Tuesday, December 05, 2017

A fine gift for Sen. Schumer?



8 comments:

DougM said...

Thanks, Rodge.
Yeah, like the man said, do not try this.
Home reloading is a tolerably hazardous hobby (take a class or read a book),
but deviating from reloading manuals is downright foolhardy.
Million$ have been spent developing those manuals, and even I am not arrogant enough to think I know better.
Y'want a more effective round? Try more bullet types, or buy a bigger gun.
Buy a bigger gun, anyway — y'never know what it'll take to down a space alien or commie invader or an escaped rhino or a herd of robot milk jugs or something.

Rodger the Real King of France said...

Don't have to try it; this guy already did it for me.:}

poletax said...

I've loaded 148 gr hollow base wadcutters bakerds since around 67'-68'.

drew458 said...

Sorry, but this video is really faulty logic.

Any flat nose bullet will have more immediate entry channel cavitation. The larger the meplat, the more the effect. This is why elephant hunters use "blunts"; they hunt at short ranges and want a "stopper", and why a round nose hunting bullet is often much more effective than a spitzer. The pointy bullet only gives you extra range, even though both styles are about equal out to 250 yards, which is about the ethical maximum range for most of us big game hunters.

There is a lot more science involved in bullet making than just putting some lead into a copper cup. All kinds of annealing, controlled hardness, interior ridges, shapes etc. The FMJBT shattered because the heel was not designed to sustain impact. It's designed super hard to hold onto the bit of lead inside it. Hard brass is brittle. The bullet fired facing forward is a FMJ, and all it does is tumble. A hunting spitzer would have nearly blown that gelatin block to bits. Apples and oranges.


I'd like to see a gelatin test of a reversed HBWC. These are target bullets, made extra flimsy, to work at very low velocity and low pressure. More than a couple of grains of Bullseye powder and the chamber pressure will blow them to shreds in the barrel. Been there, done that, and now I only use plated pure lead DEWC, which can be loaded up to full magnum pressures and speeds. They're total meplat, and cut a massive hole in things.

Rodger the Real King of France said...

Drew? The guy demonstrated. Where does faulty logic come in?

Drew458 said...

Maybe not the best choice of words. But if you happen to only have open base military FMJ bullets on hand, then I suppose you could do this to make some kind of short range hunting bullet out of them. But it is a pretty bad idea under any other circumstance.

I guess my point was that nearly any kind of expanding hunting bullet will do a better job, and a RNSP will put either of his bullets to shame.

I think his concern about excess pressure at the top of the shoulder when the bullet is seated backwards may be faulty. It has been my experience that the blast from setting off just the primer is enough to expand the brass and push a jacketed bullet more than an inch down the barrel, fully engraving the rifling. While this only takes a tiny slice of a millisecond, it still happens before the powder is burning all that much. Opinions vary; this is an old debate on some ammo loading forums. However, certain bullets in certain cartridges are seated with quite a bit of the shank and heel of the bullet down in the case (eg 6.8SPC) and it makes no difference. No matter the shape or the depth, the bullet is a piston and the powder gas will push it right along.

As to flattened primers and split case necks, well that is his fault. Seating depth, bullet jump distance to the rifling, etc ... you can't just use the same powder charge willy-nilly even though the bullet weighs the same forwards or backwards. My guess is he seated long and jammed the heel into rifling. That will always spike pressures. OTOH, split case necks are most often due to overly hardened brass from too many resizings. Flattened primers can be a pressure sign, but they can also be from excess headspace, where the cartridge has too much wiggle room in the chamber.

As they say everywhere, "don't try this at home".

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Rodge. That was both interesting and well done. I hadn't actually seen that before. Not that I was planning to do that, but I'm leaning toward "find a better round design for your intent" than I am toward "here's an internet hack that might work for you."

Trevor

Wilbur said...

Old Proverbs:

Know how to double the effectiveness of a bullet? Fire a second one.

Ammo is cheap; life is expensive.

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