Finally got around to trying these powderless wax bullets: the primer alone is what sends these downrange. I began by taking some old Dominion brass whose primer pockets were getting too loose for regular reloading, and drilled out the flash holes using a 3/32in (2.4mm) drill bit. I used a dremel and held the brass with a grippy set of cheap gloves. Those are CCI small pistol primers, btw. I melted the wax at 300 in the oven for about 12 minutes, and used enough to make it about 1/2in deep. My first efforts weren't good, as the wax hadn't cooled enough: the top was solid, but underneath the wax was still liquid. It wasn't working, so I remelted the wax and started over. I let it cool off more and tried again, this time with better results:
I tried turning the case, then breaking it off with a sideways rocking motion, but found many times that just left a 38 sized plug of wax in the pan. I had better luck pushing them in, letting it cool, then just rocking them sideways and lifting them out. Some of them, when pushed into the wax, slowly sprang back a ways- I guess the air trapped in their was expanded by the residual heat? Some others didn't work so well: they just broke off part way. I'll just shoot them off:
A larger pan would have been easier to work with, but would have required me to melt more wax. I was only making up 50 rds so didn't need a large pan. I used 1 block of parowax, which was divided into 4 sections, I broke off 3 sections and melted that much, and still had leftover wax. The blocks came in 3/4in blocks, and I only wanted 1/2in, so I poured off the liquid wax until I had it down to half inch.
You can see the red magic marker I used to identify these as drilled out and not for use other than for wax rounds. After I shoot them, but before decapping, I'll spray paint the heads with day-glo, as the sharpie is already coming off. When I get up to the range to try these, I'll take pictures and let you know the results. I have no idea what range they'll be effective at, or how accurate, but then again, this is a "fun" project, so I'm not too concerned. Hopefully I'll shoot these soon, but I'm waiting for the road up to our range to dry out. Right now, it's impassable except for 4WD.
And here's my Victory that I'll be using them in:
I tried turning the case, then breaking it off with a sideways rocking motion, but found many times that just left a 38 sized plug of wax in the pan. I had better luck pushing them in, letting it cool, then just rocking them sideways and lifting them out. Some of them, when pushed into the wax, slowly sprang back a ways- I guess the air trapped in their was expanded by the residual heat? Some others didn't work so well: they just broke off part way. I'll just shoot them off:
A larger pan would have been easier to work with, but would have required me to melt more wax. I was only making up 50 rds so didn't need a large pan. I used 1 block of parowax, which was divided into 4 sections, I broke off 3 sections and melted that much, and still had leftover wax. The blocks came in 3/4in blocks, and I only wanted 1/2in, so I poured off the liquid wax until I had it down to half inch.
You can see the red magic marker I used to identify these as drilled out and not for use other than for wax rounds. After I shoot them, but before decapping, I'll spray paint the heads with day-glo, as the sharpie is already coming off. When I get up to the range to try these, I'll take pictures and let you know the results. I have no idea what range they'll be effective at, or how accurate, but then again, this is a "fun" project, so I'm not too concerned. Hopefully I'll shoot these soon, but I'm waiting for the road up to our range to dry out. Right now, it's impassable except for 4WD.
And here's my Victory that I'll be using them in:
