Dissolving plastic bullet tips?

Longwalker

Longwalker

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I have a mystery to solve.

I was preparing to sight in a .308 that I had put a new scope on. I went into my stash of older ammo to use for that purpose. I found some ammunition that I had loaded with Nosler Accubonds and stored properly 11 years ago were now without the plastic bullet tips.

A couple had tips that dissolved into a small bit of putty like substance, and that ball of putty fell out of the remaining hollow point when turned upside down. Another had the tip sitting in the bottom of the box, with base part of that tip dissolved into putty but the rest intact. I couldn't find any others in that lot of 100 cartridges with a similar problem.

This is from ammo I assembled myself, never transported after loading, stored properly in sealed plastic boxes, kept indoors and at a constant room temperature.

What's going on??
 
I have had similar in several bullet boxes - not loaded - but some tips had fallen out and were loose in bottom of the box. They got loaded and used up when I was adjusting a scope on that rifle. I had read on Internet that Nosler was aware of that problem some years ago, and claimed to have "fixed" it - which does nothing for us "old farts" with boxes of those bullets from "back then".

Similarly, I have several boxes of older Nosler Ballistic Tip - likely predecessors to Accubond - as if the glue that holds the tip in place is oozing out along that tip onto exterior of the bullet jacket - I can not help but wonder if that does not make them "lob-sided", or if that is just a curio. I have not had that on remnants of boxes that I bought new, then, but have seen that in boxes of bullets bought recently from CGN EE - so no clue how or under what conditions they had been stored.
 
Dogleg said:
I've had Accubond tips fall of in the box, and some in the magazine. They were older though. All happened to be 200 grain 30 cals; not that that should make any difference.
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interesting... I have had a few 30cal 200grn tips break off, but the 25cal 110grn and 7mm 160grn don't seem to have the same issues.

the broken tipped bullets I just kept for when I needed a finishing shot
 
I found broken off tips in .338" 225 grain Accubond - tips laying loose in bottom of box - a few other boxes of those are here, that have not been opened yet. I have not found any missing from 9.3 mm 250 grain Accubond, but only one box of them has been opened. I wrote "broken off" but my recollection is the tips were intact and did not appear broken - as if they "fell out" of the bullet.
 
My impression was that if they were "glued in" - the glue did not hold; if they were "crimped in", then not crimped tight enough. Is also some 200 grain Nosler Nosler Ballistic tips - .338" diameter - likely predecessor to Accubond - has something like "glue" oozing out of bullet along the tips - very hard stuff on exterior of bullet jacket - does not come off with rotary tumbling with "lizard litter" - for hours of tumbling. Not sure that I found any Ballistic Tips completely fallen out, but can not help to think the bullet is now "unbalanced" from glob of "glue" - I can feel it and see it.
 
bb07 said:
I wonder what the tips are actually made of. I have Imperial Sabre Tips that are still as good as new.
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That's what I have been wondering. My first guess for an application like this is polypropylene, but it's pretty inconceivable than any of the major polymer groups would deteriorate sitting around in ambient household conditions. It usually takes hundreds of hours exposure to solvents or direct sunlight to degrade any of those.
 
This war a common problem with Accubonds a dozen or so years ago. When I contacted Nosler they said a few batches passed QC where the final cleaning solvent hadn't been cleaned off properly.
 
'Boo said:
They replaced 2 boxes of 165 grain .30 calibre and told me to keep the damaged ones.

In all honesty the ones with the missing & melted tips grouped right in with the "perfect" ones when shot at 200 metres.
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That would be very similar to my experience at 100 yard targets - no real way to tell which holes in target had tips and which did not - was from a store-bought Winchester Model 70, so not a "precision" or "custom made" thing. 338 Win Mag, 225 grain Accubonds - with and without tips.
 
Dropped a .257 Weatherby cartridge today while reloading and the plastic point of the 115 Ballistic Tip broke off when it hit the floor. I only had to walk to the garage door to try it out, I have a bench set up there for close range testing. The damaged bullet went into the same sub 1" group as the rest, for whatever that's worth.
 
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