Make Your Own Free Bullets

[flipper35]

How to you get the flashing from the mold halves off?

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally Posted by masraum

So what do you do for brass for those? You can't reuse brass forever, right?

That depends a lot upon how you are loading it. Modern bottlenecked rifle rounds, for example, have about the shortest case life, due to the high pressures at which they operate and the resizing requirements to be able to chamber and fire them again.

These modern rounds, like the .30-'06, .223, etc. operate at the highest pressures of any cartridges. There is some variation, with some running as low as 50,000 PSI and some up over 60,000 PSI. This high pressure causes the brass to flow forward, lengthening the neck until if we don't trim it back, it will actually pinch the bullet when chambered, raising pressures considerably. The more tapered the case and the higher the pressure the faster this happens. Granted, they all stretch upon resizing, regardless of operating pressures, but these higher pressures add the "stretch upon firing" component to that, accelerating the process.

The .220 Swift is my own worst offender. It has a significantly tapered case, and it runs at the highest pressures of any cartridge I reload. I trim the mouths on them every second or third loading, and discard them when they come up on needing to be trimmed for the fourth time. So, I get as few as eight firings, or sometimes as many as twelve before I throw those away. My .30-'06's are trimmed about every fifth or sixth firing. Being a bit straighter case operating at lower pressure, most of its stretching happens in the resizing die.

Straight cases do not "grow" upon firing like this, nor do they stretch in the sizing die, so we hardly ever trim them after their initial preparation. Their problem is the crimp (we don't crimp bottlenecked cases, except in very specific applications). That crimp, when applied upon loading and blown out upon firing, eventually work hardens the case mouth and it cracks. I can usually get 20 or so reloads before this happens with my revolver brass.

The saving grace on the old black powder rounds, fired from the single shots, is that we don't have to crimp them. The only straight cased rifle rounds I crimp are for lever actions, so the bullets don't get deep seated under recoil when in the magazine. Those have about the same life expectancy of revolver cases, about 20 loadings max. The ones that don't need a crimp, however, are not susceptible to that case mouth work hardening. I don't even have to resize those cases, either, because of the very low operating pressures (maybe 25,000 PSI) involved with black powder.

So, the bottom line is, these black powder cartridge cases literally last forever. I have batches of .45-70 and .45-2.6 Sharps Straight (aka .45-100) used in my match rifles that have been fired over 90 times each. In the case of the real oddballs like this .40-70 Sharps Straight, with 200 pieces of brass on hand, my grandchildren will still be loading that batch and shooting it. It's there for the life of the rifle.

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally Posted by flipper35

How to you get the flashing from the mold halves off?

There shouldn't be any.

If you look closely at the photo of the open mold, you will see horizontal vent lines emanating from the bullet cavities. Sometimes lead will creep out into those, giving the bullet "whiskers". These are easily scraped off with a fingernail. What it means when that happens, though, is we let the mold get too hot, or we are leaving the spout on the ladle in contact with the hole in the sprue plate too long. Or both. So, if we see this, we play with the temperature in the lead pot, or we hold the ladle down on the mold for a bit less time, or maybe even pour from above the mold.

Different molds require subtle changes in technique. We very much have to "get to know" our molds. Some like to cast hot, some like to cast cool. Some like us to put the ladle spout on the sprue hole with the mold horizontal, and "roll" them over together to fill the mold, then holding the ladle over the hole for a count of two or three. Some like to be held upright, and the lead poured from the ladle held maybe a quarter inch above the sprue hole. It's very much "how you hold your mouth" sometimes, often getting a bit frustrating when trying to get good bullets from a new mold.

So, flashing is an indication you are doing something wrong. Sometimes a very simple adjustment in technique will cure it. Sometimes even our very best "magic word" won't... But we keep changing things until it goes away.

[flipper35]

Ah, maybe it is just artifacts in the picture that looks like flashing.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

< lots of interesting info>

How do you keep track of how many times they've been reloaded or when they need to be trimmed?

[svandamme]

Originally Posted by masraum

How do you keep track of how many times they've been reloaded or when they need to be trimmed?

keep your brass in batches

For rifle
You should do that anyway if you have different brand cases since every brand has it's own case wall thickness and internal volume, which will affect pressures.

30 grain of powder in a thin walled case loaded to the caliber speed you need
now change the case to a thick walled case and suddenly you have a P+ round so to speak.. higher pressure and speed.

It won't cause any kabooms yet, but if you want accuracy, you want consistency on every level.. So sort brass and keep it in batches


It's less of an issue with pistol, but it doesn't hurt to have a big old batch of same brand brass


Other then batches, you'll have to measure them, and once you know your caliber and loads, at some point you'll figure out how many firings before they need a trim.

the hotter you load the more critical things become and the quicker the case runs out.

A lot of folks only shoot service rifles at like 100 yds, and build up a load that is accurate at that range, good enough for their shooting.and lower recoil
That way they rarely have to trim and resize anything.

I shot out to 1000 yds with 3006 in a 1903A3.. I needed my velocity, more so I needed my ballistics to match the iron sights..
So the pill had to fly at same drop as M2 Ball
I got my shoulder massages after a full day of shooting

[Jeff Higgins]

Like Stijn says, the key is to keeping your brass in batches. I use MTM plastic ammo boxes and label everything. My handgun ammo is kept in 100 round batches, rifle ammo in 50 round batches.

I measure overall length of the brass after I have resized it. It stretches both in the chamber upon firing, and in the sizing die when it's pulled out and the neck passes over the neck expander button, so it's important to measure it after sizing.

Every ammo box has a label in it with the important information recorded on it. Date I loaded it, caliber, bullet, powder, primer, OAL, and details on the brass. Make of brass, how many times it has been loaded, and how many times it has been trimmed. The cases that have reached that point get "do not reload" added to the label.

On top of that, I keep extensive loading notes in a notebook. Not batch by batch notes, but just the details of every load I have ever put together. Components used, firearm(s) I use them in, velocities, accuracy from each firearm, etc. Good record keeping is the key to both success and safety in this game.

[svandamme]

I kept an xls sheet with all load data and work done per caliber . And obsetvations from shooting them.


For match ammo I sorted cases. And even bullets per weight.
My fps variation was less then 5 fps on a box of LR match ammo. That's waaaaaay better spec then even the most expensive commercial match ammo like Lapua.

But it's a huge amouny of work to get that kind of consistency. I spent most evenings for weeks.
Cleaning.sizing. Trimming. Deburrinh.Polishing . Weighing. Loading.

You feel that kind of work in yer hands after a while

[Jeff Higgins]

Back when I was actively shooting long range black powder cartridge rifle matches, I managed to win my fair share. I told anyone who asked how I did it, that I win matches in my basement, not on the firing line. Some understood, some didn't.