Science! Pulling 62gr & Seating 60gr in a .223 Rem Case!

Zee

Those of you paying attention have seen me pull 62/64gr Speer Gold Dot bullets from factory loaded ammo and seat 60gr Hornady FBHP bullets. My boy even took a deer with that load. 

I’ve also taken the same factory ammo and seated the bullets slightly deeper to break the sealant used by the factory and improve accuracy. 

Chapter 3 involves me taking the science even further. 

- Pulling the 62gr GD Bullet
- Pouring and Retaining the Powder
- Chanfering/Deburring the Case
- Resizing the Case
- Reinserting the Powder
- Seating a 60gr Hornady V-Max to 1.880” BTO

It’s a Hell of a process. But, in the grand scheme of starting with virgin brass, I guess not. 

We will see tomorrow how they shoot. 

Wambli Ska

What are you using to pull the bullets.  Do you salvage the Gold dots?

Diver43

Are you swapping bullets for accuracy or terminal performance?

earlyagain

All of this, really is remarkable IMO.

The seals bad effect on accuracy, the difference of performance with just slight changes, even the reliability of 22 cal on game.

Bigslug

Economical transformation of available mushroom-and-penetrate ammo into a desired fragment-on-impact varmint round?  Also guessing this gets you a toastier 5.56 NATO powder charge and 5.56 spec crimped primer that you wouldn't get in a .223 loading.

Nothing excessively weird here.  Carry on!

Ernie Bishop

Are you opening the neck more, then resizing everything back to your die specs (Neck bushing?) or just pulling bullets and then resizing with a traditional die?

Ernie Bishop

Diver43 said:

Are you swapping bullets for accuracy or terminal performance?

My guess would be both

Ernie Bishop

The performance of those 62 GD's on pd's is very unspectacular.

Zee

Wambli Ska said:

What are you using to pull the bullets.  Do you salvage the Gold dots?

A Forster Collet bullet puller.
I keep the bullets. Have never reseated them in anything because of the sealant ring left in them. But, I’ve sent them to folks who might have tried. 

Zee

Diver43 said:

Are you swapping bullets for accuracy or terminal performance?

Yes. 😁
Seeing if accuracy will improve and making more of a Varmint load as opposed to a bonded bullet for penetration. 

Zee

Ernie Bishop said:

Are you opening the neck more, then resizing everything back to your die specs (Neck bushing?) or just pulling bullets and then resizing with a traditional die?

Pulling and resizing with a full length sizing die. 

In the past, I just pulled and reseated. Didn’t debur, chanfer, or resize. 

Zee

Ernie Bishop said:

The performance of those 62 GD's on pd's is very unspectacular.

Of course. Not their intended purpose. Which I’m aware you know. 👍🏻

Zee

earlyagain said:

All of this, really is remarkable IMO.

The seals bad effect on accuracy, the difference of performance with just slight changes, even the reliability of 22 cal on game.

Idle minds………

Ernie Bishop

Zee said:

Ernie Bishop said:

The performance of those 62 GD's on pd's is very unspectacular.

Of course. Not their intended purpose. Which I’m aware you know. 👍🏻

I just wanted to see how they would actually perform…

Zee

Ernie Bishop said:

Zee said:

Ernie Bishop said:

The performance of those 62 GD's on pd's is very unspectacular.

Of course. Not their intended purpose. Which I’m aware you know. 👍🏻

I just wanted to see how they would actually perform…

Might as well!  👍🏻👍🏻

Ernie Bishop

Zee said:

Ernie Bishop said:

Zee said:

Ernie Bishop said:

The performance of those 62 GD's on pd's is very unspectacular.

Of course. Not their intended purpose. Which I’m aware you know. 👍🏻

I just wanted to see how they would actually perform…

Might as well!  👍🏻👍🏻

On the same day, I switched to some different ammunition that used the 50 grain ballistic tip or Vmax, I’m not sure right now, and results on tissue was dramatically better.  

Ernie Bishop

I had a double on Thursday last week, but getting the triple or quad prairie dog kill is very difficult in real life. 

I’ve had a quad one time with Steve.  

I can’t remember if I’ve ever had a triple before.  

My first double, was with steve as well. We were shooting off the top of his old burnt orange super beetle. He was complaining that his Mauser 25-06 wasn’t shooting good, as he had missed several dogs. Kiddingly, I said let me see that rifle and I’ll kill something, so he let me shoot. We found a dog on a mound around 250 yards, and as I was getting ready to shoot I see this dog running from the right toward the mound, and I try to guess when the juncture would be, and got lucky and killed both of them. 

Steve about went nuts, and I said, I think your rifle shoots fine and put it down and never shot it again. 

Good memories.  This took place on a dog town north east of Greeley Colorado back in the mid 80s

Bigslug

I get the feeling that any coyotes who would thin out the deer herd you need to thin out. . .

. . .are about to get thinned out.

Zee

Bigslug said:

I get the feeling that any coyotes who would thin out the deer herd you need to thin out. . .

. . .are about to get thinned out.

I have one that I’m after. And I have plenty of existing loads. I’m just trying science and a way to reappropriate existing supply. 

Uncle Fester

Were the factory case lengths consistent enough that trimming wasn’t needed?

If you don’t trim the brass, is it necessary to chamfer and debur?

Zee

I seated two depths. 

1.880” BTO = .008” off the lands
1.865” BTO to fit in AR Mags

And the winner is!

Zee

Uncle Fester said:

Were the factory case lengths consistent enough that trimming wasn’t needed?

If you don’t trim the brass, is it necessary to chamfer and debur?

I didn’t measure the case length. I chamfered and debured to clean the sealant out of the case mouth and clean the mouth up from the factory crimp. 

Ernie Bishop

That will work!

Zee

Ernie Bishop said:

That will work!

Not bad for a generic pull and seat experiment. 

Ernie Bishop

Actually quite awesome for what you did.

Zee

Ernie Bishop said:

Actually quite awesome for what you did.

I like stupid projects that work out. 😎

In this case, I’m only out the purchase of the Hornady bullets! That’s a win for a usable Varmint round. 

earlyagain

Interesting. 
:-) 

Zee

And I have 400 of the bullets with a……….bunch of donor cases. 😎

Wambli Ska

Zee said:

Wambli Ska said:

What are you using to pull the bullets.  Do you salvage the Gold dots?

A Forster Collet bullet puller.
I keep the bullets. Have never reseated them in anything because of the sealant ring left in them. But, I’ve sent them to folks who might have tried. 

I’m going to have to look into that.  I have TONS of reloaded ammo that I might want to salvage components out of.

Zee

Wambli Ska said:

Zee said:

Wambli Ska said:

What are you using to pull the bullets.  Do you salvage the Gold dots?

A Forster Collet bullet puller.
I keep the bullets. Have never reseated them in anything because of the sealant ring left in them. But, I’ve sent them to folks who might have tried. 

I’m going to have to look into that.  I have TONS of reloaded ammo that I might want to salvage components out of.

Mine is designed specifically for my Forster Press. I think other companies make them, as well. 

Wambli Ska

This might have to wait until I get to the new place…. Thanks