.284 caliber 140 grain Plastic-tipped bullet?

S

Savagenut

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Last week, I bought about 80 rounds of .284 Winchester handloads, mostly for the cases, as they were loaded in virgin brass. I also got 20+ once-fired cases. The loaded rounds have a 140 grain(according to my electronic scale) boat-tail bullet with a red plastic tip.

Who uses red plastic tips in their bullets? I've looked at the Hornady site, and they show a 139 grainer. I only had 1 loose bullet to weigh, but it was dead-on 140 grains.

These handloads will probably be dis-assembled, bullets salvaged, then reloaded with my powder and bullet choice. Maybe, I can find someone who likes a "Ballistic Tip" type of bullet who would like to buy them. I just never have seen the need for one, as I hunt the thick stuff, mostly. A 100 yard shot is usually VERRRRY long!

Just for fun, I got 49 rounds of Winchester (shiny, new) factory .284's with the 150grain Power Point, 80 rounds of handloads in virgin brass, 20+ once-fired cases, and 3 Midway cartridge boxes, all for $65.00. At today's prices, the factory fodder is worth almost $125.00, the bullets I don't know, and the brass is at least 50 cents a pop. I have a friend who bought some factory .284's from me a couple of years ago, and he gladly paid a buck for each round. Maybe, he will need some more.




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Mods, please move this thread to Ammo and Reloading Forum, as I had a "Blonde Moment".

 
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I have a 284 Winchester, A-Bolt Micro-Medallion, very handy rifle.

There are ballistic tip 'varmint' bullets & ballistic tip 'game' or 'hunting' bullets. I would think your bullets would act more like soft points on a deer. Maybe the Hornady manual shows the exact bullet with info? I agree, the varmint type are fragile for most deer hunting.

Either way, I'd most likely keep them to use. You could try them for deer hunting, or load them for other uses.
 
I forgot to add that there was a note included with the handloads showing the type and amount of powder used, (55.0 grains of H4350). It also stated that these were for a desert sheep hunt, so I am assuming that they are a premium bullet. They are loaded long for a .284, leading me to believe that they were to be used in a custom/semi-custom rifle, probably built on a long-action.

My bolt .284 is a re-chambered Savage, so they will not work at the length they are loaded. I may load one single-shot to see if I get pressure signs, then incrementally seat them deeper looking for signs as I go, till I get to a length that will feed from my magazine.

The problem with keeping them for deer hunting is that if I do shoot a deer with one of them, and it does not perform as I want, I may have a badly wounded deer to contend with, and end with a tracking job. Of course, the same can be said of any new type of bullet being tried for the first time.

This load seems to be on the mild side for this case, at 55 grains. I plan to pull a few bullets to determine if the loading is consistent. I am reasonably confident that they will be, as a .284 is kind of a "rifle-nut" 's type of rifle, being that there is only one factory load available. It is a fine round and deserves to be chambered in more rifles.
 
That 55 grn charge is in the mid+ range, with Hodgdon data anyway. They have a listed COL of 2.915", you could see how that compares. The proper way to do it is to measure your chamber, taking mag length into consideration, then look at book COL for particular loads.

Then we all know the cautions that should be taken with another's handloads. I had some 243 handloads that came with a 243 I bought a while back. They were loaded long for my gun & a bit above most data I checked.

I pulled the bullets, lowered the powder charge & seated them to my desired COL.
 
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