Tom488
Member
I recently ordered 4,000 55gr FMJBT's from bulletheads.com, and they arrived today:
Looking them over, they looked good to me. I only opened one 1,000 count package, but did check over all of them pretty thoroughly, and didn't see anything that jumped out at me as, "that don't look right".
I then took a random sampling from the first bag, turning over the pile of bullets several times in some Akro bins, to really get a random sample. I then weighed each one, measured their length, and diameter just below the cannelure:
Weight varied from a low of 55.2 grains to a high of 55.4 grains. Length varied from .747" to .754". Diameter was consistent at .224", with one just tipping the calibers over to .2245".
For comparison, I grabbed a sample from a box of Berry's 55gr FMJBTs. Those weighed in at between 54.9 gr to 55.1gr, and had a length of between .734" and .744". Diameter was also consistent at .224".
After that, I cleaned out my bullet feeder, dumped some of these bullets in, and ran a quick 10 rounds through the Dillon 1050. The only issue I had was I needed to very slightly tweak the bullet feeder's nose guide, as some bullets weren't collating properly. I attribute this to a slightly more aggressive boat tail on these bullets, compared to the Berry's. The smaller diameter of the base was slipping past the nose guide, and trying to flip over. If anything, the slightly greater taper means they will sit in the case mouth better. I had no trouble feeding or seating these rounds, as you can (hopefully) see here:
Here's a decent close-up of the bullets:
In summary, I'm satisfied with the quality of these bullets, and they should make excellent plinking rounds - which is all I'm after in such large quantities. At 8.5 cents per bullet (shipped), they're the best deal I've found.
Looking them over, they looked good to me. I only opened one 1,000 count package, but did check over all of them pretty thoroughly, and didn't see anything that jumped out at me as, "that don't look right".
I then took a random sampling from the first bag, turning over the pile of bullets several times in some Akro bins, to really get a random sample. I then weighed each one, measured their length, and diameter just below the cannelure:
Weight varied from a low of 55.2 grains to a high of 55.4 grains. Length varied from .747" to .754". Diameter was consistent at .224", with one just tipping the calibers over to .2245".
For comparison, I grabbed a sample from a box of Berry's 55gr FMJBTs. Those weighed in at between 54.9 gr to 55.1gr, and had a length of between .734" and .744". Diameter was also consistent at .224".
After that, I cleaned out my bullet feeder, dumped some of these bullets in, and ran a quick 10 rounds through the Dillon 1050. The only issue I had was I needed to very slightly tweak the bullet feeder's nose guide, as some bullets weren't collating properly. I attribute this to a slightly more aggressive boat tail on these bullets, compared to the Berry's. The smaller diameter of the base was slipping past the nose guide, and trying to flip over. If anything, the slightly greater taper means they will sit in the case mouth better. I had no trouble feeding or seating these rounds, as you can (hopefully) see here:
Here's a decent close-up of the bullets:
In summary, I'm satisfied with the quality of these bullets, and they should make excellent plinking rounds - which is all I'm after in such large quantities. At 8.5 cents per bullet (shipped), they're the best deal I've found.
