deputy125

got me to thinking.......is this a poor boy way to make a tough bullet.....sort of like a "barnes solid" in that she is tough?

i have no idea what a barnes solid is made of....can't be copper.

tx gun runner

Most bullets jackets are 95% copper and 5% zinc and most brass is 70% copper and 30% zinc . If you want to soften brass , heat it cherry red and drop it into water and to harden it let it air cool . It is the opposite of steel . I think Barnes solid is 100% copper so it deform easy and not come apart .

Tom W.

One of the swaged bullets made from a .40 S&W case

deputy125

sheepdog

...dang, Earl!!! wish all expansion would be that good...that's impressive!!!

XLCH

Is that the best one or are all of them that nice?

Tom W.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/forumdisplay.php?f=41

This is one that was shot into a sandbank, There's more pics and info at the website. I'm hoping to get one after tax time....

Grapeshot

This gentleman is doing what I've been doing since 1989. My procedure is slightly different. I aneal the cases first, then drop a 175 grain .40 caliber soft cast lead boolit into the case and run it into my Corbin Swage die to bump it up to .45, then I run it into a point forming die to form the nose, either T/C or RNFP. Since the brass was anealed in the first step the bullets fired out of my Colt Anaconda will expand quite nicely when they hit peanut butter jars or hogs. Hollow points can also be produced using swage dies with the propper internal or external punches.

There is a gent over on www.castboolits.gunloads.com/swaging that will make up a set of dies to transform 9mm or .40 S&W cases into jacketed bulets.

tx gun runner

Anealing brass is a great way to soften brass for forming it into something different , but how do you control expansion , since all brass from different company's have different mixes of medals and thickness too . The factory jackets are a lot thinner and have a special alloy to expand at a given fps and targets . Shooting a bullet into sand is not my way to test a bullet for hunting or defence . I think jackets made from spent brass is a super idea but a lot of work over a cast bullet if shot under or around 1000 fps . Now like a 44 mag for over 1100 fps I can see it for big game maybe .

This is how I test my loads and this is the stuff I just got in 3/13 , which is FBI over run

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiD3nGJvxmE

Tom W.

Indeed.. But sometimes all one wants to do is kill paper and time. Not everything is made to hunt with. The fun is in the shooting......

tx gun runner

That is why 90% of my loads are cast bullet that zip threw the air at 750 fps and go ding on a steel target . I only use jacket bullets for serious hunting and or self-defence .

Tom W.

I'd say 95 % of my handgun loads are my own cast, with a few JHP's for my .357.. and a very few for my .45...