Buying pulled bullets?

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Total Metal Jackets (TMJ) are normally plated bullets. Some have heavier plating than others, depending on who made them.

Some companies will place a copper or brass disc in the base of jacketed bullets (FMJ) to eliminate the contact of hot gasses with lead for shooting on indoor ranges. Even though they're fully encapsulated, they're still "cup and core" bullets, whereas plated bullets are a swaged core that is electroplated with either copper or brass.

Hope this helps.

Fred
 
Does anyone besides Hornady make the "encapsulated" bullets with the copper disc on the bottom?

These are both Hornady.

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vaalpens, looks like you did well for $30 shipped.
 

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Jack, I used to buy seconds or blemished, but got a bit turned off of it when I got some .32 bullets that were undersized and shot very poorly. A deal isn't a deal if the bullets don't work well. That said, I have had good luck buying blemished bullets as well. You pay your money and take your chances. I am a lot more careful about it than before. Not polished well, or pulled, or just not quite #1 quality for the right price is OK if they will work the the intended application. Sometimes you get great bullets.
 
Walkalong said:
Does anyone besides Hornady make the "encapsulated" bullets with the copper disc on the bottom?

These are both Hornady.

index.php


vaalpens, looks like you did well for $30 shipped.
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These are the few "encapsulated" bullets I received. I have not cleaned them up, but it seems they look different.
jhp_cap_pulled_124gr.png
 
Those are cup and core bullets, with a gas check added to cover the exposed lead base. Most aren't done like that, but it probably serves the purpose.

Hope this helps.

Fred
 
ReloaderFred said:
Those are cup and core bullets, with a gas check added to cover the exposed lead base. Most aren't done like that, but it probably serves the purpose.

Hope this helps.

Fred
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Thanks again Fred!

I only have 11 of those so I will use one of my less than maximum jacketed loads, load them up and have some fun.
 
PTDC0059.JPG PTDC0077.JPG PTDC0076.JPG I just got them about an hour ago,and I don't know what to think..I took some pics, including a sample of the worst ones..There are 439 boatail without canelure,77 boatail with canelure,and 3 flat base no canelure...They all have nice looking points,and there is only one with a black looking paint or varnish on it and one all dented up,they are in the pics. ..The bearing surfaces are scuffed enough that I can barely feel a little texture on a good few of them,I assume it's from pulling from crimped ammo,and won't have amount to much,but I don't know..I don't have any way of checking size till I go out to the farm..A few have a slightly different angle to the boatail,.I will check sizes on all I load,and if the scuffed bearing surfaces don't ruin my accuracy I will be pleased for what I paid..
 
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Vaal, those are pretty obviously xtreme bullets. Speer TMJ have concave bases and a more pink color. American Reloading gets their bullets from the same place I get mine. I think those aren't pulled. I believe they are just screw ups. Seems like a good deal as long as the diameters measure out. Just be sure to check each round for neck tension. In the past when those were offered to me it was because many were .352-.353.
 
longdayjake said:
Vaal, those are pretty obviously xtreme bullets. Speer TMJ have concave bases and a more pink color. American Reloading gets their bullets from the same place I get mine. I think those aren't pulled. I believe they are just screw ups. Seems like a good deal as long as the diameters measure out. Just be sure to check each round for neck tension. In the past when those were offered to me it was because many were .352-.353.
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Jake, thanks for the information. I was thinking that it could be Xtreme bullets since there were a few HP bullets included that looked like Xtreme bullets. I have checked the diameter on a few of them that checked out, but will definitely check the neck tension on them.
 
Just a quick update regarding these seconds/pulled bullets. I created a few loads using my standard 9mm powders and powder ranges using BE-86, PowerPistol and CFE Pistol. The plan was to just do an accuracy test since I can use the chrono, and then a pick a load for the remaining bullets. The test was done at about 111 degrees, some sweaty hands, using my range bag as a rest and shooting at 15 yards. The plan was not to line up the shots and pull the trigger and not worry to much about trying to make this a bulls eye test.

The results from the test was actually surprising to me. The best load was a PowerPistol load, where I expected BE-86 to come out on top. PowerPistol has really became my go-to powder lately with loads I like in 9mm, 40s&w, 38spl and 357mag. The only cartridge I have not found that sweet spot yet is in 357sig.

Following is my best load and the load I will now use for most of the remaining bullets:
Load-797-05_15yd.png
 
I have been real pleased with how the batch of 6 mm ones shoot from my 243,so I ordered the 7mm, 250 count mix of 120,and 140 Fusion .I got them for around $34 by taking advantage of 25% FathersDay discount..You cant even tell they are pulled bullets,on the vast majority.They are almost all 140s.There are only 24 120s,and there are 3 flat base 150s.They all have canelures.I backed off my 7mm08 load of 42.5 gr IMR 4064 that I have been using for 139 Interlocks,and loaded a few 140s with 41gr,and they are shooting right about an inch group..I saw no signs of pressure,so I will try to work up a better load when I can,but if I can't get them tighter I won't loose any sleep over it..I think the biggest downside of buying pulled bullets for me is that even though they are cheap ,I think I end up with more than I will ever need.
 
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With all pulled or surplus bullets you need to be very careful and weigh every one even when your order says one weight bullets or the same brand bullets. They do occasionally get a 180 grain included with your 165 gr. bullets. However, I do believe that these sellers are lazy to not sort their pulled bullets by weight. I'm just not interested and will not buy "grab bags" or lots with 155, 165, and 180 gr. for example. They can keep grab bags and I received an email saying that the cost would be higher if they sorted???
 
I had good results with some pulled (Federal Fusion I believe) bullets I purchased form RMR. Some in 7mm and .223.
Happy with everything I have purchased from RMR, great people to do business with.
 
vaalpens said:
I received the 500count 9mm 115/124gr TMJ pulled bullets from American Reloading .I don't know if they are TMJ's or just plated

Here is a picture of the bulk of the bullets after I tumbled them just to shine them up a bit.
View attachment 236301
Click to expand...
longdayjake said:
Vaal, those are pretty obviously xtreme bullets. Speer TMJ have concave bases and a more pink color. American Reloading gets their bullets from the same place I get mine. I think those aren't pulled. I believe they are just screw ups. Seems like a good deal as long as the diameters measure out. Just be sure to check each round for neck tension. In the past when those were offered to me it was because many were .352-.353.
Click to expand...

TMJ (Total Metal Jacket) is trademark of ATK (Vista Outdoor) and only Speer plated bullets can be advertised as TMJ - https://trademarks.justia.com/738/33/tmj-73833272.html

Speer 115/124 gr TMJ bullets have distinct "concave" dished bottom as shown in the picture below and bullets you received lack the dished bottom.

index.php

Walkalong said:
Does anyone besides Hornady make the "encapsulated" bullets with the copper disc on the bottom?
Click to expand...
Montana Gold makes CMJ (Complete Metal Jacket) with copper disc on bottom of FMJ bullets - http://montanagoldbullet.com/index.php/40-165gr-cmj-193.html

10mm_40_165gr_cmj_back_2.jpg
 
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rg1 wrote:
I'm just not interested and will not buy "grab bags" or lots with 155, 165, and 180 gr. for example.
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I can certainly understand that. In my case, I don't mind buying a well-priced "grab bag" since I like getting bullets cheap and it gives me an excuse to spend a Sunday afternoon inside in the air conditioning sorting them out.
 
I know this is an older thread, but the topic is still valid.

I had a good experience with my last pulled bullet purchase from American Reloading, and today I decided to try some more of their pulled bullets. The bullets are 155/165/180 FMJ MIX - 500ct for $39.99, less 25% and free shipping. Out the door price was $29.99 for 500 40s&w FMJ bullets I need to sort by hand. This is going to make for some cheap plinking 40s&w rounds.

I will report back again once I have evaluated the quality of the bullets and also with some load evaluation.
 
The pulled bullets I ordered showed up today and I just finished sorting them. So far they meet my expectations. They have very light crimping marks and a few I measured all had a diameter of .3995", just below the.400" you would expect from a new bullet. The majority of the bullet are 180gr, with 155gr next and 165gr the least. Following are some pictures showing the 155/165/180 bullets, and a closeup of just the 180gr bullets. I am looking forward to do some limited low work up and then load some bulk plinking rounds.

40_jhp_pulled_all.png
40_jhp_pulled_180.png
 
bds said:
They look pretty good.
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Thanks.

As I was going through them I found two weighing around 172gr. The bullet length was definitely shorter than the 180gr, but longer than the 165gr bullets. I will probably just load those with the 180gr bullets but won't use them in any load workup. My calculation quick count and estimate is that I have 65 165gr bullets, 147 155gr bullets and then hopefully around 300 180gr bullets.

Thanks again for the 180gr bullets you sen me a while ago. The load workup I did at the time will now come in handy with the load workup I need to do.
 
I've had hit-or-miss with pulled bullets.

I bought one lot of pulled .223 bullets advertised as 52gn HP. about 750 of them were as advertised, some that were 55fmj, a lot that were ~45gn, and 2 or 3 that were jackets with no lead inside. So, by all means, weigh them ALL. I figured this batch did not save me anything, especially if I included my labor sorting them.

I bought some pulled 55sp bullets from RMR that appeared to have never been seated, they all looked new, but the cannelures were inconsistent. They did not shoot quite as accurately as new 55sp bullets, but were completely acceptable. I considered this a win.

I ordered some 38/357 158gn and 45 230gn pulled bullets from American Reloading. The order took forever (had to call them a couple of times) and when they showed up, I got 125gn instead of 158gn bullets. They made good on the error, though. There were some odd weights in both batches (only about 1%) and were easy to spot. I considered this a win, also.

But when I factored in the time spent sorting and inspecting, I figured I would probably not be looking for pulled bullets in the future. But that is me. If I were retired and had nothing better to do, it would give me something to keep me busy. :)
 
Toprudder said:
I've had hit-or-miss with pulled bullets.

I bought one lot of pulled .223 bullets advertised as 52gn HP. about 750 of them were as advertised, some that were 55fmj, a lot that were ~45gn, and 2 or 3 that were jackets with no lead inside. So, by all means, weigh them ALL. I figured this batch did not save me anything, especially if I included my labor sorting them.

I bought some pulled 55sp bullets from RMR that appeared to have never been seated, they all looked new, but the cannelures were inconsistent. They did not shoot quite as accurately as new 55sp bullets, but were completely acceptable. I considered this a win.

I ordered some 38/357 158gn and 45 230gn pulled bullets from American Reloading. The order took forever (had to call them a couple of times) and when they showed up, I got 125gn instead of 158gn bullets. They made good on the error, though. There were some odd weights in both batches (only about 1%) and were easy to spot. I considered this a win, also.

But when I factored in the time spent sorting and inspecting, I figured I would probably not be looking for pulled bullets in the future. But that is me. If I were retired and had nothing better to do, it would give me something to keep me busy. :)
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These were advertised as mixed 155/165/180 so I knew what I was getting myself into. Sorting does not take that much time, especially for 500 only. My plans for these bullets are basically the following:
For the 165gr bullets I will just do different powder load workups and collect some data points for 165gr FMJ bullets and compare it to my 165gr load data.
For the 155gr bullets I will also collect some data and create some practice rounds to evaluate if it is worth it to switch to 155gr.
For the 180gr bullets I will also do some workup with different powders, but will try and select a load quickly for loading the rest of the bullets. The bulk loads will be used for plinking and practice.

It is sometimes nice to have some loads where you did not invest that much money into the bullets.
 
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