Need Bullet ID Help

[AgentOrange]

ok all you experts.

sometime back i purchased 500 bullets from midway, there blemished bullets. they were supposed to be .224 52gr match boat tail hollowpoint. when i got them in, the package said 52gr match boat tail hpo, but when i opened the box, inside were these. they are .224 52 grain match tip cannelured flat base...i called midway and they told me these were sent by mistake, and sent me the proper ones. they told me to keep these, free of charge for the trouble.

i weighed about 50+ of these individually on my chargemaster 1500 powder scale, and every single one weighs exactly 52gr on the nose with no variations.

OK...now ive did as much research as i can. firstly, ive found there arent many 52 grain bullet makers out there. i cant find a single ne myself who makes a 52 grain cannelured match tip flat base.

they shoot EXCEPTIONALLY WELL from my 223 contenders sitting on H322 powder, so load datas not a problem. what is bugging me is the manufacture.

 

[Galil5.56]

The HP, secant ogive, and look of the cannelure makes my best guess say Hornady despite a version of that bullet not in their line-up. Maybe they were blems?

 

[Jim Watson]

Surely Hornadys by appearance and my observation that hardly anybody else sells blems through normal channels, although I have read that you can go direct for Sierra for theirs.

Maybe somebody ran 52 gr bullets through the cannelure machine, and that WAS the blemish.

 

[AgentOrange]

jim

actually, im thinking thats what happened myself, except the 52gr'ers hornady has arent flat based, but boat tailed (unless the base is thick enough copper that they put the boat tail on after the bullets made, but i was under the impression that it was put on when the bullets actually made.

anyway, if these were made by accident, they should start making them for the open market. my contender 223 and 221 fireball both love them stacked on top of H322

 

[Galil5.56]

except the 52gr'ers hornady has arent flat based, but boat tailed

Exactly why I said blems. I see on this forum posts saying how a particular bullet can't be this or that because it's a 52 grain instead of 53, flat base vs BT, etc, etc... I think folks have imbeded in their brain that blems have to mean cosmetic only. This is not the case, as Midway states, and others don't:

"For most bullets, the blemish consists of slight discolorations in the jacket or the addition of a cannelure."

They are not going to go on and on about all the "defects" and reason for blem status... If the bullet weight is correct as stated, diameter is correct for nominal caliber designation, that is all that matters. Maybe if so compelled, you might drop a line to Hornady and ask them to continue with these Franken bullets? Not likely they are going to confirm they made them in the first place, but it never hurts.

 

[AgentOrange]

actually, if they did, they will. i spoke to them in the past when i first started buying midways blem bullets and they told me right up front that they sell all of here blems to midway who repackages them and sells them to the public.

i didnt know about the addition of the cannelure thru midway. good to know that cannelure has no bearing on the way the bullet shoots to me.....LOL

 

[rfwobbly]

Match ?

It could have been worse! It could have advertised "52 gr HPBT Match" and in the box you received 500 bullets and book of matches.

 

[NCsmitty]

Midway's blemished bullets can have any number of external defects.
Some 100gr flat base 6mm blems that I recently bought, have varying cannelure heights but still shoot fine.
Just be happy that your "special" 52gr bullets shoot well too.

NCsmitty