Timm,
What are your thoughts on pull marks? Do they have a quantifiable effect on accuracy? I.E. light vs heavy pull marks, given the same load and firing conditions?
I wrote for Handloader, The Rifle, Guns & Ammo and the last fifteen years for Varmint Hunter Magazine ... plus the lead-ins in almost all of the Nosler Manuals. Handloading has been an integral part of my life.
One thing a writer needs for an article is "the hook." At one time, I thought I could get an article out of the pulled bullet thing, but I never actually wrote it.
I described my test-fire above. The rifle was a full-house custom .223 Ackley with a Krieger barrel. I pulled some of the bullets using an inetia puller by RCBS and the last half or so using an RCBS collet puller. Later on, I even did a smaller test by leaving off the expander plug (Redding dies), in an attempt to get the most buggered-up possible drag marks on the bullets.
In all cases, the pulled bullets shot very, very slightly tighter groups than the virgin bullets. The difference probably wasn't enough to be statistically significant, but it was there. The rifle shot pretty consistent aggregates (four five-shot groups) of .45" with the control load and the pulled bullets usually shot in the low-4s ... call it .41". The REALLY buggered bullets shot slightly better.
I was on a prairie dog shot, Red Mist out of Glenrock, WY, a few years ago and, as usual, Johnny Barsness was my roomie. I mentioned the test and he said that he'd done the same thing. And his pulled bullets shot at least as good and probably better.
It's a small thing, but useful knowledge. Just like "ironing out" the base of sticky .308 cases with a .45ACP Tungsten-Carbide sizer or sticky .223s with a .38/357 Tungsten-Carbide sizer. Little things are handy to know in handloading.
God Bless,
Steve