Reusing factory pulled bullets with primers?

[something vague]

I bought some PMC .223 Rem 55gr FMJ ammo at a gun show a few months ago for my brand new Ruger M77 just to have something to shoot right off. I get home and chambered a bullet and found that these bullets were too long for my chamber/throat. I had to really crank the bolt closed and found that it was touching the lands in my rifling. I have found that a lot of factory ammo will not fit this gun as the throat dimensions are too short. After checking with some Hornady 52gr. BTHP match bullets my max COAL is 2.218", which I find to be pretty short. I can deal with it as I am a reloader and will tailer my own ammo as neccessary.

My question is, is it safe to pull the PMC bullets for the brass and leaving the factory primers in them and tailer my loads to these cases? I will have to clean the inside necks because PMC has used some type of black substance that is sandwiched between the bullet and neck, it almost looks like tar. Has anyone seen this before? It's a no wonder factory ammo can be so dirty. Will I have to assume that these primers are magnums and work up with that data as they used some type of ball powder? It looked just like H335, but I'm sure most balls look that way.

 

[Steve H]

Have you checked if other factory rounds will chamber ok? Also I would check the COAL of the PMC stuff against the same type of round in some reloading manuals.

 

[ReloaderFred]

Yes, you can reuse the primed brass the same as you would brass you primed yourself.

As to the type of primer used, I doubt they were magnum primers. When PMC was in Boulder City, NV, they used CCI primers for their loading at that site. I don't have a clue what brand they used in other sites, since some of their ammunition was made in other countries.

The substance in the neck is waterproofing, and is a tar. You can either load as is, or try to clean it out, but it's going to be messy, and you can't use a liquid, as there would be danger of contaminating the existing primers. If it were me, I'd just load them like they are, but you'll probably have to remove the decapping stem from your sizing die and run the primed cases through the die to tighten up the necks again.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[something vague]

some do and some don't. But that is not what i'm asking about, just simply the reason I want to pull these bullets. Unless one would think it would be safe to seat them slightly further, which I would think is bad practise and honestly wouldn't feel safe doing so. I have no idea what these have for a powder charge therefore risk compressing the load, not gonna do it. I just want to know about the primed case and if that is safe to use in my own load development?

 

[fireman 9731]

Yes the primed case should be fine to use!

 

[rcmodel]

I would think 55gr FMJ ammo should chamber in any rifle.

I have found that a lot of factory ammo will not fit this gun as the throat dimensions are too short.

Factory ammo is loaded to SAAMI spec and should chamber in any factory chamber.

I would suspect you have something wrong with the rifle if you have to seat them any shorter then that.

rc