Sorting Milsurp Ammo for Match Shooting

[Mountain]

Was working less than 15 minutes from Granby so took the opportunity to shoot my match M1 over lunch with '65 HXP at 200 yards. After sighting in, it would generally hold the 10 and sneak in a few X's. However, one box had a couple rounds drop low 8's. Those two rounds also ejected differently than every other round, landing at 2 o'clock. All other HXP rounds and also my usual Varget / Nosler CC reloads eject to around 4 o'clock, and damn near stacked neatly for pick up. Seems like I could put them all in a shoebox if I put it in the right place, so the 2:00 flyers were unusual. Recoil impulse for the flyers felt a little off too.

Bought this stuff as a can of ~440 or whatever the count was from CMP. Not really seeing corrosion on the cases like I have seen on HXP in bandoleers. Any ideas what's going on and how to sort out some obvious flyers?

Obviously cull the corroded cases.
Shake to ensure the powder is still loose and not packed up somehow?
Weigh and cull the excessively light and/or heavy cartridges?
Something else?

 

[Mountain]

So I just sorted 60. Weight ranged from 399.8 to 405.6. I culled the 400-401 and 405+ cartridges. No corroded cases. They actually look like new PPU. We'll see on Sunday if the sorting helps.

Eventually I'll pull the lightest and heaviest to see where that ~5.6 grain difference is coming from.

 

[mac1911]

So I just sorted 60. Weight ranged from 399.8 to 405.6. I culled the 400-401 and 405+ cartridges. No corroded cases. They actually look like new PPU. We'll see on Sunday if the sorting helps.

Eventually I'll pull the lightest and heaviest to see where that ~5.6 grain difference is coming from.

Come on , I told you HXP, M2 surplus ammo has a flyer in every clip! Well maybe not that bad but out of a 30-50 round match .....yup your going to get a flyer or three.

Its a lot of extra work but you could pull the bullets. Get a average of the powder charge and re adjust them all(if its the same lot and same powder) I have pulled the same year head stamp on HXP M2 and had 2 distinctive looking powders.
Im going to wager that the largest swing in weight will be the brass.

I might do this with some HXP 303 brit before sunday?

 

[Mountain]

Come on , I told you HXP, M2 surplus ammo has a flyer in every clip! Well maybe not that bad but out of a 30-50 round match .....yup your going to get a flyer or three.

Its a lot of extra work but you could pull the bullets. Get a average of the powder charge and re adjust them all(if its the same lot and same powder) I have pulled the same year head stamp on HXP M2 and had 2 distinctive looking powders.
Im going to wager that the largest swing in weight will be the brass.

I might do this with some HXP 303 brit before sunday?

Yeah, looking like brass:

Powder 53.22 53.62
Bullet 151.08 151.34
Brass 194.16 200.08
Total 398.46 405.04

Definitely a fine ball powder- looks like something that goes in a pistol, honestly. For some reason I was thinking the projectiles would be heavier. Anyway, will see how I do on Sunday assuming family stuff doesn't get in the way.

 

[mac1911]

Yeah, looking like brass:

Powder 53.22 53.62
Bullet 151.08 151.34
Brass 194.16 200.08
Total 398.46 405.04

Definitely a fine ball powder- looks like something that goes in a pistol, honestly. For some reason I was thinking the projectiles would be heavier. Anyway, will see how I do on Sunday assuming family stuff doesn't get in the way.

Do the bullets attract a magnet?
The bullet weights are pretty close... I wonder if that difference holds tight through a larger test group.
i cant really justify the time to pull down 30 plus rounds
Weigh the charges and and recharge and seat before the match.
Often when you pull down surplus ammo you can expect disappointments. The variances in weight can be pretty large.
HXP has been known to make some nice ammo for gov contract stuff.
Im trying to buy some M1 ball and when I do I will do a
Surplus M1 ball vs M2 ball test.

 

[Mountain]

No attraction to a magnet.

Pulled a couple more. One that really didn't want to break free in the inertia puller had some crud on it, as below.

Seems like the bullets are mostly within 151.1 to 151.6 grains, though one was 150.8. Anyway, the flyers both ejected to a different spot and hit significantly low. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

 

[mac1911]

Cool, looks like sealant of some kind.
I might do a test with HXP for the last match. Pull down average the powder charge re drop powder to all the same amount and re seat bullet?

 

[jpm]

they should be sealed

 

[mac1911]

they should be sealed

I really dont know if sealed bullets where a absolute for HXP M2?

 

[jpm]

I really dont know if sealed bullets where a absolute for HXP M2?

I don't know if they were but I'm thinking they were packing the stuff for the long haul in spam cans and sealing the primers so I'd expect the bullets to be sealed as well. I've never actually pulled any HXP bullets now that I think about it, just got them out of the case the old fashioned way!

 

[Mountain]

I've never seen any indication of a sealant on an un-pulled HXP cartridge like I have seen on other sealed ammo. Whether neck tension, varying amounts of sealant, varying amounts of sealant decay, or some combination thereof, big differences in effort to pull via an inertia puller. Some drop right out with a couple light whacks, others really took some effort. But hey, it's 54 year-old ammo.