Bullet tip damage

[Morrey]

Greetings. I have collected some exposed lead tipped Sierra Gameking spitzer boattail bullets that I had to pull due to various reasons with my impact puller. Some tips look perfectly normal while others smacked the puller's end cap and damaged (flattened or rolled over) the tip. Not sure...would this deformed tip would impact accuracy.

Is it recommended to try to reshape or remove the damaged exposed lead tip? I was thinking of taking a pair of diagonal cutters and nipping the tip off flush with the jacketed casing. This may bring my weight down a grain or two, but I don't load to max anyway. These are hunting bullets, but I'd hate to see a whitetail of a lifetime and miss him cause I was too cheap to pitch a damaged bullet in the trash.

So...is there an opinion out there that can help me decide the right direction?

 

[clearcut]

I put a cleaning patch in my puller to prevent that.I think it will change the flight of a bullet,but I would try it and range test to see what the effect is they may well stay in minute of deer.

CC

 

[snuffy]

First, what you describe is NOT the ballistic tip, but the soft point of a bullet. Nosler was the first to bring out plastic tipped bullets, ballistic tips, back in the early seventies.

Second, you could have avoided the damaged lead tip by simply putting an earplug in the bottom of the puller.

Third, the bullets are now damaged, there's no telling if they will expand, or even shoot accurately. They will certainly be all over the place a long ranges, where the tip profile affects the vertical flight. Use those bullets for blasting ammo, no serious accuracy or hunting ammo.

 

[Kp321]

There was an article in Handloader magazine a few years ago about the accuracy of bullets with damaged points. The conclusion was that point damage made very little difference in accuracy but the least damage on the base was significant.

 

[joem1945]

If you have to pull a bunch of bullets get the Hornady Cam Loc bullet puller. Used and adjusted correctly it will not cause any damage to your bullets. I use mine to pull down components only ammo that's cheap when I find it.

 

[Morrey]

Thanks!

I surely appreciate the good feedback so far! I thought "Duh", why didn't I think of a buffer in the impact end cap to absorb the shock!!! Half of a foam earplug would be ideal! Thanks for the super suggestion! That doesn't fix the damaged tips, but it surely makes for no damaged ones in the future.

 

[Sunray]

"...Nosler was the first to bring out plastic tipped bullets..." Nope. CIL had 'em(called Sabre Tips, as I recall.) long before No$ler was ever heard of in North America. Nylon, I think. No such thing as a polymer then.
Anyway, the point doesn't matter. Only the base of a bullet matters. Fact established long before Handloader magazine too. Not that it matters.

 

[CZ9shooter]

I have seen quite a few factory new soft point rounds with squished or otherwise assemetrical tips. I have also read, on more than one occasion, that it is inconsequential to accuracy. Like others mentioned, the heel is much more critical than the nose.

Load a few up and try them. I bet they shoot fine.

 

[Blue68f100]

Just clean them up a little if real bad. I'm assuming your going to use these for practice or hunting. I've shot some bullets that were dropped on the nose and saw no difference on paper at 100 yrds. In either case a little damage on the nose will not have a big impact on any thing less the 200 yrds. May not have much as 300 yrds either. But in most cases your using a different bullet for long range shooting.

Most kinetic pullers do have a cushion in the nose to prevent damage. But they do fall out if your not paying attention. The Hornady Cam-lock puller is real good for rifle rounds that you have something to grab on to. Not so good for short pistol ammo.

 

[spitballer]

Hmm... interesting advice on this thread - I've always used wadded paper toweling but will definitely consider an earplug. FWIW have also considered dressing tips while rotating in a drill...

 

[Morrey]

Thanks!

Thank you ALL for the feedback. Yep, at 35 cents each the bullets are not going to break the bank to toss a couple of dozen of them, but if I can dress off the lead tip, that'll work for me! Appreciate the good advice!!

I just cut a foam earplug in half and put into the end cap. Now I got a nice, soft landing pad for the bullet tip to cushion on. Cool!!

 

[Bula]

I remember that article in hand loader magazine. If I recall even the spitzers with the tips cut off with wire snips did okay at 100. I say shoot them.

 

[witchhunter]

A foam ear plug works great, but so does a collet puller. Much easier and you don't have to bang away like a crazed carpenter to pull em.

 

[Jesse Heywood]

Like spitballer suggested, dress them in a drill. I would try emery paper in the range of 280-400 grit. The punch some paper against undamaged bullets and post the results. I'm hoping you can shoot straighter than I can.

 

[gspn]

Dude...this is the perfect time to set up a quick experiment. This is an awesome learning opportunity.

Load three groups of bullets using the same recipe:

- undamaged bullets
- damaged tip bullets
- bullets where you tried to fix the damage

Shoot a reasonable group of each at your expected hunting distance and see if there is a material difference in accuracy between them.

THIS is how learning is done. If you do it we'd love to hear the results.

 

[gamestalker]

In the most recent instance, I had some how forgot to pad one of the lids on the plastic MTM cases, in which I usually stuff a cut to fit piece of cardboard in the lid, or some Styrofoam to prevent damage. So I had an entire box of flattened tips, but they were all very consistently flattened, which is usually the case when I do this. They shot just fine at 100 yards, but I noticed POI was a little bit lower at 200 yds, and even more so noticeable at 300 yards, but the groups were about the same.

As far as damaged tips and how they shoot, my initial response is simply this, the more consistent the components and the process is, the more consistent and accurate the loads should shoot. So if the bullet tips are inconsistently deformed or mangled, I would fix them, they're probably not going to shoot worth a darn other wise.

I use various methods to fix damaged lead tips, and depending on the size and profile, I use the inside of a Lee ream / chamfer tool, works pretty good. But of course, anytime you use a method that removes material, this would be a good time to try and get them all the same weight. I've used or experimented with a number of methods to reshape damaged tips, sand paper, steel wool, pressing them against a smooth flat piece of steel, while chucked up in a drill with a Lee shell holder. I think I even tried a pencil sharpener once, or I maybe I just thought about trying it.

As for the bullet puller, my "El Cheapo" $12 RCBS inertia puller came with a foam padded insert in the tip. If your's didn't come with one, which BTW I find rather odd, just stuff an ear plug in it and call it good. On a side note, I've heard a good number of reloaders complain about this very same complaint, that their inertia pullers didn't come with a padded insert. I'm inclined to think that they probably did come with one, and that they may have not noticed that small piece of padding in the package, and probably threw it away when opening the package. I say this because mine came with one, and I bought the cheapest one RCBS makes, and even it has a pad, a great one actually that the powder doesn't stick too, or get under it.

GS

 

[Catpop]

Mine (RCBS, green, i think) came with foam Styrofoam looking pad already inserted in bottom of reservoir , I haven't noticed any deformed bullets. Not sure about the one that broke 5-6 years ago and was chunked, it was also green but had an aluminum hex handle. It was decades old so I wasn't heartbroke.

 

[TimSr]

Dude...this is the perfect time to set up a quick experiment. This is an awesome learning opportunity.

Load three groups of bullets using the same recipe:

- undamaged bullets
- damaged tip bullets
- bullets where you tried to fix the damage

Shoot a reasonable group of each at your expected hunting distance and see if there is a material difference in accuracy between them.

THIS is how learning is done. If you do it we'd love to hear the results.

This is the only way you will ever get a good answer to your question. Eveything else is speculation.

 

[snuffy]

Quote:
Dude...this is the perfect time to set up a quick experiment. This is an awesome learning opportunity.

Load three groups of bullets using the same recipe:

- undamaged bullets
- damaged tip bullets
- bullets where you tried to fix the damage

Shoot a reasonable group of each at your expected hunting distance and see if there is a material difference in accuracy between them.

THIS is how learning is done. If you do it we'd love to hear the results.

This is the only way you will ever get a good answer to your question. Everything else is speculation.

I'm not worried about short range accuracy, only extreme long range accuracy. There is where the bullet tip shows deflection if it's off center, or blunter than the others.

What I'm really concerned about is EXPANSION Will it expand at all? Will it expand too much? Much testing is done with how much of a lead tip is exposed to begin expansion. Taking some away to make the shape consistent will certainly affect expansion. SO I would only shoot these at paper, or other non-critical shooting.

"...Nosler was the first to bring out plastic tipped bullets..." Nope. CIL had 'em(called Sabre Tips, as I recall.) long before No$ler was ever heard of in North America. Nylon, I think. No such thing as a polymer then.

WHO? Never hoid of 'em. As far as tipped bullets go, ever heard of bronze tips? They were made by Remington to cause bullet expansion for mainly 30 cal rifles. I first saw them loaded in 30-40- Krag ammo bought by my older brother. He had to shoot a doe 4 times with his Krag, kept getting up after being hit in the ribs. Bullets were exploding on a rib, the one that killed her slipped between two ribs. That lung was like lung soup!

 

[Drail]

Whether or not a bullet expands is dependent upon a multitude of factors that are completely beyond your control. You can only control the factors that you can - but never count on a bullet expanding.

 

[SlowFuse]

I had something like this happen with a few Win 180 grain power points in 30-06. I had a 742 that jammed on these about once a mag and chewed up the exposed lead tips.

I took a small bastard file to them and smoothed out the flattened part. They shot fine at 150 yards, maybe marginally larger groups than the undamaged loads. To be safe I agree that if hunting it's worth loading/buying more.