Rebuilding factory ammo

[*tim*]

Has anyone ever taken apart factory ammo and put everything back together to your specs? I was thinking of just averaging the powder and seeting the bullet to the right depth. I know it prolly wont be worth the time but Im goin to have some free time this weekend and tinkering on ammo is always fun

[MacDR]

Took apart two boxes of 300 win mag using a kinetic puller and replaced the powder with another. As long as you can catch all the powder and weigh each average powder charge, I don't see any problem. You most likely will be short powder for the last case. Don't make it up with other powder as you are now in unknown territory.

[*tim*]

Yeah I planned on loosing one round

[Rifleshooter308]

Why? LOL I undestand if it shoots good in your rifle but it will be hard to tell which powder it is unless it's a common type like Lake City .308 Match (which is now 4046 but used to be RE15). Best just to work up a load with your chosen powder and bullet. You'll find the sweet spot that way. :eyebrows:

[eddiesindian]

Has anyone ever taken apart factory ammo and put everything back together to your specs? I was thinking of just averaging the powder and seeting the bullet to the right depth. I know it prolly wont be worth the time but Im goin to have some free time this weekend and tinkering on ammo is always fun

Course its worth your time. Thats what reloading is all about.
Ive done it several times with several types of fact. ammo that gave me at least .5 moa @ 100.
I recently took apart some Federal Gold metal Match 168 SMK,s. The powder "look,d" identical to 4064 and measured an "exact" 42.8 gr. The bullet had (what I consider) deep crimping marks as well. Could it really be 4064 that us loaders can get a hold of off the store selves?.....Probably not........
So...seeing as how I had all the components that Fed used from primers to case,s...crimp etc...and I chrono,d the factory loads.I loaded some up. My version was a bit too fast and didnt pattern well. I simply lighten,d the chrg and am now seeing .5 moa @ 100.
I strongly suggest you use a collet puller though. Your gaurantee,d not to loose any propellant as to get a precise measurment.
Good luck

[*tim*]

I've been doin some more reading on this and if I'm right then if I leave the same charge in the case and load the bullet a little farther out then I should have less pressure and probably loose some velocity as well. Is this true?

[LHitchcox]

Not necessarily. If the bullet is left out far enough to be very close to the lands, it will not be able to jump and pressure will spike. The Lyman manual has a good tutorial on this.

[D.ID]

I have done this with winchester silvertip 300 WSM and it was a dramatic improvement just to change the seating depth.
The most radical improvement I have seen was averaging the powder and adjusting seating depth of 1977 russian surplus 7.62x54 148gr, went from 3-4moa to about 1.5moa from a PSL rifle.
If you have the time: Try it out and share the results.

[limige]

Imo you'll see the biggest benefit from adjusting the seating depth on them. I wouldn't even mess with powder unless you see real bad variance.

[*tim*]

I pulled some ammo apart today and started to average the powder and the first 10 I took apart were mostly between 64.4-64.6 but I had one as low as 64.2 and one as high as 64.8. They all averaged out to 64.5. However the powder was full of static and stuck to everthing! So I'm just did 10 rounds with an averaged charge and did 10 more with just adjusting the bullet seating depth. My COAL is 3.37" which is .025" of the lands. I'll shoot some groups with both loads and see if it's worth it to average out all the powders

[big honkin jeep]

I pulled apart some 7.62x54R and rebuilt it with Nosler ballistic tips for hunting. Had to put just a little crimp to the cartridge mouth to hold em. I know I know .308 VS .311 but they engaged the rifling nicely and .003 smaller really didn't seem to make any difference. Plenty accurate and deadly.

[darkker]

keep in mind:

1) NO factory uses canister-grade gunpowder, which is what is available to the reloader. So the powder can't be duplicated, only the results.
2) NO factory loads powder by weight(grains). They ALL load by volume, and contrary to most peoples ill-informed notion; volume devices are NOT a way to get a desired weight of powder.

Especially with Extruded powders, they are designed for a volume. They have a very tightly controlled relationship between B.D./B.R. So a Consistent volume will control the changing BR/BD, and a consistent volume will also keep the additional variation of shifting burning rates due to case volume, to a minimum.

[*tim*]

I don't have a chronograph so anyone wanna guess what will happen to my velocity when goin from an overall length of 3.22 from the factory to 3.37?

[darkker]

The case volume will change the burning rate, and fool with things, BUT aide from that, the pressures *should* rise due to less gas escaping around the bullet prior to engraving in the rifling. Higher pressures mean more velocity, but the proportion is very small. So with a rather modest increase in pressure(assuming a normal full power load) the velocity gain will be rather small.

[Frank V]

The only time I've done that was with some old military ammo & that was to replace the corrosive primer with a new primer.

[savgebolt]

perfect timing on this thread , im rediscovery my rifle shooting life,, not really into reloading , but had been thinking about playing with over all length,,,,,,, how do you get the bullets out,,,,,thanx for your answers

[Frank V]

Savagebolt, RCBS makes a bullet puller that screws into your press & uses collets that are caliber specific.
Several makers offer inerta bullet pullers. These accept the loaded ctg into a collet that is tightened by a removable cap. Then you strike the puller against a solid object ( not steel).

[Rooster 50]

The BEST bullet puller made.......period

http://www.sinclairintl.com/reloading-equipment/case-preparation/bullet-pullers/davidson-plier-style-bullet-pullers-prod34463.aspx

[Rick_W]

The BEST bullet puller made.......period

http://www.sinclairintl.com/reloading-equipment/case-preparation/bullet-pullers/davidson-plier-style-bullet-pullers-prod34463.aspx

This quote from the product description:


These plier style bullet pullers are designed for soft seated bullets. They are not suitable for bullets that are crimped or tightly seated.

Have you found this to be true? I require a puller that works with crimped ammo - sometimes heavily crimped.

[LongRange]

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/851547/hornady-cam-lock-bullet-puller

This is the puller i use and like...when things were bad i was buying the cheap remington 300wm ammo pulling the bullets popping off the primers and reloading the brass. You just need the body and the corect collet.