I was lucky enough to buy 400 Norma bullets recently. The box's say Norma Match grade bullets and there was 200, 6.5mm 139 gr. soft point boatail and 200, 6.5mm 156 gr. Round nose. I have a couple of 6.5x55 swedes so I will be able to use these bullets. I think the bullets are from the 1960's or 70's. They are silver in color and slightly magnetic. Anybody here ever use Norma bullets? Do they compare to Nosler partitions? I really like shooting round nose bullets at slower speeds for around my area.Any comments are welcome. thanks

quote:

Originally posted by mojave:
I think the bullets are from the 1960's or 70's. They are silver in color and slightly magnetic. Anybody here ever use Norma bullets?

I have, back in the 60s. Can't remember the color ,but my guess, the jackets are nickle, which was a common jacket material at one time. roger

Bart, How about a thin Cu/Ni plating on a steel jacket instead. That is what I believe it is on my Norma 156 carts.

Norma also uses/used a copper/brass plating on the steel jackets on the several lots of 7.5 Swiss I've picked up over the years.

quote:

Originally posted by lonniemike:
Bart, How about a thin Cu/Ni plating on a steel jacket instead. That is what I believe it is on my Norma 156 carts. Possible indeed !!

Norma also uses/used a copper/brass plating on the steel jackets on the several lots of 7.5 Swiss I've picked up over the years.

Just checked my recently received Norma 6.5mm 156 gr RNs . They are non magnetic. roger

The silver coloured guilding metal Norma used on their earlier steel jacketed bullets was called "tombac" which is a copper/zinc (brass) alloy quite high in the copper content.

Eagle27, How are they for a hunting bullet?

If the bullet is slightly magnetic the jacket material may be cupronickle as nickle is magnetic. Cupronickle has a bad reputation for leaving metallic fouling requiring high ammonia bore cleaners to remove. Hateher comments on jacket metals in chapter XIV on Gun corrosion and ammunition developments.

Jerry Liles

The 6.5mm 156 grain Norma bullets made a rather poor showing today. The affect may ,however, have another cause. A two inch group at 50 yds. wasn't what it was all about. roger

quote:

Originally posted by bartsche:
The 6.5mm 156 grain Norma bullets made a rather poor showing today. The affect may ,however, have another cause. A two inch group at 50 yds. wasn't what it was all about. roger

I've had good luck with the 155 Lapua Mega in my 6.5x55. I used 38.5 of R15. Muzzle velocity was a little over 2450 from a 20.5" barrel. Consistently shoots about 1 MOA. Not the fastest load but it works great under 200 yards.

quote:

Originally posted by mojave:
Anybody here ever use Norma bullets? thanks

I have loaded the older Norma's in 257 120gr , .308 in 180 gr. ,and 9.3 250 & 286.

They all performed well and held together

(As stated in a different post took an elk with the 120gr .257)

Yes, a relatively pure nickel alloy would have a noticable magnetic moment. But, Cu/Ni or cupro-nickel(a shiny silver) alloy at typical ratios(70-30) has no magnetic moment, and will not be attractted to a magnet.
"tombac"should be copper colored, not silver.

Hatcher's 30 cal National Match projectile's basic shape was borrowed directly from the Swiss bullet makers, apparently without regards to the swiss techniques for Cu/Ni plating on steel jackets.
The Swiss still seem to have zero problems using Cu/Ni plating with about a century of Cu/Ni use. All the Best

I currently have about 4,000 Norma 9.3 286 gr. bullets in stock in 50-round boxes. These bullets are the remainder from when I bought a whole bunch back in about 1972.

About half the boxes of bullets apparently have the Tombac coated jackets, the other half the CuNi coated jackets. Neither have ever produced any noticeable jacket fouling in any of my 9.3s. and I've shot many boxes of each type through my guns over the years.

My supposedly Tombac coated bullets are copper coloured, while the CuNi plated ones are basically the same colour and shininess as a nickel plated Smith & Wesson M 29 which is also hiding in the vault.

Both types are cup-'n-core bullets, but they've always performed just fine as I've not been shooting them in magnums or anything else loaded real hot.

quote:

Originally posted by mojave:
Eagle27, How are they for a hunting bullet?

Always found Norma bullets to be excellent for hunting. Used the 7x61 S&H cartridge for years as did my father. Factory ammo was only ever Norma and I recall from their early catalogues they referred to there bullets which were nearly all silver coloured then as guilded with 'tombac'. The 7mms were doing over 3000fps at the muzzle and killed well from the muzzle to as long a range as you could accurately shoot the 7x61.