New Bullet Jacket Business

Material...

I WAS a bullet maker some years ago. I'd like to think I made pretty good ones too. At the time, there was no shopping for jackets.....you bought J-4 and if you got a lot# that seemed superior you scurried out and bought all of them you could. I Juenkied a lot of bullets but never could put together a "If X, Then Y" conclusion. The "1 in 14" test is all that really mattered.
I did, however, accidentally alter the entire bullet and found it performed better on a consistent basis. I then bought competitors bullets and tried what I stumbled on with them. In all cases, the "altered" bullets seemed consistently better.
I stress relieved the bullets by tumbling them against each other in a rotary tumbler. This certainly did not change the metallurgy of the jackets, but perhaps the material in the new jackets does not build up as much stress in the swaging up process?
Thoughts?
Bryan
 
Last edited:
Bat was not shooting. So I grabbed up the Grizzly 2. I wanted to shoot some flat based bullets through it, anyway. Didn't realize it had 4000 rds till I added up the holes on Monday. Won 2 matches.......
 
"Altered Bullet"

bryan said:
I WAS a bullet maker some years ago. I'd like to think I made pretty good ones too. At the time, there was no shopping for jackets.....you bought J-4 and if you got a lot# that seemed superior you scurried out and bought all of them you could. I Juenkied a lot of bullets but never could put together a "If X, Then Y" conclusion. The "1 in 14" test is all that really mattered.
I did, however, accidentally alter the entire bullet and found it performed better on a consistent basis. I then bought competitors bullets and tried what I stumbled on with them. In all cases, the "altered" bullets seemed consistently better.
I stress relieved the bullets by tumbling them against each other in a rotary tumbler. This certainly did not change the metallurgy of the jackets, but perhaps the material in the new jackets does not build up as much stress in the swaging up process?
Thoughts?
Bryan
Click to expand...

Bryan:
How long did you tumble?
How many did you tumble at a time?
Any difference doing boat-tails verses flat base?
Were you just doing 6mm or all your bullets?
Thanks for one of your "Secrets".

CLP
 
C.L. Peterson said:
Bryan:
How long did you tumble?
How many did you tumble at a time?
Any difference doing boat-tails verses flat base?
Were you just doing 6mm or all your bullets?
Thanks for one of your "Secrets".

CLP
Click to expand...

Doc, You may want to ask what sort of media was being used...
 
Tumbling

I tumbled 500 at a time in a Thumblers rotary tumbler with a washcloth thrown in....no media, just bullets.
I did do some batches of 50 using a pickle jar with a dowel glued inside, small rag, and padded the inside of the tumbler with rags to keep the jar safe. 32 oz Surefine Kosher Dill jar or be exact:D
Tumble for about 90 minutes.
BA
 
Last edited:
And...

George, the tumbler runs 20 RPM. No core loosening evident. I would certainly not recommend a vibratory tumbler.
BA
 
Bryan , Doubt cores would loosen they are mechanically locked with taper at back end and ogive at front. Just not keen on just bullets banging the corners of the bases up. I do use the vibratory tumbler but with buffer so bullets won't bang into each other. no harm in tumbling I've left them in for hours for a test with zero change in size...now just tumble for 20 mins. or so 1000 at a time.
 
Tumbling

George, believe it or not, my original intent was to remove moly from a 5k order that was cancelled, and let the local varmint hunters shoot them! Most of the moly came off leaving a tarnished look. They shot great. Hence the testing with other bullets (naked) which seemed to show improvement as well. That is what made me think about the stresses that a bullet jacket may build up in the swaging process.
BA
 
Buffer?????

geo.ulrich said:
Bryan , Doubt cores would loosen they are mechanically locked with taper at back end and ogive at front. Just not keen on just bullets banging the corners of the bases up. I do use the vibratory tumbler but with buffer so bullets won't bang into each other. no harm in tumbling I've left them in for hours for a test with zero change in size...now just tumble for 20 mins. or so 1000 at a time.
Click to expand...

George:
What do you use as your"Buffer".
If one used corn cob media as a buffer to tumble it would also act as a final cleaner???
I don't tumble new bullets but just asking--sounds interesting--maybe??????

The people who use Molybdenum to coat their bullets just let them bang into each other while plating do they not? (Some also use small round pellets to assist with plating)

Bryan--Thanks for your quick response and the information.
CLP
 
Doc, I use rice 1000 bullets about 1/3 lb and let it rip. bullets are heavy enough to slow down vibrations and rice is large enough to not enter tip, they just kind of rotate against each other.
 
geo.ulrich said:
Doc, I use rice 1000 bullets about 1/3 lb and let it rip. bullets are heavy enough to slow down vibrations and rice is large enough to not enter tip, they just kind of rotate against each other.
Click to expand...

George, if you don't mind answering a question I'd like to know "if I were to tumble my finished bullets in a thumlers tumbler model B how much rice wood I use?" I've been making bullets for a couple of years. They shoot well probably better then I can shoot them. I learn something new every time I make a new lot. I thought to tumble them but thought it might hurt them, obviously I've been wrong. Do you prefer long grain or brown rice:)) just kidding. Appreciate the help.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
How big of a jar are you using?I would think around 1/2 lb for gallon jar. you just need enough fluff so bullets don't beat against each other..
 
I use a 3# Folgers coffee container.. It's plastic and has two little recessed areas to grab the container with. Those recessed handles act as paddles inside the container making for good tumbling. I can easily tumble 500 bullets at a time.. So I guess I'll start with 1/3# of rice.. Can you tell me what the benefit of tumbling or vibrating is without getting too deep into the weeds. I also have a huge Dillon vibrator filled with walnut media.. Which do you think is better?
 
If I may, let me point something out. Bryan got an unexpected boost in accuracy by tumbling bullets, with some cloth, to remove moly. After that, he did smaller batches and got the same result. IMO trying out new things sometimes gives us results that do not agree with what we "know". What he did had nothing to do with vibrating. Perhaps, there is an optimal range of bullet on bullet impact, or perhaps he was on an unrelated hot shooting streak when he tested the various batches.
 
Jacket lots

George, I did this with various lot #s of jackets and all were positive results. It does add time and effort to the process but seems worth it in the long run..
I've seen the word "material" used when referring to the new jackets, but have not researched enough to find a post detailing the difference in this jacket and those we are used to. Seems to me it would have to involve the swaging process itself, or internal ballistics---obturation, friction and such. Can you elaborate on this? Improvements in the BR game come slowly and this one may be a game changer.
Bryan
 
Sorry George...

Should have re-read previous posts...don't want to put you on the spot.
Bryan
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top