Interesting result with damgaged bullets

[texassako]

I loaded 24 NOE 311331's that I had accidentally sized with the wrong nose punch. It mangled them up pretty good, and some even needed a file to get some semblance of a round nose back. They were loaded with the same 12 gr of Unique I used with the good ones. Out of 100 rounds, mostly as 10 shot groups, those 24 were the best today, and were a 1.5" group with no fliers. I even shot them pretty quickly as the last set and the barrel got pretty hot. I expected fliers, got none, and the load seemed a lot more settled than with the good ones. I thought it was an interesting observation.

[Yodogsandman]

That is interesting. Which nose punch did you use? Which gun?

[tazman]

The cast boolit gods smiled at you today.

[IraqVet1982]

How far away from the target were you? I'd imagine you'd see more of an impact at greater distances. Nonetheless, congrats.

[DeanWinchester]

I'm betting you bumped the nose size up which gave you a more supported nose.

[Cherokee]

I'm not too surprised. I have had good results with "junk" boolits.

[texassako]

That is interesting. Which nose punch did you use? Which gun?

Lyman 413 punch in my 450 sizer. Gun was my M28-76 in 7.62x54r. It did not make them pointy. It raised a sharp, tall ring of lead on the nose, sometimes offset.

The cast boolit gods smiled at you today.

I wish. They definitely had a sense of humor. I needed that group on a couple of more important targets. My new can of Unique is definitely not close to my old can of Hercules Unique, and I need to go back to the drawing board with it.

How far away from the target were you? I'd imagine you'd see more of an impact at greater distances. Nonetheless, congrats.

I was shooting at 100 yards. I would have thought it would at least open up some or throw fliers with the ones I had to file to chamber.

I'm betting you bumped the nose size up which gave you a more supported nose.

Maybe so. The nose is already .001" over bore size.

[jimb16]

American Rifleman had an article some years ago on the effects of bullet damage. Long story short....nose damage had little effect on accuracy, but base damage had a great effect. I think they tested J-words and cast.

[Blammer]

I'd use that nose punch again.

[MtGun44]

The front is nearly irrelevant in flight, the base is the driver.
+1 on the NRA article from the 50s or 60s - they intentionally
seriously damaged the fronts of some 6.5 Swede j-bullets and
had no real problems. One file stroke on the rear corner would
send them flying.

Bill

[texassako]

I have read that article in the past, but kind of forgot the details other than bad bases. It was interesting seeing it in person.

[762 shooter]

I hate those damn gauged boolits.

762

[btroj]

http://youtu.be/C9Dylxy3zJc

Great video showing how nose damage can alter flight paths. The slow motion video tells the truth.

[ghh3rd]

I did the same thing once... was low on good boolits and wanted to plink and grabbed a bunch in my reject pile and loaded them up. They were some bad fills, some dropped and dented, etc, that I tossed into the reject can over time. They still flew amazingly well, some at 25 yds and some at 50yds. I wouldn't necessarily hunt or compete with them, but it was surprising they did as well as they did.

[303Guy]

http://youtu.be/C9Dylxy3zJc

Great video showing how nose damage can alter flight paths. The slow motion video tells the truth.

Notice how the flat nose (nose cut off square) had the worst flight path? Most of the others followed a reasonable mean flight path after leaving the muzzle (but they seemed to leave the muzzle not pointing at the target unless they weren't aimed well?) The spiral path did not seem to actually open up down range and some narrowed down (which could be the effect of perspective). One or two had wandering spiral paths (the flat nose being the worst). Interesting.

[marvelshooter]

I did the same thing once... was low on good boolits and wanted to plink and grabbed a bunch in my reject pile and loaded them up. They were some bad fills, some dropped and dented, etc, that I tossed into the reject can over time. They still flew amazingly well, some at 25 yds and some at 50yds. I wouldn't necessarily hunt or compete with them, but it was surprising they did as well as they did.

I did exactly the same thing when I got my new NOE 311365. I took 10 from my reject pile that had visible bubbles or wrinkles or rounded bases and loaded 'em up. You would need verniers to tell the group from the one shot by the "good" boolits.

[dudel]

Not too surprised. As long as the base was good, my junk boolits shot fine. Never did take good/bad boolits and shoot them side by side to see the difference.

[303Guy]

I took 10 from my reject pile that had visible bubbles or wrinkles or rounded bases and loaded 'em up. You would need verniers to tell the group from the one shot by the "good" boolits.

I like rounded bases because they don't form feathers. Well that's my theory anyway. So I'm interested in your results. One possible problem with rounded bases is uneven rounding. That's where nose pour moulds come into play.

[texassako]

I like rounded bases because the don't form feathers. Well that's my theory anyway. So I'm interested in your results. One possible problem with rounded bases is uneven rounding. That's where nose pour moulds come into play.

I would think sorting them by weight would get you pretty close to identical base rounding. The more rounded, the less weight.