Ok, For Once, and Evermore....

[Blaine]

Does taking millimeter off the top of a FMJ make it mushroom any better?

[Merle]

Somewhat, but it also increases the POSSIBILITY of squirting the core out and leaving the jacket stuck in the bore.
Bad things can happen with the next shot.

[Blaine]

Somewhat, but it also increases the POSSIBILITY of squirting the core out and leaving the jacket stuck in the bore.
Bad things can happen with the next shot.

I've heard that.....

[Chuck 100 yd]

Somewhat, but it also increases the POSSIBILITY of squirting the core out and leaving the jacket stuck in the bore.
Bad things can happen with the next shot.

+1 on that warning friend. Most FMJ bullets , not plated bullets, have exposed lead at the base, removing the nose jacket is asking for failure.

[1894cfan]

LONG time ago I got one of those HANNED LINE dies that stuck the round up through the top of the die and left the tip of the bullet exposed and file of the exposed tip of the bullet. Did that with a Winchester white box of .308 FMJs, HAD NO PROBLEMS OUT OF A RUGER M77RSI BOLT ACTION RIFFLE! The first deer I ever took I used one of those rounds with the FMJ pulled and substituted a Horndady 150gr Spire Point bullet with the nose filed down, nailed a white tail doe with a chest shot, missed the heart. Doe went 20 feet and fell over! HTH

[jnyork]

Does taking millimeter off the top of a FMJ make it mushroom any better?

Why bother?

Just get some bullets that will do the job as they come out of the box.

[Blaine]

Does taking millimeter off the top of a FMJ make it mushroom any better?

Why bother?

Just get some bullets that will do the job as they come out of the box.

Because the FMJs are about half the price?
.45acp Hardball are just fine the way they are.....My 150gr FMJ 308s not so much...

[mikld]

I believe this is a holdover from post WWII when hunting ammo was harder to get than military surplus FMJ. I have no idea if it works because I started reloading about 30 years after WWII ended and could find all kinds of bullets...

[Ray]

Deleted.

[Merle]

I don't have any answers to your question but needing garand safe pressure hunting ammo at the last minute before deer opener has found me snipping and filing the noses of 8 to 16 old lake city and greek ball in seasons past and just lately prvi partizan new ball....the nay sayers preach the surety of irresponsibly inhumane "ice pick" wounds...... i say hogwash and twaddle !..... a 150 grain ball at 2800 fps in the armpit of a deer will simply snatch the soul out of it.....over in nubia, they cull huge pachyderms, often whole herds at a time with sks's and f.a.l's..... the only reason i even bother to snip and file is to comply with the possum and carp constables no fmj prohibition

But did you ever actually shoot a deer to see if your theory is correct?

[walks with gun]

Sure thy'll kill game, eventually, somewhere they can't be found. I think folk who hunt with FMJ ammo should be shot in the testicals with said round.

[handirifle]

I don't have any answers to your question but needing garand safe pressure hunting ammo at the last minute before deer opener has found me snipping and filing the noses of 8 to 16 old lake city and greek ball in seasons past and just lately prvi partizan new ball....the nay sayers preach the surety of irresponsibly inhumane "ice pick" wounds...... i say hogwash and twaddle !..... a 150 grain ball at 2800 fps in the armpit of a deer will simply snatch the soul out of it.....over in nubia, they cull huge pachyderms, often whole herds at a time with sks's and f.a.l's..... the only reason i even bother to snip and file is to comply with the possum and carp constables no fmj prohibition

But did you ever actually shoot a deer to see if your theory is correct?

We shot deer in Wast Germany, with military 5.56 rounds, (in 1974) so yes they will do the trick. One doe just jumped and fell over dead.

Just 3 years ago I shot a buck with a 308 using 150gr Nosler Etip that DID NOT expand. It was a 308 hole through and through. In Noslers defense, it was a low velocity round and the shot was at 180yds.

The buck ran 50 yards with a blood trail I could have followed with my eyes closed.

Besides, deer are not super animals, and a hole in both lungs will cause them to die, quickly. There are a whole lot of Germans that are no longer of this earth that are a testimony to that.

[walks with gun]

In This part of the country, the woods and brush, not to mention swamp grass, are so thick dead deer just seem to disappear unless they leave one heck of a blood trail. If they aren't found quickly they'll either spoil or a dishonest other hunter will scoop them up. Northern Mn. has so danged many hunters come november it would be hard to throw a rock and not hit one in some locations. It's just plain wrong outside a survival situation to use FMJ ammo.

[BrianSH]

Blaine,
I think Paco had an article about this. Also he said that fmj had a hollow tip and that knocking off a bit was good when the expensive stuff was not available.
I would like to knock the tip off a large batch of fmj 9mm I've stocked up on over the years, but I don't have the eqpt to grind it off square and perpendicular. - Brian

[Carlsen Highway]

Here in New Zealand for many years after WW2, .303 ex-mil FMJ ammo was very cheap (used to sell it by weight) and also the government used to provide three .303 cartridges for every deer or pig tail that was handed in. (To keep numbers down.) And everyone had .303's.

It was common for people to clip the end off .303 FMJ ammo with wire cutters to help them mushroom better. From memory it was as much as an eight of an inch. People also made jigs and drilled holes in the end of them to make hollowpoints. People knew not to clip too much off, or risk the jacket being left in the bore, but I have honestly never met or heard of anyone this happened to.

I have talked to a deer culler (professional hunter) who used to clip the noses off .303 ammo, and he gave up doing it after figuring out the deer were dying just as quick just using normal FMJ. But then you are talking about a bunch of men who all changed from .303's to using .222 Remingtons on red deer in the 1960's, because they also killed deer just as well too.

The moral of the story is that its not hard to kill deer with any kind of bullet I suppose.

I have always read between the lines of the stories about using ammunition like this, that it really didn't make much difference. But the .303 also had a reputation for being unstable once it hit tissue so the .303 as an example might not be applicable to other FMJ bullets in other calibers.

Thinking about it, if I was using FMJ bullets I would shoot them in a different spot. I wouldn't take lung shots in thick bush, I would shoot high shoulder shots or neck shots.