"Pull Marks" on pulled bullets, do they matter?

[slm9s]

For informal target shooting I shoot some pulled bullets that have marks from being pulled as shown. They shoot well for me but has anyone filed them down and seen a difference or did they shoot the same? I was contemplating trying it, but thought I'd see if anyone has done it first.
Thanks.

 

[Preacher]

Thats not a problem at all, but scratch the butt of one and all bets are off......

 

[Straightshooter1]

For informal target shooting I shoot some pulled bullets that have marks from being pulled as shown. They shoot well for me but has anyone filed them down and seen a difference or did they shoot the same? I was contemplating trying it, but thought I'd see if anyone has done it first.
Thanks.

I think the deformation done by the rifling when fired pretty much smooths that all out.

I've used bullets that I've pulled and they've performed pretty well. But I'm not shooting .1's and .2's .

 

[Webster]

For informal target shooting I shoot some pulled bullets that have marks from being pulled as shown. They shoot well for me but has anyone filed them down and seen a difference or did they shoot the same? I was contemplating trying it, but thought I'd see if anyone has done it first.
Thanks.

My collet puller never marked them that bad.

 

[Steve Donlon]

My collet puller never marked them that bad.

If you tighten it down to much it will with an RCBS one, but the Hornady one works better for me.

 

[5spd]

Ive never had issues w marked bullets my self.

 

[slm9s]

These aren't pulled by myself, these are commercially sold as pulled bullets. Takedown ammo I presume.

 

[1shot]

For informal target practice or blaster ammo they will work fine. However, if your plans are precision long range shooting, I'd use unmarred pills.
Just my .02c

 

[jelenko]

For shooting from prone with a sling [i.e., where 1 MOA groups are great] in 223 at 100 yards I haven't been able to find the difference - and I've pulled a LOT of rounds.

 

[GotRDid]

I have ordered quite a few similarly pulled bullets from American Reloading and all (while perhaps unsightly) typically group as well as factory fresh. For my intended purpose of practicing from “field positions “ I might encounter while hunting, they are perfect as I’m at best a 2 MOA shooter when there is a Buck in my sights/scope. Adrenaline is a funny thing.

 

[swd]

A few years ago a good friend won the California 600 yard mid range Championships with bullets that had been pulled not once but twice!

 

[333smitty]

I have a PMA bullet puller and ask Pat on our Meta Benchrest site if it was ok to reuse the "pulled bullets" in a registered competition. He advised to NOT use them in a formal competition. I kinda knew this but thought it could help out a novice competitor....

 

[KMart]

I was given some commercially pulled once. The pulling device put a pretty good squeeze on them and around the ogive they were a little out of round. This caused some inconsistent seating depth. They shot ok but not what you would want for a match load.

 

[BTP]

I'm not the greatest shot, so shoot the commercially pulled bullets all the time with no difference to virgin bullets. They've "saved" me thousands of dollars on hunting and load development ammo.

 

[ISS]

333Smitty,

like gays in the military; don't ask, don't tell...

 

[WesG260]

People are people. Let it go ...

 

[AZmark]

Thats not a problem at all, but scratch the butt of one and all bets are off......

What happens if you scratch the butt of a bullet? Maybe I'm just slow and missed it?

 

[chkunz]

What happens if you scratch the butt of a bullet? Maybe I'm just slow and missed it?

There has been a lot of testing on this, and it has been reported that imperfections in the base of the bullet is much more detrimental to accuracy than imperfections in the tip of the bullet.

 

[chkunz]

Many years ago, the military shooters were issued match ammo with the M118 bullet for the M14. Some of them would pull the M118 bullet and replace it with the 168 Sierria Match King. This procedure was referred to as "Mexican Match" and testing showed an increase in accuracy as you would expect. Sometimes they would pass on the pulled M118 bullets to civilian clubs to use. They had significant pull marks, but I shot many of them and shot Master classification scores with them. The fundamentals of marksmanship were more important to scores.

 

[AZmark]

There has been a lot of testing on this, and it has been reported that imperfections in the base of the bullet is much more detrimental to accuracy than imperfections in the tip of the bullet.

OK, on the bottom flat part of the bullet? Just wondering how this affects the Nosler Partition or A-frame as it has a lead bottom and typical to lead it doesn't look like its perfectly smooth plus there's a little lip of copper?