J/bullet recommendations

[DeanWinchester]

I recently received some .30 cal FMJ military pull down bullets. These are pretty nice, the mil-guys even thought enough to give them a two tone black tip and copper finish

Anywho, I'll likely never shoot them, but I HAVE to load them. I've made it a point to pick up EVERY reloadable .308 case and load it, for years now. I don't even shoot jacketed bullets in 308 anymore, but I have been stuffing a 150g FMJ into any case I find with a starting charge of AA 2520. It's one of those irrational things you do that you accept and never try to rationalize in the first place.

My question: These purty little black tipped fellers; Should you try to throw them a little harder? With no intended rifle, I'm not inclined to go max load. Just curious if they will do their duty at the lower end of the load or should I go a grain or two below max and pick up the pace?

[R.C. Hatter]

What you have are armor-piercing bullets, and yes, they will shoot OK at
nominal velocities. However, make sure of your backstop for these rounds as they can penetrate hard metal.

[DeanWinchester]

What you have are armor-piercing bullets, and yes, they will shoot OK at
nominal velocities. However, make sure of your backstop for these rounds as they can penetrate hard metal.

Uhh, Yeah, I was reasonably certain of that. I was just curious if the extra velocity was worth the extra pressure seeing as hw I do not know what gun they will end up being fired from.

[NuJudge]

Weigh these bullets. If they are 163gr or so, they are from .30-'06 AP, and they have the reputation of shooting very well, but Old Timers used to say they were hard on barrels.

If they are 150gr, they should be from 7.62x51.

I have no experience loading them or shooting them, but since Steel is less dense than Lead, the bullet will protrude into the case more, and pressures should be higher with the same powder charge.

[Hardcast416taylor]

Interesting story about the better accuracy these bullets gave thru the M-1 rifle. So, being the honest fair playing branch that they are they used them in matches with the Army. Course the Marines polished the black paint off their ammo so it looked like the copper tipped ammo the Army was using. Naturally the Marines won many matches till it was discovered what they were doing. All future matches shot between the 2 branches were with issue ammo given out on the firing line.Robert

[NVScouter]

I've shot them in 308, 30-06 and 300WBY. Just load them regularly no extra benifit from uber speeds. They arent hard on barrel since they are still copper jacketed but when they hit the core or penitrator seperates and keeps going.

[garandsrus]

The AP bullets sell for between .50 and 1.00 each, so you might consider selling them to buy something you want more.

John

[NVScouter]

The AP bullets sell for between .50 and 1.00 each, so you might consider selling them to buy something you want more.

John

?? Really??

So I'm sitting on a couple hundred bucks of blacktips huh? What about factory loaded 30-06 with them?

[DeanWinchester]

I'm not selling them, they were given to me by a friend.
I think I'll just load them in the middle of the listed load data, and let go at that.

[winelover]

AA 2520 is my go to powder for the 308W. For 150's, I use 45.0 grs and drop down to 43.0 grs for the 165's. These loads give me good results with both rifles. (bolt and auto) No experience with AP bullets. YMMV

Winelover

[300winmag]

300winmag 200yrds 2" plate steel no problem, last ones I bought was 25c each 5 years ago, they are mean. if you want to sell a few I will take some.
thanks
300winmag

[mroliver77]

A friend and I were shooting some automobile engines with some steel cored ammo. I cannot remember now if it was AP or just steel core. After shooting a while he said something had hit him. We looked and there was a steel "rod" sticking out of his shin. It was not deep and pulled right out. I didn't feel a thing! We figured the core had "squirted" backwards out of the bullet when it hit the steel/iron in the v/8 head. I watch what I shoot at with solid core bullets now. He did turn me on to some AP Incinerary rounds in 7.62 Rusky with bad cases. I pulled and sized a couple down to .309 and shot in an 06. Makes me nervous resizing these critters but one day will finish the rest of them.
Jay

[crowbeaner]

Try 46.5 grains of WW748 or BLC2. Standard primers.