Brass Bullets?

[Nise]

Brass pistol bullets? I saw some the other day, least I thought they were brass by the color. Not sure what loop hole they could fall through.

[Skrenos]

I usually see them turned. Brass bar stock is easy to find. 1/4" brass rod 3 feet long is about $8 locally. Can make plenty of .22 cal bullets out of those.

Brass bullets are usually called 'solids'. They are meant for scenarios where you want absolutely zero expansion and full penetration. Usually any animal with a very tough skin like rhino, elephant, wild boar. Quite popular in the Express line of cartridges for african game hunting.

Plus, they look neat.

[Buckshot]

...............The French military used turned brass bullets long ago. I think they were called
Arcane'. They were mass produced on screw machines. I'm sure those offered by the several different sellers are also turned. The tremendous heat required to pour brass, and as a consequence the need to bleed that heat off in a rapid manner, would make the idea of casting brass bullets a rather unreasonably intensive operation vs turning them.

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

[Trapshooter]

The local zoo's Dangerous Animal Response Team (DART) uses our rifle range for monthly re-qualification. They use a variety of arms, from 30-06 up to 458 Win Mag. The 30-06 is a nice old Winchester 54. The bullet used in that round is solid bronze and weighs close to 200 grains. It appears to kick as bad as the 458.

Trapshooter

[Leftoverdj]

What the others said. They are turned on automatic screw machines. Simple fast operation of you happen to have such a machine. I knew a fellow who did, and he made a mint turning out pointed solids in pistol calibers just before the "armor piercing" bullet ban went into effect. Be advised to stick with rifle bullets if you decide to play with this stuff. Making solid brass or bronze pistol bullets is now illegal in the US.

[Jim]

Brass and bronze? I've heard of turned copper bullets, but I thought brass and/or bronze would be way too hard.

[PPpastordon]

Jim;
While quite hard compared to copper, it is still "softer" than 4140 barrel steel.

[fourarmed]

Buckshot is correct. The French fought WWI with the Lebel rifle loaded with the solid brass or bronze Balle D bullet. I believe it was a ~196 grain boattail spitzer.

[Lead melter]

If you want to try a brass bullet, I believe the Belt Mountain Punch bullet is made of brass. Seems I read about it a few years ago in Handloader magazine. Brian Pearce did the write-up as I recall and the bullet weighed somewhere around 300 grains for a .430". Seems that the bullet penetrated about 20' of green mesquite from a revolver, and from the looks of it the bullet could have been loaded and fired again. Check into this line and good luck.

[725]

I have a prototype bronze pointed / lead based muzzleloading bullet from South Africa. Still in development from some company over there. Full .50 cal and designed to be lubricated with ML bullet lube. A dangerous game bullet for the growing black powder crowd over there. Looks interesting but not too practical for mass production. Must cost a fortune to make.

[Ricochet]

Lead based, bronze pointed bullets used to be factory loaded in .38 Special and .357 Magnum "Metal Piercing" ammunition, aimed at the law enforcement market where car bodies might have to be shot through.

Beryllium copper is about as hard and strong as many alloy steels. Some other bronzes are quite hard and strong as well.

[beagle]

Who was it...BruceB I beleive was casting .380 cases full of lead and shooting them in something.

John Buhmiller when he was experimenting with his howitzers, cast steel cased .45 auto cases full of lead and turned the rims off and use dthem on elephants. This was before the good heavy bullets that we have now.

I guess a lot of the .50 BMG match shooters used turned bronze or brass bullets as opposed to the military .50 rounds due to more uniform weight and dimensions.

Lot you can do with brass and bronze./beagle

[Powderpacker]

If you want to try a brass bullet, I believe the Belt Mountain Punch bullet is made of brass. Seems I read about it a few years ago in Handloader magazine. Brian Pearce did the write-up as I recall and the bullet weighed somewhere around 300 grains for a .430". Seems that the bullet penetrated about 20' of green mesquite from a revolver, and from the looks of it the bullet could have been loaded and fired again. Check into this line and good luck.

Was this article published after the 'armor piercing' handgun bullet ban (that Leftoverdj mentioned) went into effect? Makes me wonder if there are exceptions to the ban . I also wonder about handguns chambered for rifle ammo - does this rifle ammo become 'handgun ammo' (as defined by the law) when it is loaded in one of these handguns ?

[leftiye]

Armor pierceing bullit ban........ Sounds to me like a variation on the - "When guns are banned only criminals will have guns" thing. So,,,, If you foresee having an armed confrontation with someone wearing body armor this ban will prevent you from acquiring or making AP rounds (especially if you are one of those that laws haven't deterred from anything yet)? I want to go to school at that school. I've never been class valedictorian before.

[Artful]

Armor pierceing bullit ban........ Sounds to me like a variation on the - "When guns are banned only criminals will have guns" thing. So,,,, If you foresee having an armed confrontation with someone wearing body armor this ban will prevent you from acquiring or making AP rounds (especially if you are one of those that laws haven't deterred from anything yet)? I want to go to school at that school. I've never been class valedictorian before.

You may remember under the name the media used to help push it on us.

Cop Killer Bullet Ban - HR3132 passed in 1986

http://www.alphadogweb.com/firearms/copkillerbullets.htm

http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcgvcopk.html

Which actually did more in inform criminals of the wearing of vests and to shoot for the "triangle of death" and head shots on police causing more casualties that the stupid ban ever thought of saving. :x

[JIMinPHX]

I've seen some pictures of very nice looking brass boolits that were turned by a board member. I think that it was Captain Morgan (sp?).

[Bret4207]

The local zoo's Dangerous Animal Response Team (DART) uses our rifle range for monthly re-qualification. They use a variety of arms, from 30-06 up to 458 Win Mag. The 30-06 is a nice old Winchester 54. The bullet used in that round is solid bronze and weighs close to 200 grains. It appears to kick as bad as the 458.

Trapshooter

Not to off on a tangent, but the fact a Zoo has to have a SWAT team leads me to some unusual conclusions about their confidence in their security setup.

[noylj]

I have seen old cases swaged down with a lead core. Strange seeing a bullet with a head stamp and extraction groove (like using .22LR cases to make .22 bullets).

[buck1]

I think Remington makes golden sabre or something like that . They are brass jacketed I think.

[Cap'n Morgan]

These brass bullets are made on a screw machine. It's a 105 grains 270 Win, and a 220 grains .375 for my 375 H&H mag. Both bullets shoots extremely well. The trick with these light weight solids is to design to shape and not to weight lest you run into stability problems with overly long bullets, as the weight density of brass is only about 8.5 compared to lead's 11.4.
The .375 is a bit blunt nosed as the OAL of the loaded round is restricted by the magazine in my Heym rifle.

http://www.pictureshack.us/images/2120IMG_0427.JPG (http://www.pictureshack.us/)

[paborn]

Does no one remember the old SuperVel "HighwayMaster" .357 loads?

Paborn

[paborn]

Sorry, Hyway Master was Remington. I remember a .357 SuperVel load by Jurras that was touted as AP and had a pointed truncated cone bullet.

[Dixie Slugs]

Take a look at LeHigh bullets. We are using a .458" - 265/275 gr HP on an orange sabot in our ML 50's.....James