Factory rounds pulled

[LiveLife]

Since many have inquired about the actual bullets used for factory rounds, I pulled some to show the bullet base and weighed the powder charge on Ohaus 10-10.


Federal 9mm 115 gr FMJ - 5.7 grain

Remington 9mm 115 gr FMJ - 4.3 grain

Blazer 9mm 124 gr TMJ - 4.7 grain

 

[LiveLife]

Blazer 45ACP (SP) 230 gr TMJ - 4.0 grain

Remington 45ACP (LP) 230 gr Plated - 8.4 grain

PMC 45ACP (LP) 230 gr FMJ - 4.7 grain

 

[ljnowell]

I wish you would have pulled a couple of each to compare charge weights for consistency. I did that with some WWB and some Remington UMC one time. I did ten of each and it was pretty surprising to me, at the time, how inconsistent it was.

 

[rcmodel]

I wish you had sniffed it and told us if the powder was made in the USA, Australia, Belgium, Sweden, Czech Republic, South Africa, France, or Scotland.

Now, we are getting somewheere!!

rc

 

[Havok7416]

Looks like Bullseye and Unique... hmmmm

 

[kingmt]

My Federal 9mm is all plated bullets. They are all laying on top of the ground at the target. I quit carrying that junk.

 

[gamestalker]

It's been a few years, but I have pulled and compared charge weights, and I was astounded at the large variances. I don't know how that equates in velocity variances, being that the powders they use are a completely different animal than the stuff we get.
GS

 

[ljnowell]

It's been a few years, but I have pulled and compared charge weights, and I was astounded at the large variances. I don't know how that equates in velocity variances, being that the powders they use are a completely different animal than the stuff we get.
GS

Its all about the powder. I know that when I chrono'd 700x loads in 45acp .2gr variance really wasnt a big deal as far as velocity went. However, when I tore down the factory WWB and saw the variance in it, we chrono'd some of those and there was some real difference there.

 

[blarby]

It takes a solid man to stretch out good factory ammo in times like these, just for pictures.


Granted, for us its no big deal.... but you'd be breaking a lot of hearts in the pistol section....just sayin.


I agree that one each isn't a great representation of average composition... but I don't see anyone else hammer'n factory ammo apart just for show and tell for all of the new guys,


Nicely done........

Your camera work is getting better !

 

[Havok7416]

It's not like it can't be put back together.

 

[ljnowell]

It takes a solid man to stretch out good factory ammo in times like these, just for pictures.


Granted, for us its no big deal.... but you'd be breaking a lot of hearts in the pistol section....just sayin.


I agree that one each isn't a great representation of average composition... but I don't see anyone else hammer'n factory ammo apart just for show and tell for all of the new guys,


Nicely done........

Your camera work is getting better !

I would break some down, but i dont have any. None, at all. I know sounds crazy right?

 

[chris in va]

Is that a misprint, 8.4 gr?

 

[FROGO207]

That is not canister grade propellant and as such it could be any weight and work well. That shows you that pulling a round and duplicating the weight of a propellant that LOOKS like it is the same as a canister grade you have on hand could be a BIG mistake. The factory will develop a load that is safe to use with their huge lot (railroad car full ?) and then load up a bazillion rounds before changing lots. I also took apart a box of Winchester factory handgun rounds once and found it to be more than a 12% difference in propellant amounts. I then took the whole box of 50 and used the average weight (total propellant weight divided by 50) to reload the ammo and my results were far better on target at 50 feet than the next factory box I tried from the same lot. Just saying.
That alone made me a believer in the statement that handloading is more accurate.

 

[LiveLife]

I wish you had sniffed it and told us if the powder was made in the USA

Well, just for you rc, I did smell the powders and they lacked the more sharper solvent/alcohol notes of Austrailian made Universal and Finnish made N320 and more in line with USA made Alliant/Hodgdon/Winchester powders with milder solvent notes.

I wish you would have pulled a couple of each to compare charge weights for consistency.

The reasons why I did not pull a few of each round is because I have done that in the past and the powder charge weights varied quite a bit and I did not want to waste factory rounds to make plinking rounds. I think when several rounds are made each second at the ammunition plants, powder charge weight consistency may suffer.

Looks like Bullseye and Unique... hmmmm

That's what I thought at first but when I poured some Bullseye next to the powder charges that came out of FC/Blazer cases, the powder flake size was smaller than Bullseye.

Is that a misprint, 8.4 gr?

Yes, I also went, "Really?" and rechecked the zero on 10-10 and even used my digital scale to verify the charge weight. It still weighed 8.4 grains. The Remington 45ACP powder had very fine balls and discs (BTW, both AA #5 and HS-6 have powder charges in the 8 grain range). Could it be a variation non-canister powder of AA #5?

That is not canister grade propellant and as such it could be any weight

Very true. The powder charges that came out of FC/Blazer cases looked like a flake powder but smaller than Bullseye (BTW, all the powder charges from 9mm/45ACP cases looked the same) . If you took Unique and made it smaller than Bullseye, it would be comparable to what came out of the cases. As to RP 9mm powder, it looked like flattened ball powder like W231/HP-38.

It takes a solid man to stretch out good factory ammo in times like these, just for pictures.

If you talk to my wife, she would beg to differ. My point was to show factory ammunition being sold as FMJ are actually TMJ/plated bullets and not jacketed bullets. Notice that I did not pull any factory JHP as point would be moot.

 

[cactus02]

I pulled some 9mm ww white box nato rounds. about 8 gn ball powder set in asphaltum sealer. It took two men and a little boy to break the seal and pull the bullet. That was very difficult to pull. not like speer 115 just grip it with the collett puller and off it comes with no problem.

 

[LiveLife]

All the rounds shown in the pictures were pulled using a hammer type bullet puller whacked against my portable bench on one of 2x4 frame end one or two times. I whacked with the same force I would hammer a 10 d nail into a 2x4.

PMC was by far the most difficult round to pull with some black looking sealant on the bullet side and required 3 whacks.

 

[Trent]

Great pics!

I just pulled some surplus unknowns down the other night, and it took 15-20 solid whacks of the puller on concrete to dislodge the .308 projectiles from their 7.62 NATO casings. I don't know what blackish sealant they used was, but I want some next time I have to repair something. Superglue wouldn't hold that bullet in any tighter.

Ok, maybe it would.

 

[blarby]

That would be Tar. Plain and simple.

 

[greyling22]

cactus, I read one time where guys were just seating the bullets a little deeper in the loaded rounds to break the seal and pull them. I think it was with 7.62x39 rounds butI suppose is would apple to handgun as well.

 

[Trent]

That would be Tar. Plain and simple.

Makes sense. Projectiles are still slightly tacky to the touch.