Self made H.P.?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Reno380

Reno380

Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2017
Messages
85
Location
Florida
So I still view videos, read my Hornady book and ABC's of Reloading to continue my education on reloading, so much more to learn...but I came across this video
"" and many many more that fill the hollow with water and all kind of craziness. I don't feel this is safe and will never do this, but to educate myself I need to ask, would this not change the bullet weight for the recipe suggested as safe load from what ever smokeless powder company you would be currently using? I.E.-Hodgdon 9mm 115gr bullet 4.8gr load )suggest 10% less to start), but if I drill the bullet, the weight on each bullet could be way off, maybe like 105gr or 97gr seems impossible to drill all bullets and have same weight. Am I correct with this? Are these the crazees I read about here that helps to cause ranges not wanting reloads? Just don't seem safe. Why not just buy H.P. bullets, they will be centered and equal weight and can be looked up to properly load with your choice of power loads.
I don't even want to thank again of the video with the "Reloader" showing riflr primers can be used in pistol loads, I watched about 35 sec to long and stopped, did not want to pollute my mind with wrong methods with morons. This is why I love this site, I read posts going back 2 to 3 years on this, I have stopped with youtube for now, just my books and advice given here, Thank you members of THR!!!!! and God Bless!

Reno
 
I have done this you just wind up with a lighter bullet, if you check load data a lighter bullet is more powder. You effectively down load the round if you keep the charge for a heavier bullet.
I have seen people cut the top off a fmj rifle bullet to improvise a soft point.
 
Looks safer to do than the kit that a buddy had that recommended using a drill press to make hollow points in .22 ammo.:what: Reloading those bullets I would take the first one apart and weigh the bullet then go from there and make a safe load. Going to a load for the next HEAVIER bullet and working it up if you do not have the data is safe however.
 
It's not unusual for some people to use rifle primers in handgun cartridges. Small rifle and small pistol primers are the same size, and many competitive shooters in IPSC/USPSA who load 38 Super and 9 Major use small rifle primers in their loads because the pressures are so high. As long as one develops their load with the rifle primers, there's generally no problem.

Large rifle primers are taller than large pistol primers and it is ill-advised to use rifle primers in pistol brass because the primer might not be flush and this could result in slam-fires.
 
This is why I love this site!! I read and read, and from what I have learned so far this would be a no no, but I guess with time as I grow more in this hobby, I too may be able to do this, I am a newbie and only loaded 6 rounds so far as I got my equipment at a great deal from a REAL great member here! I owe him everything! I'm just glad to know as much as I do, and from what I am reading here on posts, I have PLENTY to still learn, and it is ok with me, I never consider myself completely taught, nothing left to learn in anything I have done my whole life. I think in a year or two I may try making my own bullets, smelting I guess it is called, but I would do it outside and with a respirator like I used when fogging when I did commercial pest control. But one baby step at a time, I still have equipment to get! I would like to get a auto powder measure next.
Reno
 
Quick answer; view videos (youtube especially) as entertainment, and not for any factual reloading hints/methods. I went on line looking at reloading related stuff mebbe in '90 or so, and have seen some hints that were OK, some that were questionable/B.S., or some downright dangerous. As a seasoned reloader I can identify B.S. on line (videos and forums) 90% of the time, but for a new reloader there's often confusion. There are many texts and manuals around, enough to keep any new reloader busy. For the most part forum members are trying to be helpful, but occasionally an old wive's tale or "parroting" will occur (just repeating something read or heard). Take what you see on youtube and read in forums with a grain of Bullseye until you can separate the B.S. out.
 
Reno380 wrote:
...would this not change the bullet weight for the recipe suggested as safe load...
Click to expand...

Yes, you can drill out the nose of a bullet to make it a hollow point. Removing some of the lead will make the bullet lighter. In general reducing the bullet weight on an otherwise safe load is not a problem.*

Of course just drilling a hole in the nose of a soft point bullet will not necessarily make it function like a true hollow point when it hits the target. This is because when a bullet is purposely made to be a hollow point, the lead core may be softer than on a hollow point, the jacket may have been grooved or otherwise weakened and the cavity may have a shape different from a drill bit.to aid in expansion.

* There are a few cartridges where going below the minimum powder charge for a particular bullet can cause a problem, but the manuals are careful to point this out.

Why not just buy H.P. bullets, they will be centered...
Click to expand...

Good question.

The only reason I could think of would be that nobody makes hollow point bullets in the size, weight and configuration that someone is looking for so they have to make one out of a soft point. But, like you noted, there's a chance that even using the shell holder on a case trimmer, the hole might not be 100% true.

Also, "drill 'em yerself" hollowpointing is not advised in the case of full metal case bullets. This is because full metal case bullets are usually made by inserting a lead core into the jacked from the bottom and opening a hole in the front of the jacket may lead to a situation where the lead core is shot out separately leaving the jacket in the bore.
 
Wow! Just Wow!!

I may try this and stuff the holes with kitchen match heads! Flaming hollow points!:what:

Of course I make my own 22 lr ammo with those also!
 
Reno 380 wrote:
...many many more that fill the hollow with water and all kind of craziness.
Click to expand...

There are documented cases of the creation of specialty hollow pointed ammunition, such as:
  • In which the cavity was partially filled with mercury and then the round finished off to look like a soft point. The idea was that when the bullet hit something solid, like bone, the sharp reduction in velocity would cause the mercury to rush forward and essentially explode the soft point into the target sending little lead and mercury fragments everywhere.
  • In which the cavity was filled with a highly toxic liquid poison. The idea was that if the bullet didn't kill the target, then like the mercury bullet, the poison would blast through the tip and poison the target.
The problem for the cottage-industry crowd is that such munitions are conceptually very easy to think up, but are very hard to actually make. You can't, for example, just put a drop of mercury in the tip of a hollow point and solder it closed because when the mercury slams into the solder, it will just pop out like a polymer tip and you end up with a superficial wound. Similarly, the nose of the poison bullet has to be sealed because you can't have the poison leaking all over the shooter, but using heat deactivates the poison, so the lead and then the jacket have to be cold worked into a perfectly water-right seal.

You'd be much better off to just make some ricin out of castor beans, drill a hole in a bb, fill it with ricin (be careful, there's no antidote) and then insert the mechanism of an air rifle into an umbrella and shoot your target in the back of the leg. Worked to kill Georgi Markov in 1978, but the second time it was tried, it didn't work and I'm unaware of any of the filled hollow point bullets discussed above ever being used outside of a movie set..
 
Ive played with hollow pointing some bullets by taking a case drilling out the primer hole a little and then putting it over the top of a bullet and using that as my guide....it works kindaish. Only reason i did it is lead non expanding bullets arnt legal for shooting here, and any lead bullet under .44 is considered non expanding.
 
I remember when Ammosmith came out with that video,personally I would just either buy a mold that cast HP pistol and rifle bullets or get the Fosters HP tool as it works very well from what I hear on some of the bullet casting forums. I picked up my first HP mold several years ago it's a NOE clone of the Lyman Ray Thompson 358156 double crimp groove bullet that Skeet Skelton liked so much in his 357 Mag. loads. It's work great for me in 357 Mag. 38 special +P as well as using the second crimp groove to load long rds. in 38 special cases.


The bullet on the right came out of a 38 snubby and I just left the gas check off as it wasn't needed an just tumble lube it. The 357 Mag. it's different ball game. Also cast up a bunch of 45ACP HP's and PC'ed them this past week form a new NOE mold.
D4KSNXD.jpg
Z88JPUT.jpg
 
I don't know. Maybe just me, but I dislike having a LOADED cartridge chucked in a trimmer, pointing at me while I drill into the end of it.:what:

But heck, nothing ever goes wrong.:oops:
 
  • Like
Reactions: mdi
No need to fill them with anything. Just make sure you use an alloy that is properly suited for your intended velocity.

index.php


Don
 
Ages ago the Dixie Gun Works catalog explained how you (not me!) could drill out the nose of a .58 minie ball and insert a .22 rf cartridge (bullet pulled? I don't remember) backwards to make a ball that exploded on contact, and that this was done back in the day in attempts to blow the other fellow's artillery caissons. (And ya know, it just might work!)
 
I would hazard to guess just about everything and anything has been tried to make bullets "more effective". If any worked some commercial bullet manufacturer would have grabbed the idea up and produced bullets that way...

I only experimented with on "home modification", I tried the reverse HBWC for "massive expansion", and that didn't work; the cavity on most would just collapse, some would fragment, with some the cavity would just clog and the bullet acted like a solid, and mebbe one out of 50, if shot totally perpendicularly to the target, soaked newsprint, it might mushroom. Looked good, but didn't work...
 
"...would this not change the bullet weight..." Yep. Alters the balance too. Doesn't work. Used to be that poor post war hunters would try to make SP's out of milsurp Ball ammo too. That doesn't work either. YouTube is for entertainment. Not one's education.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top