If you're thinking about just pulling the FMJ's and just seating a soft point over the existing powder charge--DON'T!!!!

I've pulled some U.S. manufactured 30-06 FMJ's from loaded rounds. As I recall, pulling was fairly difficult, as the bullets are not only crimped, but a sealant was applied around the bullet/casemouth to help keep moisture out. I scrapped the powder and the primers, and used the brass to load some hunting rounds.

I'm not sure what kind of luck you would have with an inertia puller, but it might be worth a try. Your best bet would be to use a press mounted, collet style puller. It's what I used.

If the brass is reloadable, you'd be better off to shoot it and reload. If steel cased or Berdan primed, just shoot it for what it is and either buy some hunting ammo, or reloadable brass and take it from there.

 

I will be watching this thread as I have a lot of "military" 308 bullets that are not accurate and would like to see if I can improve them. Looking forward to hearing from people that have a lot more experience at it than I have.

 

What I do when pulling military bullets is to seat the bullet a tiny bit deeper to break the sealant and crimp bonds then pull as usual. Works well for me. US military ammunition primers are crimped and have ruined many a decaping pin trying to just punch them out. I usually use a hand punch and hammer to knock out primers in crimped brass then trim primer pocket.

 

LONG time ago I got some Win white box WCC stamped 7.63x51/.308 ammo and pulled the 147grFMJ bullets and stuffed in some Hornady 150gr spitzers and got a dear with them, shot pretty good in my M77RSI. IF you're worried about the tar like stuff they use to glue the bullets in, try seating the bullets a bit deeper to break the glue, then pull. HTH

 

I have pulled a lot of military rounds. The easiest way I have found is to drill a hole in the end of a piece of firewood or a wooden block. Make it a little larger in diameter than the bullet and move the cartridge back and forth to enlarge the case neck. Dump out the powder and run the case into sizing die to de-prime and resize case. Then I would remove primer crimp and seat new primer. About 3 out of 100 will set off the live primer. Just be aware that it may happen. I had to break down several hundred old cases that had mercury type primers. After priming the cases I loaded up fresh powder and seated the original bullet I had pulled. Several years ago I pulled two thousand middle Eastern military rounds that were suspect of destroying more that one M1A rifles. They had a black tar sealant in the neck and were somewhat difficult to clean. The price was right so I can't complain. Just a note...bending the case neck has not been harmful to the longevity of the case. Most of these have been reloaded multiple times.

 

When pulling military bullets, inertial or collet, run the loaded rounds through your seater die first, and set them about 1mm deeper. This breaks the sealant and loosens up the hard crimp, allowing them to be pulled much more easily. I've seen inertial pullers break, trying to pull military ammo.

If you choose to reuse the brass, decrease all your loads by at least 10% as military cases are typically heavier, with thicker walls, and have a lower total case capacity. It's easy to get over pressure. I've had a blown primer and a case stuck in the chamber--had to hammer the bolt open--before I heard about this.

Military cases--ball ammo--is made to be able to run in machine guns if need be. The cases are made heavier and stronger of a purpose.

One more thing. The primers in military ammo are usually crimped in. They will be difficult to decap. I'd suggest using a universal decapping die so as to have the strongest decapping pin, instead of a sizer/decapper die--unless you've got a lot of decapping pins you don't mind using up.

After decapping, you'll need to either swage to primer pockets to size or use a primer pocket reamer to get rid of the remainder of the crimps. Otherwise, you'll find that repriming is a chore.

If you have a lot of once fired military brass, especially .308, it's not usually worth bothering with, unless it's Lake City Match brass. Recovered military brass has often been fired in a machine guns. Military machine guns usually have slightly oversize and fluted chambers to ensure extraction. Brass fired in them needs to be not only full length resized, but the base needs to be resized also. Usually not worth the trouble. There's no shortage of commercial .308 brass.

 

Many military 7.62 bullets are intended for machine guns, and pulled or not, from the same manufacture vary in length, exact location of ogive and weight, mixed together in a belt or box. This is done on purpose, to help the gun achieve an optimum cone of fire resulting in the optimum beaten zone at distance. For a DMR, this means a large group at any distance. Groups can be tightened a lot if the bullets are segregated by weight and often overlooked length. You will need a case mic to determine if the ogives have been manipulated. Shot a lot for FMJ here, unsorted is generally around 3 inches or more, sorted down to around 2 to 1.5 inches at 100 yards. These same M1A rifles are capable of MOA accuracy with match handloads, for off hand practice the FMJs work well enough.

Machine gun fired brass, does well if the first re-loading involves small base dies.

 

Mexican Match for the old folks

 

back in the 60s my daddy had a 30-06 he bought cans full of military ammo from a man. he took some of it and ground off the tips and drilled it out and made HP out of them and killed several deer with them. he said the longest shot he ever made was with one of those bullets,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

Be careful if you're shooting corrosive milsurp ammo. Whether you replace the slug, make a hollow point dum-dum, or shoot as-is, pour boiling water down the bore. Then clean as usual, and don't forget the bolt, inner receiver, and magazine well. Those corrosive salts go everywhere. I don't shoot milsurp, just save it for SHTF last ditch emergency.

They say old formulation Hoppes #9 was made with corrosive ammo in mind. What ever you do, be mindful of the primers in military ammunition.

 

For as long as my BIL's Dad was alive my BIL would pull the bullets from Lake City .308 match ammo and seat a 150 gr SP back in the case. His Dad shot these in a Remington model 788 in 308. He killed lots of deer with them and never had a problem of any kind.

 

I have not been able to successfully resize the steel cases on Com-bloc ammo - either Mil-surp or commercial.

There are people here who say they have done it...

I would first try resizing a once-fired steel case before you go buy a bunch of stuff.

If you can resize the necks - there's nothing to stop you from pulling the bullets, resizing the necks, and replacing the bullets with commercial hunting bullets.

Be aware that 100% of Mil-Surp 7.62x54r is corrosive primed using berdan primers. It is theoretically reloadable - but commercial berdan primers have not been available for some time.

I personally use either reloadable brass case ammo like PRVI or buy fresh brass from Graffs.

 

I have pulled literally thousands of bullets from many different caliber surplus rounds. Plan on keep doing when I find another RCBS collet puller set. Especially pulled gobs of 303 ball , 7,92 , 7,62x54 , 7,62x39 and on. I take the surplus steel cases and often use dthem for soft point bullets so I did not have to worry about losing good brass out in the woods. Especially loading tracers into surplus steel...don't have to look for brass at night or ever !.