Let's assume for an exercise that you wanted to work up an accuracy load from the original components of factory-loaded ammunition. Would it be possible to open the case, remove the powder and then develop the load using the original case with the primer undisturbed and the bullet reseated to where you determined it needed to be and the powder charge determined by range testing? I think it would, but I'm not sure you'd get good results because the bullets are of production quality. Everybody says production ammo is garbage, so why not try to improve it by tried-and-true handloaders' methods? I have thought about doing this with Wolf .223 ammo, just as a learning exercise, of course. If nothing else, it would give me an opportunity to fool around doing something I like with my guns and such. Any comments?

First, production ammo is NOT garbage. In many cases it's pretty difficult to equal the accuracy and velocity of production ammo. If the ammo quality had been as good 50 years ago as it is recently, it's likely handloading wouldn't be quite as popular as it is today.

The biggest change you would have by dismantling and reassembling production ammo is that seating the bullet out would likely change everything, including lowering velocity. All this would affect your load, probably adversely. I've done it a time or two with Winchester ammo in 243 and 308, as I recall, and that was my experience. I did find very little difference in the propellants they used versus our canister powders. I also dismantled the primers to uniform and deburr flashholes. It was an exercised in futility. I did find considerably more variance in the weight of the propellant and in one case I presumed the ball powder was identical to 760, used 760 to regain velocity and accomplished very little. Don't recall the upshot of it all except to consider it an exercise in futility.

Running ammo through the concentricity gage, typically I see:
1) 8 cent SKS ammo is .012" runout
2) 75 cent Federal Gold Match is .004" runout
3) handloads without expander ball .001" runout


According to an old article by the NRA, the change in accuracy is between .000" and .004" gives up to 1 moa, beyond that, the chamber forces concentricity to .004".

IMHO, the reason Federal Gold shoots 1" and SKS ammo shoots 3", is the bullets.

Hey rootbeer, A very long time ago a group I happened to be associated with(USMC) had access to a good bit of 7.62NATO ammo. Also happend to be hunting with a group composed of MARINES and Sand Crabs which used either 308Win(M14s) or 358Wins(M99 Savages). And we needed ammo that did not contain FMJs.

So, we would "Pull Down" a whole bunch of 7.62NATO from the same Lot and worked up Loads using 165gr 30cal Hornadys for the 308Wins and 200gr 35cal Hornadys for the 358Wins with that same powder. Of course we had to expand the necks on some cases to create the 358Wins, but everything went just fine.

I agree with both Bob338 and Clark though. Some factory ammo is just excellent stuff, even some of the less expensive brands. You just have to try it and see what your firearm preferes, or go on and do the reloading.

I personally wouldn't waste my time Pulling Down factory ammo, but that shouldn't discourage you if that is what you want to do. Best of luck with the project.