These bullets are likely much older than thirty years.
I've been doing this stuff for almost sixty years. I have cupro-nickel bullets for for several different calibers, including 6.5, 7mm, 7.7mm(312), 8mm and I believe some old 265gr 9mm.
They're usually very good, considering the tech they were built with and the reasoning behind their design and construction.
45 or so years ago, Century International had a smoking hot deal on 6.5x55 component packages. At that time, Dominion and CIL were no longer producing the cartridges and had sold off their equipment to an entrepreneur in the US, who let it rust to the point of scrap in an outside compound.
The cost of enough components, everything from special cartridges, loaded with pistol powder and wooden bullets, to surplus #44 powder (IMR3031) and a choice of bullets, ranging from HPFB 90 grain to 139 BTSP soft nose to round nose, fmj, 160 grain cupro-nickel, with exposed lead bases.
It took a bit of effort on my part to put it all together into workable ammo for my rifles, but if you bought a large enough quantity, the price per thousand loaded rounds of useable ammo was around $40. I bought 50k components, sold about half to friends and other than the powder, which started to deteriorate beyond use about 15 years ago, I still have several hundred bullets left.
My only issue with this package was that the cartridges were loaded with Berdan/corrosive primers. Not a biggie as back in the day corrosive surplus was mostly the norm.
The commercial components I have mostly come from estates and commercial businesses shutting down for one reason or another. Most of this stuff was either free or picked up for pennies on the dollar.
I love having a hobby that pays for itself.
