well!

 

[223Rem]

Gents, thanks for the replies.

Definitely not going to mix the powders, but will reuse it in the original factory loading.

Found my 180 Gr VLD load data and pulled one bullet from the factory ammo. My handloads are 4 grains higher than the factory load (I was using IMR7828 SSC) and the jump to the lands with the 165 gr factory bullet is .390". Coal with be 3.250 to 3.30" depending on the ogive type, glad I kept the long action.

I may try a 3 shot groups from each type to see how they do, but I hold reservations.

If these do not pan out, I will start the loadings with the original factory charge and go up .5 grains increments until I see the slightest pressure sign and back down from there to find the best load.

 

[Calvin45]

Seeing you have several boxes of each type, why not shoot a few to see what ammo is accurate in your rifle? You could be pleasantly surprised. If any shoot well use them. Cannot see pulling them without trying them first.

So you have a bit of a jump to lands, there are many chamberings that have large jumps and shoot accurately. Immediately the 7 RUM and All Weatherbys come to mind. Sure there are others.

Yep. This is my suggestion too. Especially if any of those loads feature flat base Bullets. Flat based bullets don't really get affected by jump too much. In fact this whole craze of trying make the bullet NOT jump at all was started by shooting VLD type bullets. If you're not shooting VLDs I wouldn't worry about this at all

 

[jrock]

Pulling bullets is a pain! There is no way I would pull bullets before testing. +1 on what others said about seating depths. If the factory configurations shoots like crap, I might consider pulling bullets...or sell the ammo and wait for something better.

 

[Mram10us]

tested some hornady 162eld precision hunter stuff. Shot 10 rounds stock and the other 10 we pulled and reseated the bullets at 3.500". They shot right at 1 moa for stock and just under .7moa for the reseated. Not a scientific test, but still better than nothing.
28nosler at 500yds

 

[redneckdan]

Its possible even the cartridges of the same bullet style and weight do not have the same powder, unless they are from the same lot.

Commercially loaded ammo tends to use powders not available off the shelf. Referred to as non-canister grades. They buy a large quantity of the powder, test it for performance and adjusted the load data to hit their performance metrics.

 

[ScottB338]

"If these do not pan out, I will start the loadings with the original factory charge and go up .5 grains increments until I see the slightest pressure sign and back down from there to find the best load."

How do you plan on increasing in .5 grain increments? If you start with the original factory powder charge, where are you getting more powder to increase the charge weight? Mixing different types of powder is NOT a good idea.
Maybe I'm missing something or not understanding what you're saying.

 

[squeeeeze]

Its possible even the cartridges of the same bullet style and weight do not have the same powder, unless they are from the same lot.

Commercially loaded ammo tends to use powders not available off the shelf. Referred to as non-canister grades. They buy a large quantity of the powder, test it for performance and adjusted the load data to hit their performance metrics.

Very true. When I bought my Federal blue box ammo 150grn I had 2 boxes that were 3100fps and a couple others that were 3200 FPS and definitely hotter. Same ammo and wouldn't have known better. Thought that was odd since it was the same ammo.