SPS has been sending me emails about their stuff, including blem ammo for a while. They finally touched a nerve when they dropped the price of the .223 w/64gr bonded bullet to $19.95. Ordered five boxes. Can’t believe they consider this “blemished”. I’m hard-pressed to find anything at all abnormal about any I examined. Considering that the blem bullets go for $39.95 for 100, and blem brass for $39.95 per 50, that’s not too shabby... if it shoots!

I’ve bought blems and regulars. They both look the same. Maybe blems are a little bit less shiny, but that may be due to packaging. Most likely they are production overruns that they won’t put in the original packaging box.

These are as shiny as any ammo I’ve ever bought. Like jewelry. Maybe the blem tag is to keep their wholesale customers from knowing they’re being undercut.

Nothing I saw on the boxes indicated they were anything other than “firsts”.

I've gotten quite a few blem bullets from them and usually can't tell why they are a "blem". I did get some 22 ballistic tips once where the color of the plastic tip was not correct for the bullet weight. My rifles didn't care.

I have piles of blem bullets. This is my first run at blem ammo.

First blems I bought were From Grafs, Sierra 100gr PH 6mms. Those were clearly blems, but merely a little curl of lead on the tip that came off with my thumbnail. One was an empty jacket, which I sectioned. As advertised, it tapers inside. The one I shot a doe broadside with still failed to exit and fragmented, so the core must be pretty soft. Very dead deer, regardless.

Never used any of their ammo blems but have shot a pile of the blem bullets.

Blems - can also be batches that failed the precision tests.

Not bad, just out of spec.




GR

I’ve shot lots of 300 Win mag trophy grade blem ammo and I never can find how they consider it blemished same with the their bullets.

Check the runout.

It’s how they generate enough volume to make it pay, without pizzing off those who pay their exorbitant prices for “firsts.”

Hi GR,
Specifically to the Nosler blems sold by SPS - how do you know this to be true? And does your statement apply equally to bullets, brass, and loaded ammo, or only to one or two of those?
I don't mean to "challenge" you, I just want to know how you know this, as what I have learned previously implies the blem status is limited to cosmetics.
Thanks,
Rex

EDIT - I have seen odd things like 251 grain .338 E-Tips in the past, and these would seem to be a data point for your contention, but at least SPS/Nosler were up front about the one grain over weight in the case of these.

Were those tips a light gray color? I have scored a number of gray-tipped ballistic tips of various calibers from SPS. My understanding is these were destined to become "Winchester Combined Technology Ballistic Silvertips", which all have gray tips, but got culled out. Most of these I have found have a bit of a dingy shade to the jacket but are otherwise perfect. Odd since the bullets would all have been later coated with the black stuff anyway.

Cheers,
Rex

I did have a high cull rate for damaged case mouths (about 10% were dinged beyond recovery) with some Nosler blem .270 Win brass I got from SPS. To me that's not a blem, but a flaw that should have been recycled. I saved them because they could still be necked down to 25-06 or 6.5-06 and been fine, since trimming back to 2.484 would have cleaned up all the chips that were a problem at .270 Win length.
But my buddy bought a bunch of blem 6mm CM from them and he found them just outstanding.

Rex