Wax bullets

[mr surveyor]

Hey Don .... did you ever dream up the "restrictions" for the contest?

And, on topic .... what recipe are you using for the wax bullets? And, procedure?

I'm not a caster myself, but I have bought a couple of molds for a buddy that does cast so I have molds "available". When pouring the wax recipe into the mold does the mold need to be warmed? Do you need to wait a certain length of time before dropping the bullets? Do you pour into room temp mold then chill in water before opening the mold?

Also, I'm not going to "alter" a perfectly good 158gr rnfp mold by grinding out the grease groove (even if I had the talent/ability to do it), so would that make the wax bullets less desirable to use?

And, do you use un-resized brass and "thumb press" the bullet in?

I really want to get back into this "experiment". I loaded several 38 spl with straight paraffin (and yes I know I needed "softeners), using drilled out flash hole brass, to test it out. The whole beeswax thing just seemed to make it "over budget", as well as the cost/availability of primers at the time I was playing with it. Now it's time to get back to playing.


JD

eta: my loading was to push the unprimed cases into a 3/8 inch layer of semi-hardened wax (after melting in a pan), allowing to cool then twisting them out of the flat pan and seating primers .... obviously a bit crumbley

[donhuff]

Well, I hope you knew I was full of it when I said that. BUT if you show up in Lagrange Ga. I'll buy you a steak. But it will have to be at Longhorns cause we do not have an Outback.


Recipe? I hold a candle upside down over the mold, and melt it with a propane torch. Let it drip off of the wick, right into the cavity. I could not use the sprue plate as it kept freezing the hole closed. You have to keep refilling it as it dries cause it shrinks a lot when it hardens. Then cut the extra off the base with a knife. I think the red candle worked better

I poured into room temp mold. Did chill in water cause it was taking so long. They don't drop, you have to pick them out.


I did not remove the grease groove for the wax test. I did that for regular lead shooting. That bullet has kinda narrow driving bands cause it's so short to begin with. And since I powder coat, I do not need the grease groove anymore. I would rather have as much bearing surface as I can get, to help with getting a good seal and to help against stripping the rifling when pushing them hard. Also, without the groove, they drop from the mold oh so much easier. I wish I had gone a little deeper and got the crimp groove too. That bullet can be loaded way out from the crimp groove before it gets close to touching the refiling, in a 357, actually to the point that there is not but .060-.080 still in the case. BTW that bullet also works great in 9mm and 38 super. Weighs in at 138 grains, degrooved and painted.

Yes, I used unsized brass. I did bell it and chamfer it too. Then press the bullet in by hand.

Did not know about softeners. I would not use them.

[NavyDoc76-80]

Hey don, I know you have been playing around with primers with the experiment, well I just saw on Midway, 5000 small pistol primers for $103 on sale. Add the $28.50 hazmat fee and you are looking at .0263 a piece. Plus shipping. They are Russian made by a company called TulAmmo. Do you know or anyone else know or ever used these? It's a one week sale but can't tell when it ends.

[NavyDoc76-80]

Update....sale ends 8/11/14

[akuser47]

I have they are hard primers. The ones i used seemed to be like milspec. I got a few hundred to try and they worked just had ftf in some of my.guns my aks and my ars were fine with the rifle primers. Had no issue with the small pistol but did not shoot them in my rossi 92.

[mr surveyor]

I'll be more than happy to pay the extra half cent per primer for good old American made stuff.

Maybe I'm just messed up in the head, but I've been saying it for years and I'm sticking to it .... "commie ammo is for commie guns (including components)"!

JD

[Ohio3Wheels]

I have they are hard primers. The ones i used seemed to be like milspec. I got a few hundred to try and they worked just had ftf in some of my.guns my aks and my ars were fine with the rifle primers. Had no issue with the small pistol but did not shoot them in my rossi 92.

They likely are mil spec. Tula is a major military armory for the Soviets and knowing what I do about Russian engineering etc (we used to own a Ural sidecar bike) they don't change much if anything for the civilian market.

Curt
makin smoke and raising my carbon foot print one cartridge at a time

[NavyDoc76-80]

I'll be more than happy to pay the extra half cent per primer for good old American made stuff.

JD

There lies the rub. Would you be willing to pay the extra three hundred for a Marlin, or an extra grand for a Henry? Or keep it around five hundred for a Brazilian import. It's all relevant. My last eight years working was in the textiles business. In those eight I saw what happens when Americans overall want a cheaper import over American made. Our quality was first rate so it wasn't a quality issue. Heck, we had 40% of the VAcontracts for all VA hospitals to supply scrubs, surgeon gowns, pj's etc.... It all ended up in commi hands, and their is no turning back.

[donhuff]

On my way to Charlotte I made a stop in Greenville top check out a gun show. one fellow was getting rid of all his primers, and they were all $25 a 1000. I got 4 boxes of small pistol but he did to have the large size. Later driving up the interstate I thought how dumb I was for not getting all he had, maybe 10 boxes.

I also found another guy who had some new star line brass. I got some 45 colt, and some 357 mag. That's the first NEW brass I have seen in a long time.

[Archer]

I'll buy American textiles IF the quality is up.
Thick towels that last years or high thread count cotton sheets and I'm there.

Walmart Chinese crap mostly falls apart as you take it out of the package.

Yes, I'll pay some extra for a U.S. lever but I won't pay it for a gun that doesn't have the barrel indexed correctly like the Marlin's have been for a few years after Remington bought them. Winchesters and Brownings have gotten pretty dear being produced in Japan. Good to great quality stuff but passing affordable into collector and rich guy pricing. Somehow the $200 1894 Winchester is now listing for #1300-1400 and that makes it pretty hard to justify vs. the $700 Marlin (assuming you get one that's produced correctly) or the $500 Rossi.