Longer bullet same weight swap? Safe or not?

[Zatoichi66]

I’m shy brass & powder. What i do have is some Lake City M855, which is 62 grain.

I have a few boxes of Barnes 62 grain TSX projectiles, which are all copper, and more accurate/better terminal performance than SS109/M855.

Is it safe to collet pull the M855/SS109 projectiles, leave the mil powder & seat the longer 62 gr TSX?

Or, does a longer bullet & slight decrease in case volume due to a longer projectile raise pressure?

my gut says ok, but my brain says ask....

thanks!

 

[jet_lagged]

Probably safe. But it should have higher pressures as you stated. However, I think most of the pressure increase is due to the fact that the longer bullet will likely have more surface bearing agains the barrel, so that will be the cause of the pressure increase. Try a few and see if the primers pop or mow much ejector swipe you get.

 

[acourvil]

The solids typically have higher start pressures, and will have a different bearing surface. You won't know without trying, but my get would be higher pressure. I would treat it as new load development.

 

[Zatoichi66]

Now that you point out the bullet length/pressure, i think that’s more correct than my thought—excellent point.
thank you!

 

[Zatoichi66]

The plan was to (hopefully) avoid dumping powder & make it complicated. Yes, i know M855 is going for $1/round, but these days make reloading more....complicated. Ordinarily, i would just shoot the Lake City, then reload, but powder & primers now are rate-limiting & my resupply is questionable, this seemed like a possible option.

 

[OREGUN]

Delete

 

[sheepdog697]

Is there a reason you don’t want to do a new load development?

 

[Zatoichi66]

Ease. It’s simpler to swap projectiles. Lake City powder is likely WC-846 similar to BL-(C)2, and for convenience i just wanted to collet pull & replace.

 

[brianf]

Ease. It’s simpler to swap projectiles. Lake City powder is likely WC-846 similar to BL-(C)2, and for convenience i just wanted to collet pull & replace.

we are all lazy but i value my eyes and fingers more than most

 

[sheepdog697]

Ease. It’s simpler to swap projectiles. Lake City powder is likely WC-846 similar to BL-(C)2, and for convenience i just wanted to collet pull & replace.

Okay.... fair enough

 

[KnowNothing256]

How about pulling one, weighing the powder, and reducing by a bit...working your way back up to full charge with the new bullets. Once you are back up to the full charge without blowing your face off, the process gets easier. In the short term, you have a little hassle factor and maybe a grain of wasted powder but a safer situation than just stuffing the new bullet in and hoping for the best.

This is my thought too. Won’t cost you anything but time and maybe 10-20 rounds to back down on powder and work back up. Switching from a jacketed to a monolithic projectile is a significant step. Also make sure that bullet has plenty of jump, I think Barnes recommends no less than 0.050”.

 

[Zatoichi66]

Sounds like I should just scrounge Lake City brass & do it proper.
Thanks guys!