Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Loose bullets in factory ammo

I ran across Barnes VOR-TX 270 ammo that shoots great in my Barrett Fieldcraft but is loose enough every bullet can be rotated by lightly twisting with my fingers. They will not pull out but can be twisted back and forth.

I never noticed factory ammo to do that before...

That's a new one on me too!

I had that happen in my reloads a long time ago and I forget what I did to fix it. Screwed the die in more I think

Not enough neck tension, but just enough crimp to hold the bullet in place. That's a poor way to make ammo; I'd have expected better from Barnes.

Sounds like it was crimped at one of the pressure rings on the bullet.

A roll crimp should eliminate that problem...

Mayhaps it's time to get a new factory....

Yup

Crimp should never be a substitute for adequate neck tension.

That's a poor way to make ammo; I'd have expected better from Barnes. [/quote]

Barnes is remington. I had a similar issue with a friends winchester premium factory ammo with nosler CT ballistic tips.

Good luck and shoot straight y'all

Just buy one of the LEE Factory Crimp dies and crimp the devil out of them! I have been using them for years, and have never had any problems whether I used a light crimp or a gorilla stout crimp, they just work! As long as they shoot well, groovy.

I like the Lee factory crimp dies as well. Just about the only Lee product I like, besides the old round hand primer.

So what's the problem?

Years ago, late '60's or early 70's, before I started loading .44 magnum, I used to buy boxes of a 240 grain HP load Norma put out. They billed it the "Carbine Load", for my Ruger carbine. In one box, one time, I found a round with the bullet seated backwards.

Several years ago, at the local Walmart, I saw a sale on Remington .223 ammo with 50 grain HP's. It's a load I had no real use for, but they were selling for less than the cost of new brass so I figured, why not? I bought all they had. Before disaster struck, I found out the occasional bullet was getting pushed back significantly when they were fed in a couple of pretty high-end AR's. After that, I limited shooting them to a bolt gun...single loaded.

Those are my only two experiences with "loose bullets" in factory ammo.

When I was a teen, I've had 30-30 ammo bullets begin to be pushed back when loading/unloading a Mod 94 a few times. My dad was one who when he said "unload", that meant all in the magazine too.

I have several boxes of Barnes vortx ammo that has loose bullets you can easily spin with your fingers. Shoots 1.5 moa in one rifle and worse in another. These are very accurate rifles with numerous other factory ammunition as well as with the same Barnes bullets in handloads. Speed is also not consistent. I won't buy any more of it.

This will correct the issue. I use one for .223 AR ammo. Easy to set up.

It not uncommon for an ammo mfg to screw up a run of ammo....it is odd that it gets on the market tho...

interesting.

Strange, I found exactly the same thing with boxes of 270 and 25-06 Vor-tx. You could twist the bullet in the case, but could not pull it out or push it in any more. Both rounds shot great, well sub MOA.