Help Identify Mystery Blem Bullets

hunter24605

Handloader
Apr 30, 2016
2,359
3,576
Looking for some cheap bullets to load in my daughter's 7mm-08 just to get her some more trigger time and shoot 6" gongs @ 100 yards, I ran across these on Midway for $16.00 for 100. https://www.midwayusa.com/product/4...ed-spitzer-boat-tail-box-of-100-bulk-packaged..Midway lists them as "150 grain Bonded Spitzer Boat Tail" I've only loaded 50 so far but I measured/weighed each one and they are very much within acceptable variances, and only blem I can see is some have some light "water marks" and the tips have dark smudges in places..They fly true, considering I didn't do any load development, just used a generic load of 47 gr of RL-19 and still managed an average of 1.25" groups..So now I'm wondering what these bullets are..First impression is a Rem Accutip, but, to my knowledge, the Accutip isn't bonded, and midway lists them as bonded, so stumped again..At any rate, they are more than capable of hitting the 6" gong at 100 yards, so a good, cheap way to let her shoot a bunch. So what do the bullet gurus here think these are?
 

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East Tn, I know most of thier blems are Hornady. Here it is beside a 154 gr SST..But that gold tip has me baffled, but it did say the tips may vary in color..None of my interbonds have the cannalure, unless Hornady adds a cannalure for factory ammo. And the only Interbonds for 7mm that I'm aware of are 139 grain and 154 grain. These weigh in at 149.9
 

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Looks like something remington had made for them by the color of the tip

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I stand corrected..Hornady does, or at least did a few years ago, put a cannalure on their Superformance ammo..I remembered I had a box of .308 Interbond left from a while back, so I took one down.
 

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I think they are made by Hornady for Remington. I don't think they are Bonded either. One of the fellas bought a bunch and shot them into jugs through his Mashburn and they really came apart. Still, for what you are using them for I can't see you going wrong for the price.
 
Hunter2406,

I wouldn't be surprised if they are from production change-over run of the 154 grain SST bullet or 154 grain Interbonds. On SPS they list 142 and 152 grain 7mm E-tips among other non-standard weight bullets and the tip color likewise can off. Additionally, they could be poorly filled and bonded Interbonds which would explain the fragmenting that SJB358 noted along with the lighter than normal weight.

I'm pretty sure you guys know about the shooterforum bullet database, but in case you haven't seen it - http://www.shootforum.com/forum/bulletdb.html. I'm not seeing anything in 7mm that has a 1.335" length, but there are a few bullets without a length listed and these are blems...

Keep up the good work with your daughter!
 
I seem to recall that Remington accu-tip Ammo was loaded with Nosler ballistic tips.


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Um... Remington used and promoted Ballistic Tips in their ammo; and I believe the Ballistic Tip ammo was superseded by the AccuTip. For example - https://www.sportsmansguide.com/product ... ds?a=55719.

American Hunter lists Remington AccuTips as Hornady SST bullets - https://www.americanhunter.org/articles ... n-accutip/. I think that the article is a marketing piece and makes some overly broad claims (at best) as there are obvious weight differences between the AccuTip and SST bullets in 7mm. If Hornady is making the AccuTips, what other changes were made for Remington; jacket thickness, lead hardness, etc... I do not think or suspect the following, but I would not be surprised if Remington (Freedom Group) is doing licensed production in house - which would allow them to make minor tweaks to the SST design to better suite their production capabilities or performance needs.

If it were me (and I did order three boxes from Midway for plinking out of my 280 Rem - so thank you Hunter for the link) I would use the Hornady 154 SST data and call it a day.
 
Can't really go by the color of the tip, some are saying theirs have black and gray tips..All the various tip colors could be manufacturer subterfuge to help disguise the identity of the bullet when they realized they had rejects coming off the line..Without 100% certainty as to what they are, they are best used as a cheap plinking bullet..My intention was just to let my daughter get some more rounds down range and tweak her shooting skills, and for that purpose they fit the bill and are plenty accurate. It just seemed like her rifle liked them and I'd like to know what bullet it is, and if its a decent hunting bullet, I might get some "non seconds" and see what they'll do....But since she killed her first buck last year, in her mind there is only one bullet that is capable of killing a deer...a 140 grain AccuBond...I did notice the price jumped back up to $28.00 today. Just so satisfy my own curiosity, I emailed Midways product technical support and asked if it is truly a bonded bullet and described what could go wrong if it were loaded and used on game as a bonded bullet when it was not...We'll see what they have to say.
 
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