Does anyone here have experience with the 173 grain pulled bullets offered in the M118 7.62? Looking for a less expensive way to punch steel and paper.

I've used a bunch of them over the years and 150s also. I've never found them to be super accurate, but for paper, steel, and rocks they work fine.

I've used lots of them also in 308. I have found them to be very accurate and used them to 800 yards. The problem now is finding them.

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Does anyone here have experience with the 173 grain pulled bullets offered in the M118 7.62?

YES YEARS of it . In the 80's I purchased K's of pulled match projectiles from DCM sources .
My LC-70-72-74 M-118 Match says 173 grain bullet and 2,550 fps on the boxes , An off hand I forget what the LC -62 M-65-68-72 Match (.30-06) says for the 173 grain bullet 2650 or something like that .

Are they 168 180 190 Berger VLD, NO they're not and their price reflects that . Do they work YES with proper load development and correct twist , YOU should be Pleased !. Powder an load is dependent upon what your shoving them through .

Back in the **** old days (you supply the adjective), the DCM (now the CMP) supplied .308 Match ammunition for State High Power Rifle teams, all loaded with the M118 bullet. Standard operating procedure was to pull the M118's and substitute Sierra 168 gr. Match Kings for them, creating so called "Mexican Match". In the process, a goodly store of M118's was accumulated. We cleaned the gunk (a tar like sealer applied to the bullets) off with gasoline and loaded the bullets for short range (200 yard) rapid fire practice. The story we were told was that the Lake City bullet making machinery had worn out and was not being replaced, hence a certain fall off in accuracy at longer ranges.

Sure enough, shortly afterwards production of the M118 and LC Match in the familiar white boxes ceased and we started receiving "brown box" match ammunition, loaded with 168 grain Sierra Match Kings, but loaded in serrated cases, which supposedly identified them as match ammunition and kept them from being used in combat situations (and also destroyed their desirability as reloadable brass).

I still have several hundred of the pulled bullets, which I pass out to members of the local gun club to use in practice. I prefer to practice with Hornady 130 grain factory "seconds", which were sold some years ago by Midsouth in 3000 bullet lots at a very tempting price.

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Originally posted by Doc224/375:

quote:

Does anyone here have experience with the 173 grain pulled bullets offered in the M118 7.62?

YES YEARS of it . In the 80's I purchased K's of pulled match projectiles from DCM sources .
My LC-70-72-74 M-118 Match says 173 grain bullet and 2,550 fps on the boxes , An off hand I forget what the LC -62 M-65-68-72 Match (.30-06) says for the 173 grain bullet 2650 or something like that .

Are they 168 180 190 Berger VLD, NO they're not and their price reflects that . Do they work YES with proper load development and correct twist , YOU should be Pleased !. Powder an load is dependent upon what your shoving them through .

As Doc stated, they are not Bergers, but are quite acceptable, especially for shorter ranges.

Doc, your memory was not off much; the LC 62 M72 NM ammo was loaded to 2640 fps.

By the way, should you ever get hold of some older M72 or M2 ball loaded ammo, accuracy can often be improved by "bumping" the bullets a couple of thousandths deeper. I had a batch of older M72 ammo that wasn't even accurate enough for offhand practice. Determined that the bullets on some of the rounds were welded to case necks, apparently by electrolysis. Running through seating die, some would slip down easily and others would pop as the bullet broke loose. Accuracy improved dramatically.

Regards,
hm