Making Lathe Turned Bullets

[nitrousmudbogger]

Here we are turning some brass into bullets for the 416 Barrett.

 

[ken snyder]

Really cool. do they need to be pushed through a final resizer extrusion die or just a go, no-go --I enjoyed watching, a lot!

 

[nitrousmudbogger]

Ready to load off the machine except a small tit on the back of the boat tail

 

[bigngreen]

How do they shoot gun)

 

[nitrousmudbogger]

You know I never got to shoot a one.Lol. We made them small batch and a couple customers took them all. I have one left sitting on my desk though. They told me they were much more accurate than the factory Barretts (barnes). Went from sub moa to sub .5moa

 

[JOSE A. MARINE]

I myself have made a few, buy not out of brass but made of copper, mine were accurate (more than matchkings) in my rifle. made some for a 6.5 and some for a 308.

the 308 bullets were made nearly identical to some match bullets of 180 grains, but made out of copper they weighted 166.2 gains. i have yet to check the BC...

the 6.5 bullets were made nearli identical to 140 grains match bullets and ended up weighting 123.5 grains, these ones worked sweet.....

I have not shot a lot of them, because I'm afraid they might wear the barrels a lot more than the traditional jacketed bullets.

I did considered making them of brass but I thought that the brass could be harder on barrels also. maybe next time.

copper is more difficult to machine, than brass...

what particular alloy did you used?

Joe

 

[ken snyder]

I still find turned bullets amazing! Are they turned to groove or land diameter. I was thinking of doing the same for .375' but when I started measuring bullet diameters, I found just a little over .0005 difference in manufacturers Pb jacketed bullets. I said whoa there doggys, put the brakes on and did not continue.

 

[JOSE A. MARINE]

YES, you can find different sizes, even in the same brand.. I did copied a design and used a comparator, they matched o.k.

remember with pressure, diameter can be lower than specified but never higher.

on certain 7.62 ammo I have found bullets measuring 0.3062 all the way to some 0.3082. I can only tell you to use what works in your rifle, if you are using brand X with good results, go with that same diameter. do not try to make something too exotic, remember we dont have any special rifles to try out the new bullets, and stupid... hurts...

here in mexico its very difficult for me to get nice barrels, and I for once dont want to mess with them. its also tough to get nice bullets, I know that when I run out of expensive bullets, I could still have a way out by "rolling my own".

joe

 

[ken snyder]

I'm still tossing the idea of turned bullets around. For me it's starting to look like "Corbin". However I have yet to look into sabot, years ago they were as accurate as throwng rocks! Today might be different.

 

[JOSE A. MARINE]

CORBIN SUCKS, He sent me the press about a year ago, paid in advance, and now he just wont make the dies I need, I'm in the die business myself, and need a single set of dies and then I will manufacture my own sets. he will not comply. we wont even answer my e-mails.

I dont want to buy used dies, to know real dimensions, in order to make my own. I wont sell them(that is not my bussines).

I'm thinking of buying, other brand of dies. (some are on the way).

imagine my factory, with two 1000 metric ton presses and everything in between. the equilibrium point is set at 56 million pieces, and I cant get some dies....talk about frustration!!!

or I could just buy another cnc lathe for my bullets...

lathe turned bullts will be more accurate. once I find an ideal guilding metal to make them.

Joe

 

[ken snyder]

Semi-red brass is soft but harder than copper and its machinability is sky high for copper alloys, over 90 if I remember correctly!

 

[REDHEAD]

Sorry guys , I have a hard time believing you can cut a better bullet than all the manufactures.

 

[JUDD]

Jose what metals have you tested thus far?

I been kicking around making lathe turned 7mm on a CNC for awhile.

 

[JOSE A. MARINE]

REDHEAD, the cost of a single 300 smk in 338 in my part of the world is about two dollars a piece, so go figure.

maybe they are not better but, they work very good enough for me. and cost almost nothing compared to brand new bullets.

so far I have made bullets for 6.5, 308 and 338 without a problem. even made some dies for my quality control.

I dont plan on selling them, just using them.

its just like shooting and hunting with loaded ammo, it just gets your ego pumping. imagine doing that with your own bullets.....where is your pride?

best groups are 1/2 moa. but maybe its the shooter.
haha

been using copper rods from my metal supplier, will get back to you with specs.

I' ve copied the contour of some excellent designs, but made out of copper, the bullets weight less and so far the have worked fine. even made some wadcutters to shoot 100 meters.. with excelent results..



JOE FROM MEXICO