Lazy D
Well-Known Member
That's the American spirit. Find a way to build a better mouse trap. I'm all for that. Lots of success stories of entrepreneurs having a better idea.
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Think that was his million dollar idea
QuietTexan
Well-Known Member
Vapor Trail still hand-presses bullets in-house. They came up with their design, made it, and sold a lot of them to benchrest guys.
Then they called a big company and got dies set up for the machines and now sell hand pressed and machine pressed bullets. They make 4 bullets in total I believe. I don't want to degrade them saying they do it in a garage, but they aren't a "big" company, when you call you talk to the man himself. He designed something better on their own and now a big company makes the bullets.
There are several of these custom bullet makers out there that tinker with bullet dies just like machinists tinker with reamers. It's another rabbit hole to go down.
One trick we did with Sierra 52/53g 22 cal match kings and the Sierra 70g, 6mm match kings was to trim off some of the tip on the HP, making the bullet shorter with larger Hp, did not take much.
We used a Wilson case trimmer with the case holder. You can control the length to the .001 with this case trimmer, so we loaded the rounds, then trimmed off various lengths.
We had one length that we called, "Whistlers" as they would whistle on the way to the varmint. We got this idea from Calhoun Double Hollow Points. Ground squirrels would not blow up, they just disappeared at the shot, and I am talking just GONE! We would walk out to an area where we had been shooting, and find pieces of a hide, with a foot attached, etc. My gunsmith hunting partner just could not quit laughing when he was shooting these in my 6 BR! Jack Rabbits were in their up cycle where they were destroying alfalfa farmers crops, and we shot them by the thousands. A rabbit was scattered over 15 yards! I actually shot a bob cat hin half out of a 243.
Trimming the bullet length in a loaded round with the Wilson case trimmer produces very uniform results. This would make for some very interesting results on hogs shot with trimmed Match Kings out of various calibers.
We used a Wilson case trimmer with the case holder. You can control the length to the .001 with this case trimmer, so we loaded the rounds, then trimmed off various lengths.
We had one length that we called, "Whistlers" as they would whistle on the way to the varmint. We got this idea from Calhoun Double Hollow Points. Ground squirrels would not blow up, they just disappeared at the shot, and I am talking just GONE! We would walk out to an area where we had been shooting, and find pieces of a hide, with a foot attached, etc. My gunsmith hunting partner just could not quit laughing when he was shooting these in my 6 BR! Jack Rabbits were in their up cycle where they were destroying alfalfa farmers crops, and we shot them by the thousands. A rabbit was scattered over 15 yards! I actually shot a bob cat hin half out of a 243.
Trimming the bullet length in a loaded round with the Wilson case trimmer produces very uniform results. This would make for some very interesting results on hogs shot with trimmed Match Kings out of various calibers.
When I was making benchrest bullets for the competitions, I was also shooting a lot of varmints. The 70 Speer TNT is a very accurate bullet, but I wanted something a tad heavier. So, I bought the 6mm Speer 75g HP with the Gigantic HP and the Sierra 75g HP, lubed the bullets, then ran them through the point-up die closing down the HP to various degrees to check expansion on Ground squirrels, p. dogs, and Coyotes. Just something to play with. I ended up using the Tougher Sierra 75's on coyotes and the pointed-up Speer 75's on smaller varmints. At that time, the V Max bullets were not in existance.
scpaul
Well-Known Member
VM, Years ago I saw a bobcat stalking a doe and a late drop fawn. I gave him a chance to go down a different fork in the road. He didn't so I hit him with a Texas bullseye from a fairly hot 06 with a 150 Bt. The only thing holding him together was his spine and I don't think it would have held for me to pull him off the road a 2nd time. Talk about the pink fog!!!!!!
del2les
Well-Known Member
Same here. I've been hand swaging rifle and pistol bullets for many decades, and I have experimented with numerous styles, weights, core/jacket materials, points, etc. Some gave little benefits over commercial bullets, and some were much superior. I could tailor a bullet style/weight to a specific rifle/handgun/load or for a specific intended game or varmints.
Also, I have played with various old style bullets in attempts to improve performance for a specific task. Today and when they can be found, there are far more options and better bullet technologies than many years ago, so while I do not change commercial bullets much anymore, I do modify a few for specific tasks, i.e. Turn pistol SP's into HP's or sharper points to increase BC, tip un-tipped bullets, modify 22LR's RN into FN for small game, open VLD tips into small HP's, etc.
As for powders, creating duplex and triplex loads is a very old reloading experiment, and while it is for the very advanced reloader that I have experimented and had "some" success with, one does not see it used much today. Nor are there many benefits with modern propellants.
Today with shortages, I would expect some people would take available bullets and attempt to tailor those for another purpose. As our society, economies and shortages change, these things will become more common in the future. Finding or creating a replacement for what we cannot find or too high a cost.
Sierra even sells their copper jackets for you to make your own bullets.
Maybe if you come up with something good Sierra will buy the patten off of you.
Maybe if you come up with something good Sierra will buy the patten off of you.
del2les
Well-Known Member
Yep! We have taken old, cheap 30cal 110 RNSP and swaged them into Spire SP, the old, cheap bulk boxes of 55gr flat base SP and gave them a BT design, and once, I bought a very cheap closeout of a large quantity of 9mm 115gr soft "plated" TMJ's and ran them through a .358 HP swage die to form 38 special 115 HP's that perform well.
Sierra can not keep up with production. Some items have not been produced in three years. A new design, unless it has military or police application would be a pipe dream.
del2les
Well-Known Member
Bob Wright
Well-Known Member
Tinkering probably led to many of the earlier patents. Experimentation and accidental discoveries along the way are the basis of many patents, regardless if it solved for the original invention. Guys/gals in garages fooling around with a hobby and made discoveries.
It's Merica!
It's Merica!
Tracker, we came up with a 6mm 85g HP, Low Drag bullet that was incredible. The boat tail was as long as a Berger 105 with a 12S ogive design, almost as long as a Berger 105 with a tremendous hollow cavity between the top of the lead core and the tip of the HP. The bullet shot incredible with a 10 twist being the absolute minimum under the very best of circumstances. The bullet bucked the wind extremely well, with great speed due to weight, and a large hollow cavity ensured massive expansion on varmints with application to target shooting a given.
I sent 50 of the 85's to Sierra after a conversation with them, but never heard a word. Gene Harwood, NBRSA director, and I were playing with the design, he got hooked on varmint hunting after he quit the competitions.
I sent 50 of the 85's to Sierra after a conversation with them, but never heard a word. Gene Harwood, NBRSA director, and I were playing with the design, he got hooked on varmint hunting after he quit the competitions.
