Best way to correct nonconcentric bullets

[osteodoc08]

I was given several thousand 147gr FMJ pills by a friend several years ago. They were pulled using jaws that pulnpukk marks in the bullet and was so violent, many are no longer round but more oval which doesn’t play well with chambering them in my various 300 BLK rifles as they get stuck, then I have to mortar them out and the bullet ends up stuck and case full of powder all in the gun and is a mess. Is there a quick way of running these through a sizer of sorts mounted in a press quickly and easily to resize them xoncentrically to .308”? These are gonna be used for blasting ammo with my 300 BLK.

[HangFireW8]

I had some 1,000 5.56's like that. I waited for a political gun control scare, and sold them on an auction site with full disclosure for a profit.

I imagine the guys in the Swaging sub-forum might have the right stuff. The trick is "quickly and easily", even with the right die and compound leverage, fully jacketed bullets are going to put up a fight, especially if they are that much out of round.

[osteodoc08]

I had some 1,000 5.56's like that. I waited for a political gun control scare, and sold them on an auction site with full disclosure for a profit.

I imagine the guys in the Swaging sub-forum might have the right stuff. The trick is "quickly and easily", even with the right die and compound leverage, fully jacketed bullets are going to put up a fight, especially if they are that much out of round.

The ones I’m having issues with are .311-.312 at their most oblong

[billyb]

Try using a 308 lube sizing die as a push thru. I pull a lot of dud rounds that I pick up at the indoor range and I use the lube dies to iron them out.

[shortfal]

The Lee push through dies are your friend. I've run thousands of 5.56 55 gr. I got from HiTech here in St. Louis over the years. Fine for blasting and they shoot better than one might think.
Pete

[SOFMatchstaff]

the lee push thru in .308 dia will do the deed, I resized a large number of pulled APs', and use the .510 on the .50 cal for the Ma Deuce. push nose first with a slight film of lube and get a good round projo for not much of an investment..

[Greg S]

SOFMatchStaff, +1 on the 50 cal pulls.

If your going Lee, take a gander at NOE's push through sizer set up with interchangable dies. That would be my thought.

[GregLaROCHE]

All of the above comments are good. Otherwise, just melt them down and recast them.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I wonder how much spring-back there is with those FMJ?

You might want a undersized 30 cal sizer die...maybe .307?

I'd use a swaging lube, like Lanolin thinned with s bit of neatsfoot oil.

[country gent]

The problem may be more the jacket will spring back but the lead core wont leaving it loose in the jacket. We tried sizing down some jacket bullets for an odd bore size once and the jacket sprung back away from the core ruining accuracy. You can try it but you may be surprised at the force it takes and the lee sizer die may not last very long with jacketed. I would recommend lubing the bullets with a lanolin based lube to lower sizing force and help with die life.
If the pulling left marks in the jacket they will remain after the swaging down.

[BigMagShooter]

push them through a sizer die.

should make them round again.

[osteodoc08]

I ordered the NOE body sizing die and set up. I’ll let you guys know how it works. The pulls are 147 fmj with max oval diameter of 311-312, most of them not that bad. I’m hoping the sizer will be enough to make them useable for plinkers in my 300 BLK. Don’t have much to lose really.

[lead-1]

Several years back I bought some .311 pulls that were ovaled and bought a LEE .308 push thru sizer, I lubed them and shoved them thru the sizer. I had zero problems shooting them but also wasn't looking for bench rest results thru my CETME rifle.
My only concern at the time was the actual length of the bullets, they become longer than .308 bullets of the same weight, that extra diameter had to go somewhere I guess.

[KCSO]

Strong press Lee push through sizer and lanolin lube and they will straighten right out.

[osteodoc08]

Strong press Lee push through sizer and lanolin lube and they will straighten right out.


I’ve got my Rock Chucker press. Should be strong enough for this.

[Conditor22]

I would downsize the bullets in as small an increment that I could

[osteodoc08]

I would downsize the bullets in as small an increment that I could

I got the 308 body die from NOE. I think it’ll just round them up. If it’s .311” one way it’s .306 the other. Like an egg. So hopefully rounds them up enough to plink with.

[GregLaROCHE]

If you push the bullets through a sizer, it will reform the body of the bullet, but not do anything to the ogive. How do you know that the ogive and bullet tip will be concentric with the body?

[osteodoc08]

If you push the bullets through a sizer, it will reform the body of the bullet, but not do anything to the ogive. How do you know that the ogive and bullet tip will be concentric with the body?

That’s a good question. I’ve got some bullet comparators and a concentricity gauge. I’ll try to look at this scientifically and see what I can report. I’m open to suggestions on what to look for and report.

[RU shooter]

If you push the bullets through a sizer, it will reform the body of the bullet, but not do anything to the ogive. How do you know that the ogive and bullet tip will be concentric with the body?
I think the only way you could get everything all straight and true again is to use a swage die in the shape of the bullet, and a good bit of pressure behind it .But just the sizer may get it "good enough" for plinking use

[Dusty Bannister]

If you are concerned about the copper jacket spring back, perhaps you could bake them at 300 degrees and air cool to just anneal the bullet but not melt the alloy core. I know, it is getting more complicated.

[osteodoc08]

So I picked up a handful of the bullets to run through the sizer. I’ve got a small tube of cheap chapstick that was given to me that I use, essentially as sizing wax since I’ve misplaced my imperial can. Out of approx 100 pulls, most of them went through without touching or barely touching the sides, there were 6 that I really had to pull the handle down with some force to get through. The pulls with pull marks lower on the bullet would typically be the ones with issues. One of them was .312” at its widest oval dimension. I put it through the 308 body sizing die twice and the egged our portion was now at .309”. I made a dummy round and it would chamber and extract so I think for my purposes, I’ll segregate our the hard to size ones and either melt them down (most likely) or keep them separated until I have enough to load up some really rough plinkers.

[Conditor22]

Attests to JonB's copper spring back theory, the question is did the lead core spring back also?

If they chamber, I'd think the throat and barrel would also resize/make concentric the contact area.

If you wanted to put in the extra $ and time you could get nose size dies from NOE.

I am interested to see what the results are.

[osteodoc08]

Attests to JonB's copper spring back theory, the question is did the lead core spring back also?

If they chamber, I'd think the throat and barrel would also resize/make concentric the contact area.

If you wanted to put in the extra $ and time you could get nose size dies from NOE.

I am interested to see what the results are.

Other than being able to section a few, I’m not sure how’d I’d check for that. I’m in a rental home away from my primary home right now so I have no access to a bench grinder which could possibly help but for my purposes, these will be good ‘nuff. If someone wants to suggest a few ways to test them, im open to it as an experiment. If someone wants to test some, and had the equipment, I can mail some examples.

[dverna]

I bet for plinking they will work just fine....likely better than most .30 cal cast bullets at 100 yards LOL