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Old January 10, 2013, 12:27 PM   #1
Marco Califo
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Pulling bullets and substituting projectiles

I have an ammo can full of UK NATO mil spec SS109 that I cannot shoot at my range due to steel projectile restrictions. I have the RCBS press mounted collet bullet puller. I want to pull the 62 gr SS109 out, and substitute in either 55 or 60 grain bullets, over the existing powder charge. My question is whether or not neck sizing will be needed to properly seat the new bullets? And if so, can the Lee collet neck sizer die be used without depriming the crimped primers?
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Old January 10, 2013, 12:44 PM   #2
kraigwy
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It's called "Mexican Match".

We (The Alaska NG Marksmanship Unit) did this to M118, pulling the 174 grn military bullets and stuffing in 168 SMKs and 180 SMKs.

Worked great.

I still have several thousand 174s I load for short range and off hand practice in my Vintage Military Rifles.
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Old January 10, 2013, 01:50 PM   #3
Marco Califo
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So, you did this without neck-sizing?
Just pull out and seat the new one?
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Old January 10, 2013, 02:03 PM   #4
kraigwy
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Yeap, nothing else but pull one bullet and stuff in the next. NOTHING else was done.

I got the idea from the AMU when I tured their reloading room during Sniper School in '78.
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Old January 10, 2013, 03:43 PM   #5
603Country
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I pulled a lot of 223 projectiles last summer, and some of the case necks were too loose to load a new bullet in. Maybe 10 percent of the cases were too loose, though I didn't actually count them. They were all reloads of mine, so I guess the message to me is that the cases needed annealing.
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Old January 10, 2013, 04:01 PM   #6
hounddawg
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if the neck is loose take a sizing die with the depriming pin broke off and resize it after pouring the powder into a pan. If I don't cycle the handle all the way my .204 necksizing die will not size the case correctly and I discover it after priming filling with powder.
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Old January 11, 2013, 04:25 PM   #7
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I do it with 762X39 steel case ammo too. Pull the fmj, and insert Winchester 123gr power points. Works great for inexpensive hunting ammo.
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Old January 11, 2013, 06:30 PM   #8
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Like others here, I used to do this with milsurp 7x57 ammo. It works.
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Old January 11, 2013, 09:31 PM   #9
Bart B.
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Kraig, when us Navy guys pulled bullets from standard ball ammo and replaced them with hunting bullets of the same weight, they were called "Mexican ball" ammo. The Mexican match designation was only used when pulling 173's from M118 ammo or 147's from M80 ammo and replacing them with 168's. GySgt Frank Kruk USMC (1964[?] NRA Nat'l Service Rifle Champ) told us in the late '60's our M80 ammo rebulleted with Sierra 168's was the most accurate ammo he'd ever shot in his M14 through 600 yards.

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Old January 14, 2013, 09:32 AM   #10
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I do this with the steel cased ammo as well, but take my chamfer tool to the case mouth before inserting a gilding metal jacket to reduce the propensity to shave the jacket off the bullet.

Works great! AND you can experiment a little bit with overall cartridge length or bullet seating depth.
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