I bought three boxes of 175gr Nosler Custom Competition 30 cal bullets and when I opened the first one, a majority of the bullets were discolored.
Instead of the nice, shiny copper finish, a lot of the bullets were dull, reddish in color with some of them being silver colored at the very tip of the bullets. If I was to guess some sort of oxidation has taken place.
Has anyone encountered this? Do you all think this would affect the accuracy of these bullets? I was planning on shooting them at 600 and 1000 yards but I am concerned that the oxidation (if that is what it is) would cause uneven drag on the bullet. I loaded 50 and shot at 100 yards (all I had access to at that point) and the accuracy was not in line with what I have come to expect from this bullet. Before loading and possibly wasting more of them I wanted to see if anyone else has encountered this and knows if / how it would affect accuracy at 600 / 1000 yards.
I contacted Nosler about it and they claimed it was a result of the uncommonly cold weather (that the bullets freezing during transport would have caused it). They asked me to mail them a few bullets for them to test in their environment but they were not very receptive when I asked if I could send them the two unopened boxes to be replaced.
I attach a picture of the discolorations. There are 10 discolored bullets at the top compared to four bullets with regular finish on the bottom. Due to the shine the picture does not do a perfect job in conveying the appearance of the bullets but the second one from the left and third from the right show the oxidation (if that is what it is) pretty well.
Instead of the nice, shiny copper finish, a lot of the bullets were dull, reddish in color with some of them being silver colored at the very tip of the bullets. If I was to guess some sort of oxidation has taken place.
Has anyone encountered this? Do you all think this would affect the accuracy of these bullets? I was planning on shooting them at 600 and 1000 yards but I am concerned that the oxidation (if that is what it is) would cause uneven drag on the bullet. I loaded 50 and shot at 100 yards (all I had access to at that point) and the accuracy was not in line with what I have come to expect from this bullet. Before loading and possibly wasting more of them I wanted to see if anyone else has encountered this and knows if / how it would affect accuracy at 600 / 1000 yards.
I contacted Nosler about it and they claimed it was a result of the uncommonly cold weather (that the bullets freezing during transport would have caused it). They asked me to mail them a few bullets for them to test in their environment but they were not very receptive when I asked if I could send them the two unopened boxes to be replaced.
I attach a picture of the discolorations. There are 10 discolored bullets at the top compared to four bullets with regular finish on the bottom. Due to the shine the picture does not do a perfect job in conveying the appearance of the bullets but the second one from the left and third from the right show the oxidation (if that is what it is) pretty well.
