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reuse pulled bullets?


BENTNBROKEN

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I had a number of bullets that I needed to pull for various reasons. My question is after having seated bullet can it be reused? they appear to be in good condition other than the markings from previous crimp. can they be reused or should I just toss them in the recycle bin?

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I used a Lee Factory Crimp die while reloading some .40 S&W's. I then had to pull some of them. When I tried to re-use these bullets found they were now undersized and wouldn't work anymore.

Frank, has a great point. If you use a factory crimp die, alot of times it will crimp the bullets pretty deep, but I believe the bullet will spring back to some degree, but if not, you may have to crimp a little more just to make sure and just use them in practice.

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Also, lead bullets sometimes do not reload well after being pulled because they get sized down. I had a local shooter offer up close to 500 coated .40 bullets that he had loaded and then had to pull. He thought he was going to be able to reuse them and found they were sized down and the sized case wouid not grab them and they fell right through to the powder.

I cast my own bullets so I gladly took them to melt down.

Neal in AZ

Edited by Intel6
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I used a Lee Factory Crimp die while reloading some .40 S&W's. I then had to pull some of them. When I tried to re-use these bullets found they were now undersized and wouldn't work anymore.

I'd say that's a pretty good indication that you were overcrimping.

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I've had no problem using pulled bullets for range fodder, but I prefer new bullets for any serious shooting. I had a batch of about 500 bullets I pulled from a lot of ammo that all had marks from their factory crimp. I just made sure I didn't over do it and checked the bullets for any splits in the plating. Once I made sure they were good to go, I loaded and crimped them to .376 and felt it was perfect. That's slightly more than I use on new bullets, and have always been very successful in my loading.

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