Good day at the Range

jackie schmidt

jackie schmidt

New member
What a beautiful day. 60 degrees, not a cloud in the sky. Just enough wind to keep you honest.

I haven’t said much about it, but last Jan I ordered a complete 30 caliber bullet making setup from George Ulrich. I specified a 7 ogive, relative straight shank to be no less than .3081 on the shank with a suitable base at .0006/.0007 over.

I received everything last month. After going through the usual learning curve, I think I have it down. My friend Ed Bernabeo and I have spent the last couple of Sunday’s working with them in our 30 BR’s.

My goal was to make as good of bullet as I could buy. That is setting the bar pretty darned high, because we have some phenomenal 30 caliber bullet makers. I should say Phenomenal, with a capital P.

My bullets so far are shooting quite well, for both myself and Ed. This morning I caught a gental left to right and shot this group. Without an official measuring device, I can’t be sure what the exact measurement is, but suffice to say, it’s PDS. (Pretty Dang Small).

http://benchrest.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=23148&stc=1&d=1575258854

We also shot some score targets, and the bullets definitely know where the X is.

18 years ago, I swore I would never make another bullet. But the VFS game is getting so darned tough, I figured I would renege and give it another shot. I have done quite well shooting BIB’s and Bart’s, so I will either sink or swim.


George obviously made me an excellent set of dies. The workmanship is impeccable. The dies make exactly the bullet I wanted. It took a while to ascertain the exact core seat pressure, punch size, how much lube to use, the optimum point up distance. I have 10,000 of these jackets, (using Charley Hood cores), so the setup should last a while.

Now, if I could just find someone to pull that darn handle;)
 

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Good luck! Keep us updated as this is something I've thought about........not a lot but have thought about it ;-)
 
What are you thinking? Making bullets or shooting small? Or both?
I’ll tell you one thing; shooting a .30BR for group is tough, or tough for me. I shot a .037 at Dublin but agging for the weekend was tough and I thought I had done battle with a Mack truck by Sunday afternoon. I felt I was aging.
 
Wheaties Francis

FBecigneul said:
What are you thinking? Making bullets or shooting small? Or both?
I’ll tell you one thing; shooting a .30BR for group is tough, or tough for me. I shot a .037 at Dublin but agging for the weekend was tough and I thought I had done battle with a Mack truck by Sunday afternoon. I felt I was aging.
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Wheaties, possibly liberally sprinkled with Geritol !!
 
Remember this one?

You shot this 5 shot group with BIB Bullets, so you must be doing something right.
 

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Wayne Shaw said:
That's quite the jar adapter to tumble jackets.
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Wayne, the little gear motor turns 30 RPM, which seems about right.

When I screw the jar on, I do lock it with a strip of duct tape so it can’t come unscrewed.

I tumble the jackets for 30 minutes. After I seat the cores and let them settle, I re-tumbled the core seated jackets for about 10 minutes to re lube them to ease the extraction from the point up die.


http://benchrest.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=23152&stc=1&d=1575327404

http://benchrest.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=23153&stc=1&d=1575327631

http://benchrest.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=23154&stc=1&d=1575327902
 

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Easy way

Use cookie tray real light lube on cloth to coreseat then usr lanolin and neatsfootb oil in zip lock with lighy amt tumble 20 m9in works well
 
Looks like you're up and running, Jackie - George makes good stuff, and has plenty of knowledge, which he shares generously. Good shootin'! :D RG
 
Jackie - George set me up with pure anhydrous lanolin too. It works great and I've never had a need to change. What bullet weight did you settle on? I started with 114's and they shoot great (7 ogive Ulrich dies). But in the offseason I'm going to experiment with column height a little.

-Lee
www.singleactions.com
 
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Lee Martin said:
Jackie - George set me up with pure anhydrous lanolin too. It works great and I've never had a need to change. What bullet weight did you settle on? I started with 114's and they shoot great (7 ogive Ulrich dies). But in the offseason I'm going to experiment with column height a little.

-Lee
www.singleactions.com
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Lee, I’m making 112’s on .925 J4 jackets.

George said I could make up to about a 135 on a longer jacket in these dies, but I have always had good success with a 112. I can make a 115 on these jackets.

Maybe as I get more into it, I will try some heavier bullets.
 
jackie schmidt said:
Lee, I’m making 112’s on .925 J4 jackets.

George said I could make up to about a 135 on a longer jacket in these dies, but I have always had good success with a 112. I can make a 115 on these jackets.

Maybe as I get more into it, I will try some heavier bullets.
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With a 7 ogive, and J4, you'll probably be able to make up to about a 123 Gr. and keep the lead-line back far enough to not break the point die.:eek: I used to make a fair number of 123GR. for a hand-full of Hunter Class shooters, when <125GR. was considered light!;) Those guys were looking for maximum BC on the short jacket . . . at the ranges we shoot, though the "hunting" is fun, it's pretty much a waste of time/resources - precision rules. Presuming a well tuned rifle, BC and velocity are, "lost in the noise" of one's doping ability.:eek:;) RG
 
lead core

Since we are talking about bullet making, I have a question( a lot, to be honest..)

Will a to hard lead alloy prevent the core to fullfill the core forming die completely?

I ask because this is the situation with my last lead lot, who seems harder and more silver colored than previous lot.
 
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