Thinking out loud........pulling factory ammo.

[bullet man]

I have the rcbs collet puller the thing I like best about it is u can pull the bullets without dumping the powder all over the place. I also have the kinetic hammer type as well the only time it gets used is for what you are talking about. When I'm adjusting my seating die, and I seat a bullet too deep I just give it a whack and then set it back to proper length. Looks to me like that would be the easiest thing to do just give each of them a whack and reset them to the length you want.

 

[223Rem]

"If these do not pan out, I will start the loadings with the original factory charge and go up .5 grains increments until I see the slightest pressure sign and back down from there to find the best load."

How do you plan on increasing in .5 grain increments? If you start with the original factory powder charge, where are you getting more powder to increase the charge weight? Mixing different types of powder is NOT a good idea.
Maybe I'm missing something or not understanding what you're saying.

Each type of factory stuff I have are the same lot numbers, so 99.9% sure its the same powder. So, If I keep the powder from the lots together I should be ok and record the charge for each.

Well, if I have 20 rounds with 70 grains of powder each, that give me 1400 total grains to work with for that load. So, at the very least, I would only be able to make 19 rounds as I sacrificed one round as the powder donor.

Now, multiple that by 5 (have 5 boxes of each). After firing a 3 round group from each loading to see how they do and possibly pulling the bullets and doing load development, instead having 400 rounds of ho-hum ammunition, I could have 320 rounds of something kick ***.

 

[MachV]

Lot of work, you must have a lot of time on your hands?
400 rounds aint much for a competition or varmint gun but would last most folks a lifetime in a hunting unit. Whats the end goal and use?

 

[Mram10us]

If you are out of normal components or find a great deal on ammo, I like the idea. why not? Pretty quick to pull bullets with the rcbs collet puller.

 

[223Rem]

Lot of work, you must have a lot of time on your hands?
400 rounds aint much for a competition or varmint gun but would last most folks a lifetime in a hunting unit. Whats the end goal and use?

This would be for a LRH rig, so you are right, 400 rounds would probably exceed my lifetime. Plus with using the once fired brass, now I am at 800 rounds. That is if primers ever come back in to reasonably priced stock.

As for time, can not really do much with the lockdowns beside work, shoot, handload and repeat. Throw in some fishing in there too!

 

[ntsqd]

A small data point, years ago I pulled the bullets on some Norinco .223 and re-seated different bullets of the same weight (FMJ's replaced with Hornady SX's). No re-sizing done, no issues, the watermelons did know the difference! In that case I used vice-grips on the FMJ's since I didn't care about them, but unless they're really stuck (see various threads on 'cold welded' bullets in case necks) one of the collet type bullet pullers should be able to remove them undamaged. Then just re-seat to desired length.

I just recently made some .308 Norma Mag cases out of some Frontier .300 WM loaded ammo. Some of those bullets were damaged because I had to really tighten the snot out of my Forster collet puller to get them to break loose. No idea how old that ammo was, but I've had the box for at least 25 years. Doubt those bullets will shoot well, but they'll be OK for barrel break-in. EDIT: I burnt the powder on a steel table and tossed the primers, those won't be re-used.