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Factory seconds, or "blems"

Pwc

Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places or I have my tongue over my eye tooth and can't see what I'm saying.....Where do you look to find the factory seconds or 'blems'? I hear about them on reloading forums, but no sources other than big mfgr's.
 
Pwc said:
Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places or I have my tongue over my eye tooth and can't see what I'm saying.....Where do you look to find the factory seconds or 'blems'? I hear about them on reloading forums, but no sources other than big mfgr's.
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Midwayusa sells them sometimes and I think MidSouth Shooters Supply & Graf & Son's as well from time to time.
 
AF1BC3BA-927E-4467-8254-4E5AB5838938.jpeg I shoot a lot of Nosler blems. Worked up load for my XP 100 chambered in 6.5 BR. 200 yd group. Nosler 140 gr custom competition blem bullet. Flier was due to father and son blasting away that setup next to my bench. 9 other open benches open and the have to shoot next to me and brass flying my way!
 
I saw some blems at powder valley this afternoon. Most that I have seen are at midsouth shooters supply. Midway usa also has been known to carry them.
 
I have bought Nosler Factory Seconds and Over Runs from SPS with pretty good results. Base to Ogive lengths and consistent weight bullet to bullet were acceptable for what I was going to use them for. I've looked at what Midway sells but they don't tell you the brand and the pictures aren't always accurate so it's a guessing game as to what your getting. If you look in the Reviews people that have bought them will tell you what brand they think they are but it's still a guess.
 
I buy overruns from SPS but am a little leery of blems. SPS says they are just discolored etc. and are perfect in every other way. Just don't like the word.
Bill
 
Same as previous comments I use SPS a lot. Overruns are by far the best bet with them, but I have had really good luck with blem 52 grain CCs in my 22-250, just weigh sort them out and put the highest and lowest groups into my foulers box. They also have a first responder discount, being a FF and catching a holiday sale on overruns can be very fruitful. Last times they had 6mm and 6.5mm RDFs in stock I got 1k of one and 2k of the other, with the discount for FF and then labor day (and other holiday I forget), seems like it was 19.8 cents per bullet after shipping.
 
I do not see the value in shooting seconds. the price per round is only a few pennies and I don't have confidence in something the factory sells because the product might be damaged. But that's just me
 
DennisH said:
What classifies them as 2nd's, or Blem's?
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Lots of things, but I imagine it may vary from make to make. Sierra seconds can be made up of a variety of things, ranging from something being out of spec (which isn’t always a problem) to something being truly wrong with them. This may be something as minor as a slight scratch left during sizing, or in the case off spitzers, tips and bonnets that don’t tumble off properly in the final wash and polish operation. When a bullet press is set up initially, or has a major change during a run, it is normal (used to be, anyway) for the first 500-1,000 bullets to be tossed into seconds as th machine is still warming up and settling in. Nothing whatsoever wrong with them, just normal SOP in setting a press up. Or it can be something as trivial as a cosmetic issue, like jackets being somewhat darker than they normally should be after final polish. Customers complain about such things, so it’s often worthwhile to dump them rather than field th complaints down the road. The problem is, you generally won’t know what the bullets were rejected for, and once they go into seconds, no attempt is made to segregate them by lot, cause of rejection, etc.. So expect to do some hand sorting if you buy seconds.

As to what may be available at any given time, there’s two primary factors that determine just how likely you are to find a given bullet; volume, and difficulty. If a bullet is always being run, like say, .308” 168 or 175 grain HPBTs, and the tolerances ar very tight, you’re pretty well assured to be able to find them in stock. For something like a .45 cal 230 grain FMJ, it’s an easy bullet to run, tolerances aren’t as strict as with the Match bullets, and they don’t run nearly as often. As a result, they can be chancy to find in stock, so grab while the grabbing is good.

I actually shot “seconds” for probably my first ten years or so at Camp Perry for the Nationals, without ever having any sort of problem. Any nines (or worse) that showed up we’re my own doing, and nothing I could blame on the bullets. I did have the luxury of knowing why a particular batch had been downgraded and not boxed up as firsts, or I probably wouldn’t have been willing to use the seconds for actual competition. Perfectly fin for practice, though. In the end, it’s always your call.
 
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