cast boolits with paper in the mold?

[John in WI]

I'm wondering if anyone has heard of this trick, or if it's internet BS

Someone said that you can use a piece of paper, clamped in the mold across the tip, and when you fill the mold, the paper supposedly leaves a thin "cut" through the tip to help in expansion. The claim is that since there would be no oxygen in the mold, the lead would cool before the paper turned to ash.

Has anyone heard of it, or better yet, tried it? Of course I read this AFTER I cooled down the lead pot for the weekend!

[Love Life]

I have seen it done with aluminum foil, but not paper. If I recall I even read about it in one of the gun rags.

[badbob454]

this would cast out of round boolits , however . it should work but definatly would need to size boolits and check weight also ...

[geargnasher]

Old trick, but using aluminum foil to make the split nose.

Gear

[.22-10-45]

Hello, John in WI. This was practiced long before net was ever thought of..if you look in some of the early editions of Ideal handbooks at end of 19th century, you will see illistrations of this practice. Paper was kept back a ways from nose parting line. There was an old trick written up in one of the 1970's American Rifleman magazine..completly seperating cavity with thin paper in handgun loads..when sized paper nearly invisible..competetors would slip one of these in a friends box & watch his face when two holes apppeared on his target!

[Coffeecup]

It works well, though I've never tried it in any high-velocity loads (>1400 fps). I used thin paper about 1/4"-1/2" (depending on nose length) set back about 1/8"-1/4" from the nose. You do want to be careful to keep it in the same position from pour to pour to avoid introducing yet another variable.

[John in WI]

that's interesting!
I need to give it a try with my new Lee SWC .38 mold. I have a pretty soft alloy, and the speeds will be around 900fps, so I'm guess it would expand, but probably not fragment at those speeds.

By saying "it works well"--you mean it opens up/expands? I guess the only way to find out is to load some and shoot them into some water jugs and wet phone books and see!

Anyway, that sounds like a neat trick. I'm going to have to try and find the original articles on the subject.

[Wolfer]

I believe John Haviland had an article in hand loader some time back. With tweezers he laid a piece of alum foil between the mold blocks on just the nose. Had several expansion test pictures.

Just found it. Handloader. June 2009. NO 260. Page 44

You should be able to get on the website and read the article

[MT Gianni]

Hello, John in WI. This was practiced long before net was ever thought of..if you look in some of the early editions of Ideal handbooks at end of 19th century, you will see illistrations of this practice. Paper was kept back a ways from nose parting line. There was an old trick written up in one of the 1970's American Rifleman magazine..completly seperating cavity with thin paper in handgun loads..when sized paper nearly invisible..competetors would slip one of these in a friends box & watch his face when two holes apppeared on his target!

Sept 67 IIRC. [I was wrong and can't find the copy of the article I thought I had.] The paper used was old check stub ends. I am sure that they were thicker back then.

[John in WI]

Here's the Haviland article: http://www.riflemagazine.com/magazine/PDF/hl260partial1.pdf

His tests are pretty impressive--he's listing .545" as the expanded size of a .30-30 from his split-tip! And still getting 11" of penetration. That's what I would call a "wound channel".

Of course, it's going at about twice the speed I'm thinking of trying it on (1600fps vs. ~800fps from my .38) but still, seems like it would be worth a try.

[Coffeecup]

that's interesting!
By saying "it works well"--you mean it opens up/expands? I guess the only way to find out is to load some and shoot them into some water jugs and wet phone books and see!


"Worked well"=expanded to the base of the paper strip, and in the .38 didn't always exit from a coyote.

The loads I used (.38 spec at about 850 fps or so) were similar to what you seem to have in mind. I was casting a gas check 158 grain bullet (I think 358156 but I'm not sure) out of a 50/50 mix of wheelweights and recovered factory wadcutters. For the paper strip I used a piece of college-lined notebook paper, cut on the lines (so the strip was the width of one line of writing). I set it to line up with the base of the nose of the bullet (there was a vent line there I lined up with).

My only field test of that bullet at higher velocity was in a .357 on a whitetail. Shot hit the lungs right behind the shoulder; from the wound channel it looked like the bullet expanded and broke off, with the base exiting. Velocity was probably around 1300 fps, range was <25 yards.

[John in WI]

thanks for that information. That's exactly the round I'm trying to make, I think. It sounds like my alloy is right in the range you were using too.

I'll have to make a few and try them out against some phone books. And maybe some thick PVC pipe to try and see if they hold together against something hard.

[Coffeecup]

One further trick. When cutting your strips, first fold them so they fit around the face of the mould, and do a hard crease, then cut the strips. When you place the paper in the mould, turn the mould so the part line is horizontal, then open the mould, place the paper so it wraps around the "bottom" block, and close the blocks. That helps position the paper more consistently.