Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles MidwayUSA Bullet Issues w/Seconds

A few months ago, I ordered some 6mm factory seconds bullets from Midway USA. These were clearly 100gr Interlocks and 95gr SSTs. Package arrives per my order, with 4 boxes Interlocks, and 2 boxes of the SSTs (I.e. polymer tip) - or so I thought. They shipped these in white cardboard boxes, with the bullets in sealed plastics bags. Both the boxes and bags contained labels. Now here’s the issue - they were all 100 gr Interlocks. I called up Midway, and their response was “sorry about that, not sure what happened, must have been a mix up, we’ll refund you for the polymer tips as we don’t have any in stock, and send the incorrect one back”. Ok, mistakes happen.

Now onto the real issue. I bought 4 boxes of .264 143gr polymer tip seconds (I.e. ELD-X) from them back in 2020. Worked through the first box, no issues in 2020. Had 2 left. Today I started loading, opened another box with the same labeling. Seated a few and the COAL didn’t agree with the CBTO with prior measurement on file and with the first 2 from the first box. Hmm? Then I seated another one that was very odd, very deep, with a big ring on the bullet. Pulled that bullet and low an behold it was a 0.277.
Long story short, the box contained a mixture of .264 140gr ELD-M and .277 145gr ELD-X. All look very similar. Opened another box, and qty 103 were .264 140gr ELD-M. Opened another box. This one had qty 63 of the .277 145gr ELD-X and qty 36 of the 140gr ELD-M.
I called up Midway and they could care less. Since they didn’t have any in stock, they couldn’t send more - and didn’t offer up a refund. My main point of contacting them was to see if others had reported similar issues, and to see if they had a process to notify others that bought the same thing after my call. Nope!

Anyway, rant over. But check every bullet yourself when buying Midway seconds. Weight and diameter. Especially if you purchase any 143 ELD-X seconds from them circa 2020 in the black flip top plastic boxes, loose inside, qty 100, Midway P/N 240741.
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1...amp;utm_content=product-description-link

Interesting, White box huh, did you know Hornady boxes and ships that way? See em all the time in Grand Island in small mom and pop stores that couldn’t afford to box em like that themselves.

I'm still amazed at how many actually buy these schidt bullets when it's well known that they are really "seconds" and highly blemished. Looks like they are also extremely dangerous. Good luck to the idiots that buy these..

Be glad they didn't tell you it was...your fault.

I’ve bought and loaded a lot seconds from Midway without issue. Back in 2020 when 143 ELD-X firsts weren’t available - and when they were they were $50 per box or more. These seconds were $0.19 each.

Never had an issue before, and am ok with a little tarnish. Never noticed any difference in accuracy.
Same with SPS seconds.

😂 yep, count me in. Mom and Pop LGS in G.I won’t be getting me to feel sorry for them again. Hornady seconds are junk.

I can’t believe anyone would stoop to shooting tarnished bullets!
What’s this world coming to?

Ha I couldn’t stand it, especially Nosler firsts let alone blems. It surely had to effect performance.



Swished em around in BarKeepers Friend, looked like new.

I've bought quite a few seconds from Midway, it's been a long time ago. But I have not seen any issues with them.

I've bought several midway blems in the form of SST, ELD-X, and Sierra ProHunter. For deer hunting purposes they have performed flawlessly for me. I've not had any deformed polymer tips but some of the lead tips have been out of round malformed

I can’t get my head into shooting factory seconds. I mean no disrespect to those that do, it’s just not for me. The reason is that I obsess over accuracy and no matter what, it’s still not good enough for me. If I’m told from the beginning that these are not up to specs, I’m going to dismiss them. I’m not into spending the most money I can, I still buy factory overrun by the thousands when they come up to save a little change, but when they’re flawed from the beginning, I just can’t justify that I MIGHT get a good batch.

Actually I was loading some "Midway" moly coated 150 grain Nosler Partitions yesterday while at the range. They are in a blue plastic box. I've had them since the nineties LOL. This is for a .308 Ruger M77 MKII.
I didn't notice anything wrong with them other than some of the tips were not perfect.

I got them to shoot 7/8" twice with 5shot groups @ 100. 2" high. Average velocity was 2938. This was with 47.5 grains of IMR4064 and a CCI 200 primer. 2987 was the high and 2893 was the low. If you throw the 2983 out the spread was about cut in half. Maybe diameter variations were the reasons they were seconds IDK.

I know this is not acceptable accuracy for 24HCF but it is perfectly acceptable for my wife. This is her rifle and she will not shoot over about 200 yards period. She doesn't even like shooting off the bench @ 200. She readily admits to not practicing enough and not having the confidence to make a clean kill at plus yardages. Most of our shots are under 100.

She passed on a very nice 8 pointer last year at 278 yards, just wouldn't shoot for fear of wounding and not recovering it.

In the end there is some reason they are seconds.

I bought quite a few seconds from Midway. I still have maybe a dozen blue boxes. Many being 45 caliber, but also 30 caliber.
I’ve not seen the reason for them being seconds. They’re all good. Sometimes it is not obvious who made the bullets, though.

I also have a white box or two of ABLR’s from them. No issues with them either.

I have bought a bunch of the 300JHP for my 45-70 and they shot just fine. I mainly bought them because the production bullets were not available. They all shot just fine and even took a couple of deer with them. They are also great for just practice and letting friends shoot the big lever action. I would not use them for a big $ hunt just because...

The second time was I bought Federal Fusion seconds to fill in the gap with my 338Fed and a shortage of 185-200gr bullets. Hornady and Woodleigh both quit making the 200gr SP too. I have not used them on game yet but they shoot great.

They have their purpose in my world and hope to score some cheap blasting bullets again.

Three years ago I bought 400 154 gr seconds bullets from Midway. They were clearly Hornady SST's. Im not sure why these were labeled seconds. I only found a few with slight stains and they shot identical to the firsts I had.

So is this a Midway problem or a Hornady problem?


Aside from the customer service, that is.