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Issues with recent blemished bullets

3K views 12 replies 9 participants last post by  Boolit_Head 
#1 ·
Looking for opinions on a recent blemished bullet purchase.

Bought 100 count (two boxes) of a lead free .224 55gr bullet, listed as poly tipped. Got the order in today to find they are not poly tipped and that they are Hornady 55gr GMX. They are in factory Hornady boxes, with what appears to be Hornady's labels and they say poly tipped. Okay I can over look it, not a big deal, but not at all as advertised. The bigger issue is that about 50% of the bullets have a tab of copper folded over where the cannelure was cut. By the looks of it they wouldn't camber if they were loaded, and if they were loaded, they'd have to be loaded long, as the case mouth would be stopped by the extra copper, but again, I'd say they wouldn't even chamber by the size of the extra copper. These don't fit my definition of blemished, I'd call these unsafe rejects. I can't flake the copper off with my nail either, they're good solid chunks that would need to be filled or cut off.

All of my past blemished purchases from Nosler have been advertised as cosmetic blems, and none of them have had physical issues before. In this order I also got 400 pieces of Hornady 60gr vmax blems as well as 300 pieces of the new 75gr ELD blems, and they all look great.

What do you guys think?
 
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#3 ·
Looking for opinions on a recent blemished bullet purchase.

Bought 100 count (two boxes) of a lead free .224 55gr bullet, listed as poly tipped. Got the order in today to find they are not poly tipped and that they are Hornady 55gr GMX. They are in factory Hornady boxes, with what appears to be Hornady's labels and they say poly tipped. Okay I can over look it, not a big deal, but not at all as advertised. The bigger issue is that about 50% of the bullets have a tab of copper folded over where the cannelure was cut. By the looks of it they wouldn't camber if they were loaded, and if they were loaded, they'd have to be loaded long, as the case mouth would be stopped by the extra copper, but again, I'd say they wouldn't even chamber by the size of the extra copper. These don't fit my definition of blemished, I'd call these unsafe rejects. I can't flake the copper off with my nail either, they're good solid chunks that would need to be filled or cut off.

All of my past blemished purchases from Nosler have been advertised as cosmetic blems, and none of them have had physical issues before. In this order I also got 400 pieces of Hornady 60gr vmax blems as well as 300 pieces of the new 75gr ELD blems, and they all look great.

What do you guys think?
I'd ask them for the poly tipped blemished bullets.
 
#4 · (Edited)
I don't understand the first part--- hornady GMX bullets are in fact lead free poly tipped bullets, they are solid gilding metal with a plastic tip.

Second part of it is an issue, they should still be safe to load, sounds like these aren't...did u contact the seller yet?
 
#5 ·
Well i just looked at hornady's website and apparently all of the gmx bullets EXCEPT the. 224 caliber have poly tips--- I had no clue the 22 cal gmx bullets did not have the same poly tip as all the others

Seller might have been under the same assumption as I.

Still an issue with the copper anomaly though
 
#6 ·
Yeah, its just weird that Hornady labeled them as poly tipped, so I can't blame the seller on that. And they were all sealed, so the seller probably never looked at them to know how bad them "blemishes" were. I should probably start with them though and see what they say rather going straight to Hornady. The seller did list them as no returns on blems, which is why I'm torn.

Well i just looked at hornady's website and apparently all of the gmx bullets EXCEPT the. 224 caliber have poly tips--- I had no clue the 22 cal gmx bullets did not have the same poly tip as all the others

Seller might have been under the same assumption as I.

Still an issue with the copper anomaly though
 
#9 · (Edited)
Who did you buy them from? A retailer or a private person? Blems are one thing, dangerous defects are another. Nosler is very clear that their blems are cosmetic only. Retailers like Midway, Midsouth and Wideners say no such thing and often give a list of various defects the bullets might have as far as weight, missing poly tips, possible flat base mixed with boat tails, missing cannelures and other disclaimers. That's why I rarely buy blems from anyone but Nosler. In thousands of bullets I've bought from SPS I had one issue and SPS gladly made it right by sending me first quality bullets as replacement for the damaged ones I received....even though it probably wasn't even their fault.

Midsouth lists these possible defects in their blems:

•Tooling Marks
•Heavy Noses
•Light Noses
•Bad Noses
•Appearance Changes
•Boat Tail Changes
•Cannelure Changes
•Material Variances
•Weight Variances
•Lead Over Base
•First Run From Setting Up Machines

No thanks!
 
#12 ·
Thanks for the support guys. These were purchased from Midsouth. I've always been very pleased with them and will continue to support them regardless of the outcome of this as I feel it falls completely on Hornady with the way they sold and packaged them to MSS. As recommended, I'll start with MSS, see where it goes, and I'll keep you all posted. I'll get some pictures up too before they go back to where ever. Worst case scenario I'm stuck with what will end up consolidating down to a full box box at regular retail price.
 
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