Modifying the Factory Bullet

[Pdvdh]

I did it to "hopefully" guarantee good expansion.

Some cool customization going on here.

Dave,
I'm going to do the same thing with Berger VLD bullets. Are you led to believe that uniforming the meplat improves the consistency of expansion? Check out my recent experience with the 210 VLD on a Dall Sheep.
http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f92/alaskan-dall-sheep-210-berger-vld-60791/

I just ordered Kevin Cram's Meplat Uniforming Tool for .308 and .284. I have no guarantees this will help ensure consistent expansion, but I like the looks of the chamfered/deburred meplats with the V opening. It seems that should help promote expansion upon impact. Check out the photo of the trimmed meplat versus trimmed & chamfered/deburred meplat.
Review of Montour Meplat Trimmer

Anyone else have any input or experience on the potential benefits of meplat trimming for improved bullet expansion? I know it will slightly reduce BC, but that's less important than improved reliability of bullet expansion.

 

[davewilson]

Phill, we're a little off topic here, if you start another thread i'll answer your question. right now my boy is all excited, we have the tent set up in the living room right in front of the TV. we're in contention to win the best man-cave in Pa. with this set-up. gotta go!

 

[338 bruce]

I did this on my 338 rum and on game performance was good. 300 yard shot on a cow elk broke both front shoulders and it was down in 10 feet. The down side was all the meat in the front half was ruined. A second cow was shot at 575 yards hit in the back with 12"s of ruined meat on both sides. Accuracy wasnt affected. I drilled out the tip with a 1/16" bit.

 

[elkaholic]

Just wondering if I am wasting my time?

So what I did was take a .25cal 120gr Sierra GK with an oal of 1.155 and trimed it to .99 then added an aluminum tip to get an oal of 1.315 and weight of 118gr.

Why would I do this well because there are not many options when it comes to long range .25cal bullets.

The Sierra 120gr GK and the Sierra 118gr LRGK

From left to right Berger 115gr VLD/Sierra 118gr LRGK/Sierra 120gr GK

Hoping to get some feedback from the guys that make bullets.

My kind of stuff! What you will do is definitely increase the B.C. and expansion consistency. Whether or not expansion occurs at lower velocity will depend largely on how much thicker the jacket is at the tip than it was originally (if any)..Rich

 

[huffmanite]

Just discovered this site and had to respond to this thread with my first post.

Elderly gent at range I'm a member has a couple of very nice 1885 Winchester hi walls and one is chambered in 348 Winchester, a cartridge originally designed for tube magazine rifles. So, only ammo/bullets for this odd diameter bullet cartridge are only available in Flat Nose. He wanted to try some pointed bullets, so decided to make his own.

He used his home bench lathe to cut a hole in the jacketed lead flat nose and inserted what I think was a 35 grain jacketed 22 Hornet bullet. None of lead was now exposed and he had a double oglive bullet. Looked odd, but I was at range day he tried his reloads with the new bullets. The old 1885 scoped hi wall shot some pretty good groups at 100 and 200 yard targets. Gent was well pleased with its results. Shot just as good as his flat nose bullets.

I had a good chuckle when another shooter at range that day, who's known the retired gent for a long time, examined his creation and commented, "Bill, you truely have too much spare times on your hands these days.

This happened about a month ago. Elderly gent can't wait for this years deer season to try out the new bullets.

 

[elkaholic]

I love it

 

[edge]

I certainly won't say that anything won't work, but my main issue would be how accurately this can be done.

I think that the tips will probably aid expansion as small hollow points have a tendency to plug and then not expand.

I have done this for bullets in the 300 yard range, but since this is LRH we need to think of accuracy at the extremes!

IMO, the advantage of plastic tips is their relative low mass and the effects of concentricity at long range.

Berger J4 jacket thickness is within 0.0003
How accurate one can drill and insert a tip would be crucial, as well as weight and dimensional accuracy from tip to tip.

If someone used a bullet making die set and allowed for some swaging of the bullet while inserting the tip would probably correct much of any inaccuracies in drilling and inserting the tip.

I must admit that the bullets shown look absolutely beautiful and look forward to long range results

edge.

 

[tnshooter111]

I would like to see some pic of a target that has been shot with these bullets. And would love to know how they do on game. They look great!!

 

[Nape.270]

Well I shot them abour 2 weeks ago 0 load work just packed 73gr of retumbo in my .257 Weatherby ( Factory rem sps ) and put a target out at 600 yards.

My gun was not sited in for these just dialed up shot a sighter and then a 3 shot group and this is what I got.

Going to shoot some more this weekend.

 

[elkaholic]

Edge....you are absolutely correct in saying that the tip positioning is critical.......Rich

 

[Pdvdh]

If they shoot good as Game Kings without the tip, I guess the concentricity of the tip placement will have proven satisfactory.

 

[load]

i would wonder if you used a corbin swaging/tipping die to put these together weather they would fit tighter and possibly shrink you groups. i'd bet you could order rbbt tail die and custom ogive and change the shape a little also.
any how nice looking custom work!gun)

 

[Konrad]

…And you call yourself a machinist???

Beautiful work!
Perfect blending of the ogive curve.
I didn't think a "Joe" could improve on a Sierra product but man, was I wrong.

How many hours per 100 to get this level of quality?

 

[Boss Hoss]

Might consider a Juenke machine to test bullets prior to performing the work.