Seating Bullets Backwards

Anyone ever tried it? I saw a couple of posts on the Box o Truth about expansion/accuracy, and it looked promising. My only concern is that having the nose of the bullet in the case will take up more space and increase pressure. Feeding may also be a problem, but it would be a very cheap way to get steel case commie ammo to fragment/expand reliably.

I've loaded bullets backwards for years. It was John Wooters, I believe, who wrote in Handloader many years ago about how he does it. He favored using boattail bullets and loading them backwards at a velocity of 2000-2500 to have on hand for plinking loads.

I like to have a few FMJ rounds with me when I'm hunting. They're useful for popping a turkey, fox, coyote, or hog. FMJ bullets are readily available in .223, 243, and .308, but they're hard to find in .257 or .284. I shoot a lot of 7mm here in Texas and I like to load the Speer 130 gr BTSP backwards at around 2500 for vermin. The accuracy generally is good and closely appraoches what you can get with front-forward loading.

Now, your idea of pulling military FMJ bullets and loading them backwards should work fine too. Some military ball is crimped in place, so some bullet deformation might occur when you pull the bullets from the cases. Thus, accuracy may suffer. I can't say how the bullet will expand when you shoot it backwards, but I'm guessing it'll expand like a bomb.

My personal opinion is that the whole idea is more trouble than its worth. But it is certainly doable. Just be careful and load them to moderate velocities.

Five minutes before I read this post I was looking through ammo boxes and found some I loaded backwards. Obvisouly accuracy suffers some but it will work. Like dawaba said not worth the trouble though.

best done when loading subsonic, other wise waste of time and money