Being a reloaded (I.e. a cheapskate) I'm always looking for the best possible deals. I generally end up casting my own bullets, even 9mm, but lead is getting harder to find. American Reloading is one of my go-to vendors for the occasional "can't pass it up"deal. Never had any major issues, but you do have to accept that what you're getting isn't brand-new, absolute perfect, ready to go all the time.
My 9mm bullet selection was down to zero, so I was willing to take the chance on their pulled 9mm 115/124gr bullets (https://americanreloading.com/product/9mm-115-124gr-fmj-mix-pulled-1000ct/). With the 30% discount, it worked out to just under 4 cents/per. Its hard to get that low even casting your own, so I placed my order and thought I'd share the results.
The bullets arrived clean and well packaged, minimal pull marks and only minor crimp rings. I ordered 2k, so it took a while to sort through by weight and ended up with about 2/3rds 124gr. Just as an experiment I loaded up 100 of the 115gr bullets without any further sorting…and this is where things started to go wrong. The OALs were all over the place, from my targeted 1.135 all the way up to 1.175. WAY more variation that I'm comfortable with, especially using a faster powder like Titegroup.
So out came my OCD (there are old reloaders and bold reloaders, but not many old, bold reloaders with all their fingers), my reading glass, dial indicator and hand cramps. I found projectiles as short as .540 and one wannabe spear at .586. I sorted by .005 increment, then started looking at the biggest group at .560". I'm guessing there are bullets from at least 6 different manufacturer, with ogives all over the place. The ogives are variable enough that the normal conical seating punch isn't consistent, even if the projectiles are the same length. My Dillon seating die has a 1/8 breather hole, so even trying the flatter of the 2 seating punches allows too much variation in OAL. I'll be switching over to an older RCBS seating die with a flat punch. I might be sacrificing a small amount of concentricity, but I think getting the OAL correct will be worth it.
So, over all thoughts? Not horrible, but for the time involved I think I'll just stick with the RMR bullets in the future. If you're willing to put in the time to sort through all the projectiles and you're comfortable with losing some safety margin, the American Reloading Bullets may be worthwhile. Personally I'm not looking forward to sorting through the 124gr projectiles, but I'm not willing to risk it.
My 9mm bullet selection was down to zero, so I was willing to take the chance on their pulled 9mm 115/124gr bullets (https://americanreloading.com/product/9mm-115-124gr-fmj-mix-pulled-1000ct/). With the 30% discount, it worked out to just under 4 cents/per. Its hard to get that low even casting your own, so I placed my order and thought I'd share the results.
The bullets arrived clean and well packaged, minimal pull marks and only minor crimp rings. I ordered 2k, so it took a while to sort through by weight and ended up with about 2/3rds 124gr. Just as an experiment I loaded up 100 of the 115gr bullets without any further sorting…and this is where things started to go wrong. The OALs were all over the place, from my targeted 1.135 all the way up to 1.175. WAY more variation that I'm comfortable with, especially using a faster powder like Titegroup.
So out came my OCD (there are old reloaders and bold reloaders, but not many old, bold reloaders with all their fingers), my reading glass, dial indicator and hand cramps. I found projectiles as short as .540 and one wannabe spear at .586. I sorted by .005 increment, then started looking at the biggest group at .560". I'm guessing there are bullets from at least 6 different manufacturer, with ogives all over the place. The ogives are variable enough that the normal conical seating punch isn't consistent, even if the projectiles are the same length. My Dillon seating die has a 1/8 breather hole, so even trying the flatter of the 2 seating punches allows too much variation in OAL. I'll be switching over to an older RCBS seating die with a flat punch. I might be sacrificing a small amount of concentricity, but I think getting the OAL correct will be worth it.
So, over all thoughts? Not horrible, but for the time involved I think I'll just stick with the RMR bullets in the future. If you're willing to put in the time to sort through all the projectiles and you're comfortable with losing some safety margin, the American Reloading Bullets may be worthwhile. Personally I'm not looking forward to sorting through the 124gr projectiles, but I'm not willing to risk it.