Powder from pulled bullets

[MO Betta]

The charge (even if you make them uniform) may not produce a good node for your rifles, I'd still work up a ladder before going through all the work to make all 300 uniform.

 

[nhenry]

The charge (even if you make them uniform) may not produce a good node for your rifles, I'd still work up a ladder before going through all the work to make all 300 uniform.

For sure. Right now my main goal is to not blow anything up, which I doubt I will. I loaded a couple to go out with later today, plus a couple with some ballistic tips

 

[MO Betta]

It is worth noting that major ammunition manufacturers like Federal oftentimes don’t use powders that are available to the general public. Federal contacts whichever manufacturer they’re using and requests a specific burn rate, then the powder manufacturer ships them hundreds or thousands of pounds of that powder. I mention this to point out that this load you are working up with this powder will only be relevant for this batch. If you buy the “same load” from federal in the future, pulled the bullets, then reloaded it with the same load data you’re creating now,
it likely won’t turn out the same as this batch.

Just as an aside, this is generally correct. Usually ends up being a blend to meet the specs required by the manufacturer. Doesn't stop a whole bunch of loaders trying to make clone loads (Johnny's Reloading Bench comes to mind with the baker's dozen videos he made trying to clone the Black Hill's mk262 mod 1 ammo).

 

[nhenry]

Great news, I didn’t blow up. The cases show no signs of pressure and I got a standard deviation of 6 fps with ballistic tips and 12 fps with the partitions. The loads were hitting right around 2850 fps in my 22.4” Sako 85 Bavarian. Didn’t get around to testing accuracy, but I will next week when I get to the range

*1st pic: I used a different 115gr Partition, but they had the same bearing surface with different tips for some reason.
*2nd pic: a factory loaded Fusion case after firing and one of my loads. Less compression on the primer

 

[Don Fischer]

Pull the bullet and remeasure the powder charges. They’ve weighed slightly different in some of them so far so I’m going to make them all uniform

I believe that factory ammo is measured by volume. If so then likely to be difference's in powder weight!

 

[nhenry]

I believe that factory ammo is measured by volume. If so then likely to be difference's in powder weight!

Makes sense! I wonder why they do it that way

 

[1_pointer]

Makes sense! I wonder why they do it that way

It's faster. When I'm making up a large batch of reloads, I use a powder thrower which also works on volume. I check about every 5 or 10 on the scale and if it's within reason keep chugging along.

 

[ImBillT]

1) If you reload it with the average charge weight of the original, and a bullet of the same weight, then I don’t see how anything could possibly go wrong.

2) Why on earth does anyone think it matters what powder it actually is?

3) Vertical stringing at 100yds has nothing whatsoever to do with velocity spread.

4) With a good measure and a powder that functions with it, there’s nothing wrong with volumetric measurements of powder charges.

5) Your blue tipped bullet is not a Nosler partition.

 

[nhenry]

1) If you reload it with the average charge weight of the original, and a bullet of the same weight, then I don’t see how anything could possibly go wrong.

2) Why on earth does anyone think it matters what powder it actually is?

3) Vertical stringing at 100yds has nothing whatsoever to do with velocity spread.

4) With a good measure and a powder that functions with it, there’s nothing wrong with volumetric measurements of powder charges.

5) Your blue tipped bullet is not a Nosler partition.

1) everything went fine by doing exactly that, thank you

2) dunno

3) pretty sure it does since the velocities matched but alright. I also checked at 200 and the spreads were even worse, which is a duh moment for me

4) well it didn’t work very well for them this time

5) in an earlier post (#22), I mentioned that I loaded some ballistic tips with it as well. The one next to the ballistic tip is a Partition

 

[nhenry]

One of my picture’s captions was unclear, so this is what I mean: Nosler, in their infinite wisdom, have created two different shapes for the 115gr partitions. I used the longer one because I have plethora of them

 

[ImBillT]

1) everything went fine by doing exactly that, thank you

2) dunno

3) pretty sure it does since the velocities matched but alright. I also checked at 200 and the spreads were even worse, which is a duh moment for me

4) well it didn’t work very well for them this time

5) in an earlier post (#22), I mentioned that I loaded some ballistic tips with it as well. The one next to the ballistic tip is a Partition

3) The best group shooters on the planet shoot teeny tiny groups at 100yds with horrible velocity spreads. I worded it poorly though. I said velocity spread had nothing to do with group size at 100yds. That’s not entirely correct. At 100yds, can achieve excellent correction for velocity variation by timing the bullet’s exit with the barrel’s vibrations. At the opposite end of the spectrum you get extreme sensitivity to velocity variation. With zero velocity variation, barrel vibration does not matter. With minor velocity variation, accuracy nodes appear to be wide and have mild effect. With high velocity variation accuracy nodes appear to be narrow and dramatic. At 100yds, absolutely horrible velocity variation can be completely corrected for with barrel tuners or by adjusting loads to hit an accuracy node without improving velocity variation. As range increases, the ability of barrel vibrations to correct problems associated with velocity variation decreases AND and the problems associated with being directly between accuracy nodes(on a “scatter node”) decrease, THEREFORE the necessity for having lower velocity spread increases substantially.

Assuming the issue is related to your ammo, great groups at 100yds tell you that you’re using quality components and have hit on an average muzzle velocity that is ideal for your barrel. Bad groups at 100yds tell you absolutely nothing at all….except that something is wrong.