230 berger defects?

[plumbcrazyjr]

I just purchased a couple boxes of 230 hybrids and as i was weigh sorting them and found several of them had sever gouges in the jackets. These are the first bergers i have ever bought and hope this is a fluke because they shoot very well out of my 300 win mag. Has anyone else had this issue with them
thank you

 

[milo 2.0]

Go back two or more pages in this section, someone had issues a couple weeks ago, not 230gr's but in general. No concensus was made.
I'd send them back, you just paid 55 bucks a hunderd for the fucking things. I need to go out to my truck, I have 300 of these bullets I have to moly for a freind, I'll see what shape they're in.

 

[milo 2.0]

OK, I just checked the 300 230 gr's I have, they are all pristine. Lot # 5275, I know they came from Gunstop.

 

[plumbcrazyjr]

I got these from midway and I have already loaded 40 or so out of the box. I have sent them an email about it but have not heard any kind of responce yet. I had really high expectations of these bullets and was kind of let down a little. I have never had this kind of problem with the matchkings and I have shot alot of sierra's "seconds" I got from the plant

 

[Marty1975]

Just a heads up if anyone else sees their groups with Hybrids a little off. Look very close under a bright light. Seeing issues with Berger Hybrids, not 30 cal though, mine are 6.5 cal. 140gn. Bought many last year to use this year, 2024 in benchrest 600/1000 yard matches. When I started shooting em they werent grouping as well, unfortunately this was after sorting and milling (whole bunch of days worth). Looked closer at the bullet and found shallow wiggly cracks on the nose running lengthwise. Some worse than others, some without. Shot em against those bought earlier without these cracks, two five shot groups each at 100 yards. Convinced me that the defects do effect POI. Spinning em across a fingernail does catch. Splits are very hard to see and feel. Regular handling without close inspection didnt pick it up. Berger told me they are lube marks or lines even after mailing them 10. No way a lube line will catch on a finger nail and open up the group 1/4 - 1/2 moa. I told Berger this but they are obviously not listening. Shot some more with em and was able to get one group of 5 just within 1/4 but no one hole prints which I used to see regularly. I also saw the same thing last year on their classic hunter 135gn but didnt buy nearly as many and it was a hunting bullet too. Maybe Im crazy but thats what I saw.

 

[bax]

For those of you who haven't thought about how bullets are made, here is a short bit. You start with a jacket shaped like a straight-sided drinking glass. The jacket sides taper, thicker at the bottom, thinner at the top.

Step 1: seat a lead core into the jacket. The punch is sized so that it is a perfect fit to the jacket when the core is seated - that is, no lead seeps around the edges and the punch doesn't cut into the jacket. I haven't made boat-tail bullets. That said, I'm thinking that there may be a "form the boat tail" die with a special punch or the seater die has the boat-tail shape.

Step 2: run the "drinking glass" into a point-up die. This forms the nose of the bullet, the top edge gets squeezed into that small point you see.

Suppose that the jacket is 1.2 inches long. Think about the jacket material 1 inch above the base. When you point up, that jacket material is pushed toward the long axis of the bullet. Now think about the tip of the bullet. When the top edge of the jacket is forced into the point. All of the jacket above the bullet shank is forced inwards, the material folds. If you look very closely, you can see the folds in the jacket. In my experience, if you can feel the folds then the jacket was either made of the wrong stuff (insufficiently ductile) or the lube was wrong or there is a problem with the point-up die.

In my experience, 230 grain Berger bullets are wonderful. Sounds like OP got a bad batch.

 

[Marty1975]

For those of you who haven't thought about how bullets are made, here is a short bit. You start with a jacket shaped like a straight-sided drinking glass. The jacket sides taper, thicker at the bottom, thinner at the top.

Step 1: seat a lead core into the jacket. The punch is sized so that it is a perfect fit to the jacket when the core is seated - that is, no lead seeps around the edges and the punch doesn't cut into the jacket. I haven't made boat-tail bullets. That said, I'm thinking that there may be a "form the boat tail" die with a special punch or the seater die has the boat-tail shape.

Step 2: run the "drinking glass" into a point-up die. This forms the nose of the bullet, the top edge gets squeezed into that small point you see.

Suppose that the jacket is 1.2 inches long. Think about the jacket material 1 inch above the base. When you point up, that jacket material is pushed toward the long axis of the bullet. Now think about the tip of the bullet. When the top edge of the jacket is forced into the point. All of the jacket above the bullet shank is forced inwards, the material folds. If you look very closely, you can see the folds in the jacket. In my experience, if you can feel the folds then the jacket was either made of the wrong stuff (insufficiently ductile) or the lube was wrong or there is a problem with the point-up die.

In my experience, 230 grain Berger bullets are wonderful. Sounds like OP got a bad batch.

Thank you