ArizonaShooting.ORG

Received emails from a couple places now with sales on Factory Second Bullets. Could always use more bullets. Anyone ever try them? Any feedback?

I’ve used seconds from Nosler. It used to be a less expensive way to get trigger time in with their accubond/partition bullets in hunting rifles. Besides one broken tip in an ABLR, I never saw any difference between the seconds and firsts. The shortage has run up the price on seconds and it’s just not worth it for me anymore, but if the price is right I wouldn’t hesitate to buy seconds from any well-known manufacturer.

why are they calling them seconds or blems, coating, forming, sizing ,ect.

I knew a guy who ran an optics company back where I lived. He had plenty of connections in the shooting industry and was a hard core shooter and hunter. So he was always buying massive amounts of bullets directly from the manufacturers.

I'd get boxes from him from time to time and noticed occasionally a few were marked blems on the boxes. He never hesitated to use them and always stated blems were usually cosmetic issues like bullet jackets with spots or not polished enough. I don't recall noting much difference with accuracy anyway. Of course, perhaps it could depend on the bullet maker? Mostly, I recall those were Hornadys.

knockonit wrote: ↑October 16th, 2022, 10:05 am why are they calling them seconds or blems, coating, forming, sizing ,ect.

Could be a number of issues that are minor. Could be a scratch on the bullet or even the jacket is slightly off color. Could be the bullets are not consistent on weight. I have seen plated bullets that looked like orange peeled paint and they shot fine. If they are available and the price is right sometimes I will buy the entire lot of them. I had one lot of 9mm bullets once that were at .358 so I resized them to .355 and shot them all. I have bought brass that is discolored as well and loaded and shot them.

I've used blems - most were just cosmetic and functioned fine. I've also used pulled projectiles that had some scoring marks on the jacket from the puller. Some of those were a bit out of round so I ran them through the bullet sizer. I'm not at all concerned about them for range ammo but I wouldn't use the pulled projectiles for more serious target shooting.

After you buy, care to share your deal? I could use more 175gr SMKs and can never have enough 147gr 9mm.

I had heard from Midsouth and Midway .. Midsouth seems to have sold out but midway still has a nice selection

https://www.midwayusa.com/s?promotionid ... lets-brass

I shoot them and pulls all the time a lot of times blems will have varied weights not super consistent or will be tarnished etc. Unless your bullseye shooting they are fine.

Unless I understood why they were 2nds - I'd have a hard time trusting them. If it were something stupid like "they printed the wrong stuff on the box - but the bullets were fine" or even "unacceptable mass variance of 123gr - 125gr for 124gr bullets" I'd be fine - but not knowing what caused them to be a 2nd would make me really uncomfortable.

I've had good luck using seconds.

Usually as stated above it's something trivial that someone is gonna complain about.
Sized .001 off, mislabeled, weight variation is just outta spec, badly plated etc

Hey , It make a 10x ring all the more special and provides a great excuse for an 8 ring hit.

Just scored a bunch of 115 pulls from American for 45/k shipped I'll hit a lot of dirt with them LMAO

omegaman wrote: ↑October 23rd, 2022, 7:23 pm Just scored a bunch of 115 pulls from American for 45/k shipped I'll hit a lot of dirt with them LMAO

That is a nice price!

Many years ago I worked down the street from Sierra Bullets when they were located in Santa Fe Springs, California. I would make it a habit to walk in and check out the factory seconds many of which I bought and some of which I still have! None of them had any flaws that would impact loading or accuracy and all of them were a great deal.

I buy/use them regularly.