Making soft tipped bullets?

[His lordship.]

In .223 the full metal jacketed bullets are cheaper and more available than the soft tip or hollow points in loaded ammunition.  How feasible is it to make your own by taking a grinder and flattening the tips down some, would this affect the flight of the bullet, accuracy wise? 

In states that require center fire bullets be non-FMJ for deer hunting such as the .30 caliber, etc., can I take my military surplus .308 and touch the tip some to make it legal?

Thanks.

[billy_56081]

Most FMJ bullets are made just the opposite of soft points. On soft points the jacket is drawn up from the base of the bullet leaving the tip open. On fmj the jacket is drawn from the tip and the base left open. if you file the tip off of a fmj it probalt will expand some but I am sure the core will squirt out the back. Also soft poinsts are designed with a tapered jacket to to initiate expasion. And FMJ bullets have generally a thicker jacket.

[quickdtoo]

My dad tried that about 50yrs ago in a 30-06, he lost a couple deer using them, they didn't open up and still acted like FMJs, just zipped right thru apparently with no blood trail or dead deer that we ever found, first one was questionable as to where it was hit, otherwise he wouldn't have tried them again, the second one there was no question that it was a good boiler room shot, so he quit using them.

Tim

[R.W.Dale]

DO NOT cut on the tip of a FMJ bullet. You can literally blow your gun up if a couple things happen as a result.

As previously mentioned on the base of a FMJ core is exposed. If you cut a hole in the opposite end of the jacket the cor can get "squirted" out of the bullet potentially leaving the jacket stuck in the bbl. We all know about the kinds of chaos that results from crap obstructing the bore of a rifle.

This isn't the great depression, buy the right damn bullets! Ammunition will be the cheapest expense you'll incur in getting ready for a hunting season. 55g Sierra gamekings can be ordered for under $16 a box which is only a few bucks more than crappy inaccurate "cheapo" FMJ's

[buck460XVR]

In .223 the full metal jacketed bullets are cheaper and more available than the soft tip or hollow points in loaded ammunition.  How feasible is it to make your own by taking a grinder and flattening the tips down some, would this affect the flight of the bullet, accuracy wise? 

I would think accuracy and consistency would be affected depending on how good you are with the grinder. Can you keep the bullet perfectly balanced and remove exactly the same amount of material from every bullet? Is it worth the effort? Not in my opinion.

In states that require center fire bullets be non-FMJ for deer hunting such as the .30 caliber, etc., can I take my military surplus .308 and touch the tip some to make it legal?

Thanks.

I doubt that just grindin' the tip off your military surplus is gonna turn it into an expanding hunting bullet. I assume the local Game Wardens would agree. Chances of gettin' caught are little to none probably. Odds as to whether or not you may lose a deer because of non-expansion are much greater. Again, IMHO not worth the effort. Spend the extra coupla bucks and get the right tool for the job.

[hornady]

Chris there are things you can save money on in reloading, and things you can not, what you propose, in my opinion is a very bad idea, if you go out to Mid-south-shooters you can get value packs of Hornady 55gr, SP w/cann for $20.11 for 250 bullets, I load these in both the 223 and 22-250.

[His lordship.]

Thanks for the replys, did not know on how the jacketing was made on those bullets.  I got the idea from reading accounts in WW 1 of how the tips of the military rifle rounds were either cross cut like a cross, etc. to make them expand, they called them "Dum Dum" bullets and it was considered illegal, unethical, at the time.  But if I was a foot soldier, I would not care as long as my enemy was put down for good. 

[Autorim]

The very best aspect of reloading is the improved quality of bullets we have at our disposal. It is foolish to compromise on the most important component of the cartridge. IMHO if you can't afford to buy good hunting bullets you can't afford to hunt.

[PawPaw]

For the vast majority of hunting tasks in the United States, it's hard to beat the standard soft-tipped bullet put out by most of the major manufacturers.  Remington Core-Lokt bullets are wonderful game-getters and they're inexpensive.  Many of us, after trying/experimenting/using more expensive bullets are returning to the CL bullet because they are also wonderfully accurate.  Sierra GameKings are wonderfully accurate, as are the Hornady line of standard bullets.   I've got one load, in .243 Winchester, that uses Hornady's standard bullet that shoots into 0.4" at 100 yards.  It's hard to argue with accuracy like that.  I've seen Core-lokt loads that shoot into MOA.

I've also seen guys who ground off the tips of FMJ and left a jacket in the barrel.  One barrel we sectioned back in the 60s had a jacket permanently swaged into the rifling.  The guy shot one round, squirted the core, leaving the jacket in the barrel.   Subsequent rounds went through the jacket, ironing it into the rifling.  Accuracy degraded, predictably.  He ordered a new barrel and when the barrel was changed we cut the barrel lengthwise to look at the rifling and throat.    Ah-ha!  There's your problem, right there.