I recently passed on buying some .308" 168 matchkings because they were obviously pulled with a pliers. The guy didn't want much for them but I figured
A- they wouldn't be accurate
B- they may harm my barrel.
Was I right in my assumptions?

Ha ha.... I wouldn't trust them..... Probably pulled something like this? :

Most likely.

Don't think it would harm the barrel,could just use the bullets for plinking.

Don't waste your time as inexpensive as some bullets are in bulk...

free may be ok, otherwise a waste of powder. been there done that.

Some guys have a hard enough time shooting perfect bullets, let alone fu cked up ones from the start...

I remember an article a while back by a gun writer (Wayne van Zwoll?) in which he deliberately disfigured bullets. Cutting off the tips with wire cutters. From the pictures some of the tips were uneven some oval in cross section. They shot surprisingly well, about 1.25-1.5" IIRC.

If the bullet below the caliber ogive is not damaged they should shoot OK, not match grade, but good enough for hunting.

That's WVZ though. He can do anything. Along with being a prolific writer, he's also a damn good hunter and marksman...

Can't imagine what can be wrong with cheap SMKs; if the bearing surface isn't jacked nothing detectable will be at issue inside a couple hundred (probably several hundred) yards.

In the past I've picked up these deals, pair em with hard used brass & propellant I've decided never to buy again and hitting an area hayfield where I can get 400 yds and smack steel and (oh boy I hope Alamosa doesn't see this!!) water-filled recyclables.

Any reason to pop a cap is a good one I just don't get people but I'd love to know who has em as I'll happily buy em!

True,however,it just might be the opposite.

Bullets I've pulled with pliers ended up pretty mangled. The pliers were hard to get a grip on them with and had to put in a hefty dent and I couldn't see wasting my time.

Bullets I've pulled with a RCBS collet puller were slightly marked up but shot just as well.

I have pulled a bunch and could not tell they had a problem on target.

I use a special pair of wire cutter cutters and my rockchucker press.
Even some for a 22 hornet and they still shoot one hole groups.

Them thar's my cinnaments, zactly.

Jerry

I would disagree, cheap bullets are great for plinking (who cares if you miss a tin can or clay pigeon), fire forming, breaking in a barrel, fire lapping, playing around with reduced loads or even hunting varmints. I think that any trigger time is a good time so never a waste of powder.

You mean that's not how you're supposed to do it?

Shoot them of you want. Mild loads with them will give fair accuracy and won't hurt a thing. In my miss spent youth, I often salvaged bullets by pulling them in my press with side cutter pliers. Lots of bullets had cannulures you could grab with the side cutters with no apparent damage.

I personally won't use seconds, sure as hell wouldn't use bullets pulled with plier

Nosler seconds are the cat's meow.

Pulled lots of bullets over the years, using a hammer puller, broken several them too. Always got some deformed tips that I trimmed them up with a filet knife or side cutter and kept for Zeroing a rifle with at 25 or 50 yards. Later used them on hogs under a feeder or for shots under 100-150 yards on game, and never had a problem with penetration, accuracy or with jacket seperation in a Cup & Core bullet.

Bought my 1st Nosler Blems in 180 gr 30 cal 1st Gen BTips in a cellophane bag with a colored folded paper label stapled over the end of the bag that had been hand stamped or xeroxed with the info, for ummm $6 a bag + a little freight or even free freight one time for a bigger buy .... ran those 1st 180's in a 300WMg and never have thought they were the problem with my shooting skills on paper....and none of the critters ever said a word one way or another about them.
Ron

They are the best thing going right now. I'm glad some snobs like my left handed buddy doesn't buy them... . Saves more for us, that do like them..

Yeah ! I would not equate 'seconds' to

bullets pulled w/piers.

Bullets recovered with inertia pullers are NOT damaged nearly like using 'pliers'.

I've used collet pullers for years and there is little/no damage to the bullet.

Also 'pliers' and sidecutters aren't the same in my book.


Jerry

No they suck and no one in their right mind shoot think about buying them!



Yeah that's more like it!

Seconds are a danger to the shooter and shot blatant disrespect to the game hunter firsts only should be used.

(Cuz I want more for myself )

Like Billy Idol said: "More, more, more..."

Even if the bullets are free, you are wasting powder primers and time. Skip this bargain!

This.

Why bottom feed?

If you have to ask...

Well?

Think about it... if you have to ask if something is a good deal or a good idea, then it probably ain't.

Is asking if things are a good idea, a good idea?

Yeah. Makes sense.

Also Andra True Connection.

I have a friend that purchased a lot of Government Surplus. He got a 55 gal. barrel full of 5.56 bullets that had been ran through a machine to make them unfit for loading. They had dings and gouges and were unround. There was some carbide bullet dies in the mix and he just had to try. He ran some of them through the carbide dies and loaded up a box. I was quite impressed with the accuracy they produced. IIRC, the largest group was around 2" and the smallest right at an inch. I wouldn't want to be caught loading them in MY magazine but, his experiment really opened my eyes.

I ran a test doing just this some years back. IIRC, I loaded 100 rounds of .223 with a known accurate load. I puled 30 of them with an inertia puller, 30 with a collett puller, and 30 with a pair of pliers. They were disfigured in pretty much that order: the intertia-pulled were like new, the collet-pulled had small longitudinal marks/grooves, and the pliers-pulled had larger horizontal grooves. Some were visibly out of round, too.

I re-neck-sized the cases I had pulled, put the same charges back in and re-seated the bullets.

At the range, the 10 unpulled rounds made a lovely little group. The intertia-pulled made an almost identical average group (3 groups of 10). The collet-pulled again made almost identical groups. And the ugly pliers-pulled bullets? Ditto. I saw NO significant difference in group size.

I believe that as long as the bases of the bullets are undamaged, slight damage to the sides of the bullets merely "irons out" in the rifling as the bullet shortens and obturates under gas pressure.

Rocky.....well...since YOU say it, I'd come 'nearer' believing it. I really wouldn't have thot the disfigured rounds would have nearly the same performance.

I certainly have shot bullets pulled w/collet & inertia pullers.

The few I've pulled and damaged by whatever means I just chunked. It hasn't been that many tho.

Thanks

Jerry

That's science, thanks Rocky.

This is how I have done it forever.....no issues in re-use whatsoever

https://youtu.be/oOGWt4o9iEs

This!

I've pulled many with my press and pliers. I used them initially to fire form AK brass, and I found them to be plenty accurate, even the ones that slipped a bit.

Unless someone has actually shot some, you have no basis to chime in.

Bullets conform to the bore long before any significant pressures have churned up and do get ironed out.

I read a test quite a while back where bullets had the tips deformed in many ways from flattening them to cutting them completely off. Then they also deformed the bases on other bullets and tested those, also.

The bullets with the tips deformed shot about normally at 100 yards. I believe they lost accuracy past that point, but not rapidly. The bullets with the bases deformed lost a lot of accuracy at 100 and much more and rapidly past that.

This may not exactly answer the question but should give you an idea that the tip of the bullet is not nearly as critical as the base.

I've bought and shot Sierra seconds that shot better than the boxed, identical SKU stuff.

I haven't had the same luck with those in .224", but the .308s were superb.