Is there a safe way to convert fmj to hollow point?

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shootistpd27

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I fear that in the not too distant future that our rights to carry weapons for anything other than target shooting or hunting will be taken away. I have heard that one of the ideas that the antis have is to ban hollow point ammunition. Other than doing your own reloads, does anyone know of a method to perhaps drill the tip of a fmj to make it a hollow point. It was just an idea but I was wondering if anyone else had thought of this and if they had, how can you do it safely.

Safety alert, This should not be done as the jacket could be shed in the barrel creating a barrel obstruction and possible KABOOM
 
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Just drill away...

It will be tough to get it dead center, but a drill press could probably make it pretty easy...

It shouldn't be unsafe, maybe just less accurate if not done perfectly.
 
I carry rangers now but I only stock fmj just in case the ban comes up. I dont want to lose the rounds I have. If the shtf then I can just drillem for the neighbor bustin down my door for my groceries.
 
Or you could just buy a mold that makes uniform shape and weight bullets from the git-go and cast your own without having to putz with drilling anything. Scrap lead can still be had for cheap or free.

Of course, then you have to be into reloading and set up with powder, primers, etc. But it's an option.

don't you modify the weight of the bullet by doing so, and so the pressures etc ?
Click to expand...

Yes. And getting shot-to-shot uniformity would be a real PITA, I would think.
 
The jackets on FMJ pistol bullets are designed to resist deformation. Drilling a hole won't change that. They won't expand.

Designing a correctly shaped hollow point is tough. It took the ammo companies quite a while to get it right. You can't do it at home with a Black & Decker.

Sorry.
 
I believe the main offender here would be the chance of blowing the lead core out of the jacket in the barrel if you were to drill it out.
See, FMJ bullets are swaged (?) not sure if thats the term, from the tip, and are resultantly open at the base.
HP and SP bullets are swaged from the rear, and have the hole at the tip.. so you can see.....

someone will be along and probably have more credibility than me and say the same thing..
 
DO NOT DO THIS:

There are threads on this. Use the search.

To sum up the answers:
An FMJ has the jacket applied from the front. An JHP has the jacket applied from the back. If you drill a hole in the front of an FMJ, you've created a copper tube wrapped around a lead core. And probably not bonded all that well. No-one trusts that to hold together on firing. Could even leave part of the bullet in the barrel. However unlikely that is, you don't want to touch off the next round behind it.

Besides, you now have a poorly formed hollowpoint with inconsistent geometry and weight -- having none of the science and manufacturing techniques behind it to make it perform as a hollowpoint should.

Just not worth it.

-Sam

P.S. -- And cutting an "X" in the tip of a bullet does absolutely nothing to its expansion characteristics.
 
If you are that worried about it I'd start stocking up now. I'd carry FMJ before I'd carry something modified like that. I can't imagine it being that effective and could be dangerous if you set the bullet back in the casing while drilling.
 
HP is already banned in NJ for at least carry. Ask those guys, lol.
Click to expand...

I guess legislators in NJ are under the impression that a bullet which penetrates more layers of drywall is safer to people in buildings nearby than one that penetrates fewer.

Interesting, I never thought of it that way. It's so crazy it's gotta work!
 
I'd be very hesitant to do anything involving power tools to a loaded round of ammunition. Drills cause friction and friction generates heat. Heat and gunpowder do not always play well together.

As for bullet components, I don't see why you couldn't center the bullet on a drill press or lathe and cut a cavity into it. It would reduce the bullet weight, but if you had uniform bullets and cut to the exact same depth each time, I bet you could get fairly uniform results. You could probably dial it in to change one common bullet weight into another, like a 230 gr. 45 ACP into a 185 gr....

Legally this is probably a bad idea though, as it may be considered a dumdum bullet. I'm no lawyer, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night. :D

Edit: Just read the other posts that came up while I was typing... It sounds like a bad idea to try adding a cavity to jacketed ammo. I think you could do it with cast ammo though.
 
Cut an X or file it flat into a 'dum-dum' round

Just cut an x on the tip of the bullet, that is about all it will take to help expand the lead. Or either file it down flat.:evil:
 
Exactly how does simply carving an "X" in the tip of the bullet help it expand? :scrutiny:

Here y'all go, Box-O'-Truth:
http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot32.htm

Looks like lopping the tip off only worked marginally for rifle rounds. Cutting an "X" into pistol rounds did almost nothing, except shed the copper jacket and maybe a couple petals on some rounds.

Lessons learned:
1. Cutting "x"s in bullets is harder than you might imagine.

2. It might make them slightly more effective than Ball, but not nearly as effective as modern Jacketed Hollow Points.

3. The .45 ACP did not expand at all. This is probably the result of a much thicker jacket than the 9mm.

4. The lead .38 Special shed its petals, but didn't expand at all.

5. Cutting the end off a rifle Ball cartridge will definitely make the bullet expand or break up. Would this make it more lethal? Probably. But not as much as a modern JSP (Jacketed Soft Point) bullet.

6. Reversing a Ball bullet will cause it to expand and break up. Old Elmer said that it killed game just fine. But Elmer didn't have access to modern JSP ammo. If he had, I'm sure he would have preferred it.
Click to expand...
 
Maybe I'm a cynical fool, but if more of us spent more time contacting our elected officials and voicing our opposition to any further efforts to erode our 2A rights, we wouldn't have to worry about how to clandestinely convert one type of round to another.

Seriously - if you fear the castration of our rights so badly, what makes you think that they'd stop at hunting and target shooting? What makes you think that they'd enact legislation that would make any efforts to manufacture or alter existing ammo illegal?

Take a minute and contact your legislators. Let them know (in a calm and civil manner) that things have already gone too far, and any further shenanigans will not be tolerated. Once we've gotten to the point where we have to figure out ways to turn hardball into hollow-points, we've already lost.
 
"Looks like lopping the tip off only worked marginally for rifle rounds. Cutting an "X" into pistol rounds did almost nothing, except shed the copper jacket and maybe a couple petals on some rounds."

How is that NOTHING? Now you have multiple pieces, and less penetration, which I thought was the whole point(no pun intended) of hollow point ammo. I will admit, not quite as effective as HP, but MUCH more effective than FMJ.

If it was good enough for our boys in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. Then it is good enough for me.
 
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