pulled .308's

[jlb300]

Gentelmen, I have a question. Have any of you ever discovered a bullet that is magnetic? I have a friend that bought some .308 military issue ,it is winchester, he really was hoping on breaking in a barrel and than he would have good winchester brass for his new r-25 remington. anyhow he pulled a bunch of the stuff and found them to stick on a magnet. I thought this peculier(sp) and I have no idea why. I tore one apart and I see it isnot lased with a rod type of insert or anything and I cant find anything other than the copper jacket . Any ideas?

[versifier]

Most AP ammo has steel cores, but you would have found it. It may be that the core material of the bullets in question are not a lead alloy wire as is usual, but a sintered mixture of whatever was on hand for some unknown reason. I have never heard of anything like it. No reason not to shoot them that I can think of.

[jlb300]

Naturally they do not shoot as good as what he or I might load, hence the reason in pulling some. we also discovered that the powder weight was in variant of more than 3 grns in those that were pulled. I understand that in mass production how that is, but I also thought they would be closer in weight than they were. Anyhow 500 rounds of W W brass fireformed and reloaded are now ready for some good long range varmint fun this summer.
Another side note these cartridges were also loaded with benchrest primers. another peculularity to me.

[jlb300]

Just an updae. I read somewhere that a manifacturer was selling copper plated steel jacketed bullets . I am looking to see if this may be the reason these are magnetic. If you are interested I will be placing the results here later

[wildbill49]

I have seen both lead and soft steel core bullets loaded in 7.62 NATO rounds. I can't remember if both were listed as M80 or not, but when I was in the Army we fired both types from the M14 and M60 weapon systems. The soft steel core bullet could be identified by is attraction to a magnet. I would suspect that this is what you have.

My last assignment before retiring in 1979 was the commander of one of the Army's 3 Advanced Marksmanship Training Units. We primarly shot M118 ball, the NM ammo with its 173 gr boattail bullet with lead core. For civilian matches we would use the M118 load, but replace the bullet with Sierra's 168 gr Match Hollowpoint. This would improve the performance of the round.

The groups with the M80 with either bullets were so poor that we didn't even use that stuff for practice, but that was what was used in the field, with the exception of the snipers, who used the M118.

Hope that adds some light on the question about steel core bullets. :fighting68:

[wildbill49]

Did a little more research on the issue of ball 7.62 bullets in the NATO round. TM43-0001-27 lists two ball rounds used in the field. The M59 bullet had the soft steel core, while the M80 bullet had a lead core.

Below is a list of all the 7.62 rounds listed in the TM:
7.62MM CARTRIDGES
Cartridge, 7.62mm, Ball, M59
Cartridge, 7.62mm, High Pressure Test, M60
Cartridge, 7.62mm, Armor Piercing, M61
Cartridge, 7.62mm, Tracer, M62
Cartridge, 7.62mm, Tracer, M62 (Overhead Fire mission)
Cartridge, Dummy, 7.62mm, M63
Cartridge, 7.62mm, Grenade, M64
Cartridge, 7.62mm, Ball, M80
Cartridge, 7.62mm, Ball, M80 (Overhead Fire Application)
Cartridge, 7.62mm, Blank, M82
Cartridge, 7.62mm, Ball, Special, M118
Cartridge, 7.62mm, Frangible, M160
Cartridge, Dummy, 7.62mm, M172
Cartridge, 7.62mm, Dim Tracer, M276
Cartridge, 7.62nmm, Match, M852
Cartridge, 7.62mm: Armor Piercing (AP), M993

This TM shows all military smallarms ammunition used by the US during the period from early 1900's until the 1994 period, including some 30mm cannon ammo.

Another reference: http://www.inetres.com/gp/military/infantry/rifle/762mm_ammo.html

:fighting68: