Caveat Emptor (BUYER BEWARE) Folks,

A fellow shooter and I just went through a learning experience I hope we never repeat. We found ourselves going through a LOT of .224, 55 gr'ers. It started getting expensive. My bud went out on the 'net and bought 1,000 pulled bullets. He got them and they turned out to be crap. Pull marks, gouges, dents, heavily tarnished and they shot for shit for him. I miked a few up and they were round and the right diameter. They weighed-in fine too so I tried 20 of them in my gun - oddly enough they work pretty darn well for me !

I then ran into someone at my club that buys pulled .224's from a company a couple hours from where I live - at a good price to boot. He showed me some - they looked great ! I checked their website. "Our pulled bullets have no pull marks, etc . . . " I called them and it turns out they were going to be at a local gun show that weekend that was only 20 minutes from my home. Cool beans.

I went there, looked at some of them bagged by the hundred. They were half-coated with some black substance, but otherwise looked OK. I bought a (sealed) box of 1,000 and went merrily home (after checking-out the other 2 buildings full of "stuff" - but that's another posting !)

I got home, soaked them in mineral spirits for an hour or so and then in alcohol. That took most of the black crud off. I planned to then tumble them in walnut for the finishing touch. BUT - after all that crud was removed, I was looking at the biggest POS bullets I ever did see. MANY were triangular at the cannelure from being grabbed so freakin hard by the bullet-pulling die. Many even had cracked copper at the points they were "grabbed." There were tracers mixed in the lot, pieces of broken die - it was a mess. I was pissed.

The next morning I went back to the gun show and showed them to the seller, bitched-up a storm and stated I wanted to exchange them for some NEW WW's he had. A little discussion ensued and I ended up walking away with 1,000 new ones for my all my trouble for the price of the pulled ones.

No need to mention the suppliers name, he did the right thing for me and stated he would more carefully "look them over in the future."

My days of buying pulled bullets are over. I think my buddy feels the same. Has ANYBODY had any good experiences with pulled .224's? If so, from who?

The only use I've found for pulled bullets was for the initial stages of working up loads (where you needn't waste better bullets) or for Class III hosing. That's it.

Don't aggravate yourself aiming them at paper.

Redial

Ya gets what ya pays fer.....

What did you expect? It sounds like you got just what you paid for. Personally, I'd have told you to pack sand.

I have always wondered if bullets I pull from reloads I realize I don't need to test or whatever reason, will shoot well.

I put a felt cleaning wad into the kinetic bulletd puller to protect the points, so they come out looking fine.

I have not really tested any of these, they just end up re-mixed or often binned.

Would they be ok?

Bullets that i have pulled always end up in the garbage. I have never tried/used any of the surplus pulled bullets. I have always been looking for accuracy and cannot imagine them shooting very well. When i was competing in IPSC style rifle matches, i used either Winchester of IMI .224 55 FMJ's from Wideners as their pricing was always great and accuracy was alway less than minute of plate.

I have one use for pulled bullets. Sometimes, I find myself changing the scope on a rifle or doing something that radically changes the point of impact. In that instance, I load up a few pulled bullets and bore-sight the rifle at 25 yards. Then I shoot a few loads with these bullets to get on center at 25 yards. Finally, I get a basic zero at 100 yards with these crappy bullets. I might have fired 5 or 10 shots by this point, and I haven't wasted any valuable Sierra/Hornady/Nosler bullets. Now I can load up with "proper" handloads and just tweak the scope setting to get a 200 metre zero.

Well, some darn good responses there (for the most part that is ). Wisdom gained from experience is always the best remebered. Thanks guys.

As far as the sub-par pulled bullets that my buddy got stuck with - I'm buying them from him to use as fire-forming fodder and for plinking and practice. Good idea there to use them for load development as well. I will do that as they do shoot pretty good in my T/C barrel.

Best regards to all -

When I was working my way through college the first time I took a job selling cars at a Ford dealership.

I had a guy come on the lot, and looked at some new Mercurys. He then went over to the used section and looked at a couple of 9-year-old Mercurys.

When he was ready he came up and asked me, "How much you want for that green one over there?", and pointed to one of the used ones.

I gave him the price and he replied, "But, it needs tires, there is a chip in the windshield, the seats are soiled, the carpet is soiled, there are 90,000 miles on it, and the engine compartment is dirty!"

I replied, "For only 6 times as much you can have that green one on the other side of the lot. It is brand new...".

There is no such thing as a "new" anything, once it has been used, and to expect that something be "new" when it is used, regardless of what the seller tells you is "too good to be true"...

(You would be surprised at the number of "as new" guns I have had people want to sell me. And when I ask about papers and boxes, they say, "What?". Or when I ask about the ring on the cylinder, or the holster wear on the muzzle, or the scratch or crack on the grips they say, "Oh that's nothing".)

Used is used, and as I said before, "Ya gets what ya pays fer....."

[ 05-14-2003, 23:34: Message edited by: ricciardelli ]

Dino32HR,
I've run accuracy test on pulled bullets several times. I have never gotten the same level of accuracy as obtained with virgin bullets. Make and style of the bullet doesn't seem too make a difference. I now relagate pulled bullets for fireforming new cases and fouling shots. I don't think the difference in price between new and pulled bullets makes up for the cost of powder and primers used in what may be a wasted shot due too poor accuracy. Have a great weekend.

Pulled Bullets:
1. Good for fireforming.
2. Good for making up action testing dummies.
3. Good for making up reloading dummies.
4. Really crappy ones can go into the melt pot.

What is the experience on military surplus[not pulled] bullets out there?Do the 62 grain bullets work in a 1 in 14 twist at around 2900 fps?

I use a rcbs collet puller and use my pulled bullets for range practise.They group as well as new bullets in my rifles,but why take a chance.

What Steve wrote - in spades. Never could understand going cheap & then expecting quality. Cheap does not necessarily equal inexpensive but I think in this case it does.
Bear in Fairbanks

quote:

Originally posted by michael occhipinti:
What is the experience on military surplus[not pulled] bullets out there?Do the 62 grain bullets work in a 1 in 14 twist at around 2900 fps?

I wouldn't count on it. I have a hard time getting some sixty gr bullets to stabilize in my 22-250 at 3500 fps, with a 14 inch twist.

I think they reccomend a ten inch twist for the 62 gr FMJ's.

I only use bullets that I have pulled, I wouldn't pay money for bullets someone else had pulled.

The bulles I've pulled have grouped about 2- 3" @ 100 yds or better. That's good enough to ring gongs or do offhand practise.

I saw some pulled bullets sitting on the shelf when I was loading.RCBS collet pulled.Not a big test,but two of the five didn't get on the paper at 200meters.

thanks for the info,I will stick with the known quality.

The only pulled bullets I've ever shot were ones I'd pulled myself, and even some of these were damaged too much to use.....

I pulled some bullets with a collet style puller and some with one of the kinetic hammer style pullers, reloaded them in a known accuracy load for my rifle and fired them at 100 yards. The collet pulled bullets shot horrible groups, but the ones pulled with the kinetic puller shot right along with new bullets in my rifle. based on that experience, if I had to use pulled bullets, I would prefwer they were pulled with the kinetic puller.
Paul B.