Making closed base bullets open based.

[flying pig]

Tried the machining open the bullet bases. Cost me a whopping $4. So worth it to try. I got two bang on at 150.2gr, one at 148.8 and one at 148.0, so obviously that isn’t going to work. This was done using a DRO to ensure 0.001” cutting depth and width. So that idea is out.

I’ll likely try the Swaging die idea next.

 

[Evanguy]

Paper patching is a solid idea and will work very well. It's easy to try, all you need is some paper.

 

[Potashminer]

A "minor" (or not so minor) thing to watch for - if you make your bullets to be fatter than when new - you likely need an expander ball of suitable size to have some sort of "neck tension" when that "new" bullet is set into the case. Richard Lee's Second Edition Reloading Manual says you want about 0.002" smaller expanded neck than is the bullet - to have the bullet stretch the brass case within the brass elastic limits when seated - get "neck tension" - if more than that - is beyond the "elastic limit" - simply stretched the brass too much - no residual tension left on that bullet. (I think).

In my case, I sized and seated some normal 0.284" bullets, thinking they would simply size down as they went into the barrel - however, that resulted in "too fat" to chamber - so I would have had to thin those neck walls, in order to use those oversize bullets - I do not own neck wall thinning apparatus any more. That might become Plan "E" or "F", or wherever I am at with that thing.

 

[Potashminer]

Tried the machining open the bullet bases. Cost me a whopping $4. So worth it to try. I got two bang on at 150.2gr, one at 148.8 and one at 148.0, so obviously that isn’t going to work. This was done using a DRO to ensure 0.001” cutting depth and width. So that idea is out.

I’ll likely try the Swaging die idea next.

A caution - if you peel off the bullet's base on a soft nose (expanding) bullet - is possibility to simply shoot the lead core out of that jacket - core exits muzzle, but jacket stays stuck within the bore - apparently might work with FMJ (lead core inserted from rear on those) to peel a bit from rear end - will hear of that "core separation" happening if someone tries to make an "expanding" bullet out of a FMJ by cutting off part of the jacket tip.

 

[bearhunter]

OP, what you're describing could work, if you take out enough of the cup base to provide a surface large enough for the pressure of expanding gasses to push against and expand the core against the jacket enough to cause it to expand/upset enough to fill the few thou you hope to.

However, there is one issue you may not have thought about.

You may end up creating an UNSAFE CONDITION.

Using "bonded core" bullets might make it OK, but nothing is guaranteed.

The unsafe condition I'm referring to is the bullet jacket being left behind in your barrel, while the lead core exits the muzzle.

This could prove disastrous if you don't notice and shoot another round, resulting in at the very least a bulged barrel or at worst, a Kaboom.

You're likely to young to remember the days when people purchased Surplus ammunition, ground off the bullet tips, until the hollow or lead core were visible, because off the shelf ammunition was either unavailable or they felt it was just too expensive.

Most got away with it. Some didn't

You would be much better off getting a die made up where you can bump up the diameter of your bullets, using your single stage press to drive the bullet up into with enough force to cause the diameter to be expanded to the proper dimension.

It's tedious, involving lubrication and a method to push the resized bullet back out of the die, but how many rounds do you want to shoot?

If you intend to shoot several thousand, then get a proper swaging system to construct your own bullets or purchase custom swaged bullets.

It may not be easy to find them, but there are people out there making them. Not cheap.

 

[I Dont Care About You]

i know this is sort of a hack way to do it but if you have access to machine tools you could bore/ream/drill and polish a .289" hole in a 1.5" long piece of 1" round stock

then turn a piece of 3/8" round bar to fit in the hole and machine a cone that is similar to the bullet taper profile (similar to a seating die)

then place a bullet in the 1" round stock hole and then put your seating die like part on top and whack it with a hammer or you can use a pressure gauge on a small press to make it more consistent then run the bullets through a .287 sizing die

And how do you propose to get the now expanded bullet out of the hole it is squished into?

 

[Evanguy]

And how do you propose to get the now expanded bullet out of the hole it is squished into?

Push them out by spacing the 1" round stock off the table or positioning it over a hole in the press table and use the pressing part to keep the bullet moving

You could drill a 1/2 hole in of plate press the bullet to size, release pressure move it over an inch press the bullet out.

Did you ever use a Lee loader for priming and depriving?

I'm mean a small hydraulic press not a.reloading.press

 

[9.3mauser]

I believe the paper patching article was in the April 1990 edition of Guns & Ammo

 

[bearhunter]

OP, a while back there was a suggestion from one of the posters to POWDER COAT undersize bullets being used in a 303Brit.

I scoffed at the idea, at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I became intrigued.

So, I took out one of my No4 Lee Enfield rifles, which shoots .311-.312 diameter bullets very well. It will shoot just about any of the older open base bullets well, no matter the diameter, even if they are as small as .308.

I have tried to shoot .310 diameter, appx 150 grain Soviet surplus ball through this rifle (solid base) and the best it would shoot was 10 inches (21cm) at 100yds.

It only takes a couple of minutes to put a teaspoon full of powder and acetone into a jar and add some bullets to shake up.

I had twenty of the surplus bullets on hand, so I coated them and put them into the oven. Lovely blue bullets were the result.

Loaded them into cases which were set aside for this rifle, with the charge of IMR3031 it prefers, and took it to the range for early morning shooting.

It still didn't shoot as well as the larger uncoated bullets but at our 100yd range, it shot all 20 rounds into a decent sub 4 moa group.

I don't believe the powder coating will ever become a tack driver and maybe tweaking the powder a bit by reducing its amount, might make it better, but I'm not desperate for bullets and I don't like pulling down my ever-dwindling supply of 7.62x54R, so that's where it will stop for me.

It may or may not work in your rifle.

 

[fingers284]

I don't believe the powder coating will ever become a tack driver and maybe tweaking the powder a bit by reducing its amount, might make it better,

The .458 rifles & bullets I talked about in my post improved the groups from over 2" with wax lubed .458 dia 405 gr slugs to clover leaf "varmint rifle" groups with the up-sized .452 slugs, it was a very worthwhile venture for my part.

 

[bearhunter]

The .458 rifles & bullets I talked about in my post improved the groups from over 2" with wax lubed .458 dia 405 gr slugs to clover leaf "varmint rifle" groups with the up-sized .452 slugs, it was a very worthwhile venture for my part.

Thanx for that Fingers.

My reply to the OP was about powder coating "jacketed bullets"

I've had similar results with cast lead, Lyman #2 Alloy, cast to 17 Brinnell hardness from a 43 Mauser and a 45-70, and 444 Marlin. Going to try it with a 577 Snider as well, hopefully before Fall.

 

[Andy]

I've chucked a few flat base 0.312" bullets and using a drill bit opened a small cavity in the base to see if they'd obturate more and didn't notice any change in accuracy and nor was I able to recover any.

It's very easy to do and to do accurately.

 

[bearhunter]

I've chucked a few flat base 0.312" bullets and using a drill bit opened a small cavity in the base to see if they'd obturate more and didn't notice any change in accuracy and nor was I able to recover any.

It's very easy to do and to do accurately.

I suspect the OP doesn't have access to a lathe or drill press

 

[I Dont Care About You]

I've chucked a few flat base 0.312" bullets and using a drill bit opened a small cavity in the base to see if they'd obturate more and didn't notice any change in accuracy and nor was I able to recover any.

It's very easy to do and to do accurately.

LOL, clearly you didn't weigh any of the modified bullets. The result will be a big weight variation ... which isn't exactly conducive to accuracy.

 

[cosmic]

LOL, clearly you didn't weigh any of the modified bullets. The result will be a big weight variation ... which isn't exactly conducive to accuracy.

LOL - Clearly you aren't aware of Andy's reloading exploits.

 

[Andy]

I've chucked a few flat base 0.312" bullets and using a drill bit opened a small cavity in the base to see if they'd obturate more and didn't notice any change in accuracy and nor was I able to recover any.

It's very easy to do and to do accurately.

I wasn't able to find any pics of the 0.312" bullet whose base I opened up but did of the 6.5 mm bullet I did. It's posted under Milsurp - Shooting the Carcano.

I used a 3/16" (0.1875") drill to open the base of the 0.264" bullet. Bullet weight is easily reduced by twisiting the drill tiny bits deeper into the base by hand, or by sanding copper away from the base on a sanding block, but I was happy when all 160 gr bullets were within one grain of each other and that was often the case after drilling.