Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Midway USA 7mm 150gr. Mystery Bullets

It seems the story behind these bullets is that Midway USA bought a truckload of 2nd bullets to be repackage and sold. Pictures I've looked at on the web for bullet comparisons appear closest to Winchester 7mm 150 gr.

Does anyone know what company originally made them?

What I do know is they indeed are 7mm and after individually weighing a dozen or so they come in at 150 grs + or - .1 grain or so. They have a very long 'nose' from the cannelure which is close to the ogive out to the tip. These seem like they were built for the 7mm mag. I shoot a 7mm-08 so using a load data for 150 gr. nosler and dropping the charge 5% below their minimum and working up, I shot a very nice group using 37.3 grain of RL15 with a COAL of 2.800".

They look like Hornady's to me! They "appear" to have a sort of Secant ogive is why I say that. It could also explain their constant weight.....

Hornady Interlocks. I've shot up quite a few of them and they work juuuust fine on deer.

I don't think that Hornady makes the Interlocck in 150 gr 7mm. 139gr or 154gr is all I've ever seen. The do a 150 ELD-x but that has a plastic tip.

Guys, Thank You for that information!! Very Interesting! Kind of like the things that make you go 'Hummmm....'

I hadn't thought of Hornady interlocks. The 7mm interlocks I have used in the past were the Hornady 139 gr. sp and 154 gr. sp bullets. I just have never seen the 150 gr. version of them.

On the first 20 reloads, I didn't seat them to the cannelure because the COAL would have been 2.75" and that put a 1/2" of bullet from the top of the neck down into the 7mm-08 cartridge sitting on top of the powder. More concerned with pressures, so I seated them out to magazine length and they shot great.

They sure do look like Hornady Interlocks bullets but I wasn't aware that they ever made any 7mm 150 gr tho.

Hornady makes a 154 gr for ammo and handloading supplies but to my knowledge no 150 for any reason. A while back I was selling a lot of overruns and discontinued bullets I got thru a "secret source" and among them were some 150 gr Speer used for factory ammo. They had the cannelure and looked a bunch like these bullets. Can't say for sure but that't what it looks like to me. Someone else mentioned the Winchester brand and that's a possibility as well. But I'd bet Hot Core.

Just because they don't sell them as components doesn't mean they are not manufactured by Hornady. They could be overruns from a contract order on loaded ammo or could have been produced for loaded ammo and the buyer backed out, etc.

Federal sells 165 grain Sierra Gameking 7mm Remington Magnum ammo in their "Premium" line, but there is no 165 grain Sierra GameKing available as a component.

A year or so ago, I bought a couple of blue boxes 286 grain 9.3 mystery bullets from Midway, and I am fairly certain they are Hornady Interlocks. I have weighed probably half of the bullets (about 250) and found that very few of the bullets actually weighed 286 grains; most were heavier but, a few weighed as much as 1.5 grains less. I will definitely have to do some sorting before loading. I know it is common and I would expect to see some variance, especially in 2nd's. I've encountered this in some Nosler 2nd's as well. Based on the price I paid, I think they were a pretty good deal.

Has anyone actually weighed them. I’ve bought Midway mystery bullets that weighed different than advertised.

DF

DF,

I spent an hour weighing out all those on an RCBS 505 scale. I wound up with three main groups. 149.7 grs, 149.8 grs and 150 grs. Over that were 2 bullets weighing 150.5 and under that was 1 bullet that weighed 140 grs. The latter of which is a nosler partition. I opened up the next box to look for any odd balls like a partitions, didn't find any but will weigh that box tomorrow.

Not 7mm, not 150 gr., but another Midway mystery bullet story. These were advertised as 80 gr., were closer to 75 gr.

It was bit of a mystery concerning their ID; there were no similar bullets in any bullet catalog. Eventually I figured it out.

Here's the link... www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/12652592

Seems most if not all Midway mystery bullets are from Hornady. Regarding the packaging, throwing in a Partitions, etc., I guess what you see is what you get. Prices are usually pretty good and I've had good results with the bullets. Partition is Nosler, not Hornady. That's interesting.

At least Nosler with their SPS store, lets you know what you're buying. Midway may not be allowed to name the bullets for liability reasons. Hornady may not want their name on "culls". Often the defect is of no real consequence, IMO. I'm sure Hornady wouldn't want their name on a box of bullets with a Nosler Partition thrown in...

DF

Hornady is the main one that doesnt scrap their seconds.
Lock, Stock and Barrel used to get tons of them, they just couldnt list the brand. They even had seconds in the xtp line.

I recently bought some 150-grain 7mm bullets from Rocky Mountain Reloading. I emailed them to ask what brand they might be and their response was Federal. What they turned out to be is Speer HotCor. Speer doesn't offer any 150-grain 7mm bullets as a reloading component, but evidently they make some to be used in factory loads. Perhaps this is a similar situation with Hornady, but it would be simple enough to section one in order to verify that it is indeed an Interlock.

I also picked up 300 of these mystery 7mm 150gr blems from midway. Here is a picture of a 7mm 154gr Hornady IL (circa 2006) on the left and the blem 7mm 150gr on the right. The shape of the ogive is much sharper on the blem. Looks pretty slick. I filed down both bullets and I believe the blem is a Hornady IL. If you look carefully you can see a very slight interlock ring on both the same distance from the bass (under a magifier) 154gr >150gr. I placed a small black dot about 1/16" below the inter lock ring. Sorry if resolution isn't the greatest all I have is a S3500 Nikon pocket camera.

Prwlr,

That is an great comparison and a picture says it all. Thank you for the write up and taking the time to cut those bullets. The bullet on the right is exactly what I've got and now know for sure it's a Hornady interlock.

Eric

I think these must be a special run for a contract as the bullet is distinctly different from the 154. The ogive is different and the cannelure is in a different position as well.