PDA

View Full Version : Waxing Off Topic?



Green Frog
10-13-2011, 07:45 PM
OK, this isn't about lead bullets, but it is related. Does anyone here know what the "alloy" is for wax bullets? As memory serves, paraffin was the base, but do I need to add anything to toughen the wax or make it more pliable? What I have in mind is making wax bullets for indoor practice like Bill Jordan used to demonstrate. As always...

TIA ~ Froggie

trk
10-13-2011, 08:49 PM
Don't know, but there are hard and soft waxes. Carnuba added to the paraffin base would certainly harden it. How much? Hmmmm.....

geargnasher
10-13-2011, 09:02 PM
I know it's not what you asked, but why not try Gluelits? Less messy and can be reused a few times.

Gear

303Guy
10-13-2011, 09:10 PM
I think it's bees wax and candle wax 50-50. Done it and it works. Lay some aluminium foil on the tray and pour to depth required - about one diameter I think. Load by pressing case mouth down into the wax sheet and twist off. The foil separates it from the tray base. Ummmm .... primer only as propellant.

geargnasher
10-13-2011, 09:17 PM
I think it's bees wax and candle wax 50-50. Done it and it works. Lay some aluminium foil on the tray and pour to depth required - about one diameter I think. Load by pressing case mouth down into the wax sheet and twist off. The foil separates it from the tray base. Ummmm .... primer only as propellant.

Might try priming after the wax so the air can vent through the flash hole and not trap pressure and tend to push the wax plug back out. I tried loading some primed cases for fun once with some Felix lube I was pan-lubing with, had to poke a hole through the wax with a toothpick to get them seated flush.

Gear

williamwaco
10-13-2011, 09:45 PM
Many, Many years ago, I read an article about wax bullets that recommended priming a case and pressing it into a block of paraffin to cut through the block and fill the case with the wax. I tried it. It did work but I found it was not nearly as much fun as I expected. And it makes a terrible mess of your revolver.

Have no idea what would happen if you used them single shot in an autoloader.

gray wolf
10-13-2011, 09:53 PM
May want to enlarge the flash holes a tad so the primers don't back out.
Last time I did this I was in my early twenties, probly right after I did some cave painting. Wow a long time ago.

Sonnypie
10-13-2011, 11:34 PM
I don't know if it's possible to find anymore, but dental wax used to be hard. Harder than regular paraffin anyway.
Close as I ever came to wax bullets was a guy I knew at work.
He and his wife used to enjoy an evening sitting on the couch, shooting wax bullets into the fire place.
They were certianly odd ducks.

303Guy
10-13-2011, 11:48 PM
They work great single loaded in a autoloader. The 1911 abd the Star DKL chamber a boolit-less case from the magazine just fine (I had a DKL).

94Doug
10-14-2011, 12:06 AM
I thought I read once that straight paraffin was used.

Doug

Sonnypie
10-14-2011, 12:16 AM
Well, looky here what I found! (http://www.americanrifleman.org/ArticlePage.aspx?id=2294&cid=32)

http://www.americanrifleman.org/ArticlePage.aspx?id=2294&cid=32

Buckshot
10-14-2011, 01:20 AM
.............Probably 48-50 years ago I suppose it was, I was in the back yard with my Winchester M67 single shot rifle. I recall it was a pleasant sunny day. I knew better then to shoot 22's. This was the in suburbs and while no one batted an eye as my buddy and I would carry our rifles out in the open while walking the 8 blocks to the grape vineyards, SHOOTING 22's in the back yard would have been something else!

At his late date I have no idea how I happened to think of shooting wax boolits? My dad had a very nice 24x30' shop in the back yard. His hobby then was repairing radios and TV's for friends and neighbors, plus he had some kind of license and would spend a couple hours in the evening pounding his telegraph key. But I digress. He also did a lot of wordworking and in one of his workbench drawers he had several boxes of parrafin. I know now it was to wax his saw blades, but I glomed onto a slab and it became my boolits.

At that time mom still had a wringer washer and used a clothesline. Still recall those board stiff Levi's :-) Dad had been a 2nd class dental tech in the Navy at the hospital in San Diego. I suppose when he got out, as a going away present the Navy had given him several of those heavy cream colored fancy wool hospital blankets. Heh, right! The ones with the wide blue stripe at each end and USN above the stripe. One was draped over 2 wires on the line, which was next to his shop. I drew a big bullseye on a couple sheets of paper with a crayon and used a nail to stick it to the blanket, right above the USN.

With a pair of pliers I'd pull out the boolit (and the powder too, or some of the powder, but don't recall) and then plowed the casemouth into the block of parrafin. I shot through most of a box of 22's (don't know now if they were shorts, longs or LR's). My 5-6" crayon circle was fairly well used up. What was terrifying to the young lad that I was, was that the wax boolits went through BOTH ends of the hanging blanket AND impacted against the yellow stucco wall of dad's shop! I sure don't know what I was thinking would happen, but not that and I KNOW I wouldn't have done anything to incur dad's wrath, as a couple passes of his belt applied to one's bum would stand a young boy in good stead for a considerable length of time. [smilie=l:

After the thoughts of running away from home, or confessing my sins and begging for forgiveness (which would have seen the rifle disappear as I wasn't supposed to have it out without dad in attendance), I decided to play "unaware". I knew those blanket's were kept in mom's cedar chest. The blanket was dry so I folded it up and put it down on the bottom under the other 2 and dad's Navy uniforms. You know I don't believe anything ever became of it? I'm sure I'd remember if anything had. It's possible since those blankets were seldom ever used I may have been married and gone before it was ever discovered?

................Buckshot

DLCTEX
10-14-2011, 06:26 AM
Maybe they thought wool moths got to it? One made a hole in a Stetson hat of mine in a closet.

Green Frog
10-14-2011, 10:26 PM
Well, looky here what I found! (http://www.americanrifleman.org/ArticlePage.aspx?id=2294&cid=32)

http://www.americanrifleman.org/ArticlePage.aspx?id=2294&cid=32

Sonniepie,

YOUDAHMANNN! :drinks: That's exactly what I needed. Thanks very much to you, and to all others who responded with helpful suggestions. :mrgreen:

Regards,
Froggie

429421Cowboy
10-15-2011, 01:29 PM
I have used canning wax+red wheel bearing grease+a few crayons poured into a plastic container then i use a 7mm Mag case cut off on both ends to push out a pile of bullets while the wax is warm, resulting in a bullet around .460 which is easy to push into an unprimed .44 case with the flash hole spun out to 1/8th inch then punch in a magnum pistol primer. I introduced my young cousins to shooting pistol with these as well as getting my girlfriend comfortable before moving to mid range loads. I like pre-cutting them as it makes for faster reloads and easier transport. Use these with caution, i was in Roundup, Mt, a few weeks ago right after a cowboy fast draw event and i was told that a gentleman shot himself in the foot and it resulted in a broken middle toe THROUGH his cowboy boot. We have used them to shoot mice and targets and i do believe they would leave a h**l of a welt! They also would be handy for keepin critters outta the garden[smilie=1::redneck:
But thats what Sonny already said:smile:

Sonnypie
10-15-2011, 11:54 PM
Now ya made me curious, Cowboy.
I have to go mic a crayon to see what caliber it might be. :lol:

I be guessing 30-32? Maybe as far as 9mm-36 cal?
Then again there is those big ones... maybe 410-28 guage?

You shoot red ones, and I'll shot blue ones, and... :bigsmyl2:

If you leave the paper on, does that make it a paper patched wax boolit?

geargnasher
10-16-2011, 12:45 AM
Now ya made me curious, Cowboy.
I have to go mic a crayon to see what caliber it might be. :lol:

I be guessing 30-32? Maybe as far as 9mm-36 cal?
Then again there is those big ones... maybe 410-28 guage?

You shoot red ones, and I'll shot blue ones, and... :bigsmyl2:

If you leave the paper on, does that make it a paper patched wax boolit?

[smilie=l:[smilie=l: You know what's weird?.....I'm thinking paper-patched crayons might be a really good idea!

Gear

303Guy
10-16-2011, 12:48 AM
You know what's weird?.....I'm thinking paper-patched crayons might be a really good idea!Me too! :mrgreen:


Maybe they thought wool moths got to it? One made a hole in a Stetson hat of mine in a closet.Hee hee!:bigsmyl2:

geargnasher
10-16-2011, 12:50 AM
OK, just went and mic'd some dollar-store crayons (not Crayola brand), the body is EXACTLY .311", the paper makes them .321"! Sounds like a good experiment for .32 caliber pistols. Maybe I'll have to try that with my old .32 S&W Long revolver.....

Gear

Sonnypie
10-16-2011, 01:12 AM
There you is.
I was hoping you jump in here, Gear.

Okey, in the interest of science, and the betterment of my fellow man (you too, Mrs Gearnasher),
I went and got some crayons from Grandma's crayon box. (We watch kids, and in fact have some friends twin daughters sleeping over tonight.)
I got .330 on a turquoise blue one. (normal sized)
And.. hold on...I had to get my pocket knife out and peal back some paper. I got .320 without the paper. But found this one had a double wrap of paper... :???: Quality control in the crayon factory ain't what it use to be, I guess.
And I got .543 on a big fat type. Them are so they don't break so easy.
I got .540 on the part that was bare.
So there is some leg work for you fellers (you too, Mrs Gearnasher), that maybe you can use.
I'm thinking maybe a 32 caliber wax shooter could do well with one of those big boxes of crayons for boolits.
But that 540 is going to take something a bit more chunky. Hummm....

And no fair shootin all the truncated cone ends first! :lol:

Ya know, I type a lot slower than you.
Are you using more than 2 fingers?
That's cheatin, ya know.

429421Cowboy
10-16-2011, 02:27 AM
I wonder about the hardness of crayons though? I'm thinkin they'll work really well if they can be loaded without breaking. I also have made primer powered .177 pellet "adapters" for my .44 but thats a different thread:Fire:

41mag
10-16-2011, 05:04 AM
Back in the late 60's my pop loaded up some wax boolits into some '06 cases thinking some indoor practice would be a hoot. We have a 24' wide den attached to a 16' wide screened in patio on back of the house. He set up his target in the doorway going out onto the patio, and let loose with a few of them.

Like the wool blanket story, they went right on through his cardboard box target, proceeded through the screen, and one or more of them hit and broke a window out on a neighbors shop three houses down.

He said he could not believe how well they actually shot and had it not been for the broken window, he might have kept right on going with them. The hard part he said, was going down and explaining to the neighbor how his window got broken. But once he did the neighbor was wanting all the details so he could make some up.

9.3X62AL
10-16-2011, 07:33 AM
I'm so glad this thread isn't about manscaping.

kelbro
10-17-2011, 06:20 AM
I remember as a kid when my uncle decided to try his quickdraw moves in the house. Just a wax bullet, right? My aunt almost skinned him when he drew against the console Magnavox and the picture tube exploded into a million pieces!

alfloyd
10-17-2011, 06:57 AM
"picture tube exploded into a million pieces!"

TV picture tubes are/were vaccume tubes, therefor they will implode, not explode. :)
Spelling may be off, never could spell very good. :)

But I think that you would have a hard time telling the difference.

Lafaun

9.3X62AL
10-18-2011, 10:44 AM
I'm sure the spousal explosion would put any picture tube destruction in the shade.

Echo
10-18-2011, 11:09 AM
I remember one time the Sheriff of Bexar County, Texas (San Antonio) had a riot on his hands. Inmates were out of their cells, burning mattresses, &cetera. Sheriff told them to get back. They wouldn't. He drew his gun. They still wouldn't. He shot a couple - with WAX Bullets! DANG! That STINGS! Back into the cells, and the riot was over.