Flattening boolit tips

[Hickok]

Do any of you flatten or cut off the tips of your boolits to get a nice meplat for hunting?

For instance, a round nose or pointed rifle boolit load you use that shoots well, do you ever file a flat on the nose of a couple of rounds just to use for deer hunting to improve terminal performance?

[JSnover]

Lots of folks do. I think Hanned makes a tool for that. Or you could make a trim die for the boolit; run it up, file off the portion that sticks out the top.

[Hickok]

Thanks JS. I do it to mine, was just wondering what the concensus was.

[Blammer]

can't say I do, I usually have the mould that produces a nice meplat.

or in the case of my 311284, I just use it as is.

[missionary5155]

Greetings
Yep .. have done so for years. First were the caliber .22 LR R noses that would slip right through everything. Then discovered after the nose is flat to put the Gerber to work and cut a notch about every 90 degrees. No more exits on wabbits or fox.
Another avenue I went was a ball bearing that centered in RN molds. Bearings force a lead bullet to expand but this is another story.. but do not shoot them againt hardened steel tergets.
Mike in Peru

[leftiye]

Cut an X in the flat part (don't make the flat very big) with a utility razor blade and hammer. Heh, heh.

[357maximum]

Back in the day before I had the proper moulds I do now.......


For my 30/30 and a 311291 ....I would use a lyman 45 sizer and size the boolit into the die with a normal/fit top punch, then remove the top punch once the boolit was seated into the sizer, then I would use a special flat top punch (deepened/modded 429 tp) and squish a small flat on the boolit. The modded 429 top punch was set to bootom out on the luber so that all was close to consistent. I did not use the setscrew on the TP, just abit of boolit lube to hold them in so that changing them out was instantaneous. It worked quite well until I got PROPER moulds for deer smackin.

[jhalcott]

YES , I have done that several ways. Cut the tip with a sharp knife, turned them in a lathe, used a flat nose top punch to "squish" a flat on the nose. I could never find a bearing that would STAY in the bottom of the mould when I poured in the lead! So I dropped in a measure of pure, THEN followed with a load of harder alloy to make a "soft point" cast bullet that worked very well for me!
I still occasionally FN a pointy bullet.

[Fishman]

Did it this past season with the Lee 155 gr. .311 boolit. Used a flat nose punch and squished it. It worked well enough on a doe. Now I have a proper fn mould for my 300 blackout but I would do it again if I needed to.

[Djones]

I'm working up an elk load for my new JES rebore 358 win. Using NOE 360318 RN. I have filed a .240 meplate to see how it changes things.


http://i604.photobucket.com/albums/tt124/duckwhackercmon/88D4C61B-1646-42C5-B888-5459A82B1A08.jpg (http://s604.photobucket.com/user/duckwhackercmon/media/88D4C61B-1646-42C5-B888-5459A82B1A08.jpg.html)

[Hickok]

Djones, right there is what I'm talking about!:goodpost:

[ShooterAZ]

I have done it with a file. 7mm 135gr Lyman 287346 out of a 14" T/C Contender.

[Artful]

The other thing I have done is flatten a side on a long J-word for 300 Whisper/Blackout to make it unstable when it hits the target and tumble inside. See spoon nose asymetrical bullets.
just a little file work to make a dramatic terminal wound
http://guns.connect.fi/gow/haag3.html
4.6x30mm H&K - H&K's answer to the 5.7x28mm FN. Based on HK's experimental 4.6x36mm cartridge for the HK36 ACR in the early '70s, even retaining its unique Löffelspitz (spoon-nose) projectile. Like the FN entry, the 4.6x30mm has amazing armor penetration, yet recoils less than a 9x19mm pistol cartridge. The smaller HK projectile appears to gives superior penetration over the FN variant, but this also detracts from the permanent wound cavity. Best against unarmored targets, but can be used against armored.
http://guns.connect.fi/gow/raloffel.jpg
extream exaggeration of the tip - you don't need that much - just a bit and be consistantly the same on each boolit.

In 1970s military applications of spoon nose bullet was vetoed International Committee of Red Cross, because Loeffelspitz bullets inflicted "at least as horrible wounds as explosive or Dum-Dum projectiles". Germans ceased development of 4.7 mm assault rifle and spoonpointed bullets. Russians designed about in the same time their 5.45 x 40 mm cartridge and bullet with terminal effect similar to German Loeffelspitz bullet, but they managed to hide "intrinsic asymmetricity" into the intact steel jacket by just putting air bubble in nose of bullet.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/47/46x36.png/150px-46x36.png

[Hickok]

Artful, your post is very interesting. I have often wondered if a pointed-spitzer type cast boolit could be made to tumble. I can see where the method you mention could induce yaw upon impact.

[Hickok]

I tryed some of the suggestions. Using a flat top punch in the 450 sizer worked real good, nice consistant flat points, easy and quick. Used this method on the Lee TL 312-160 2R boolit for my Ruger Compact in 7.62x39. Nice flat meplat for shooting varmits and deer.

It would be cool to have a flat top punch with a small pointed cone shaped punch in the center to make a small hollow point in the flat meplat.

[GLynn41]

Just .22 but it works-- I like the .358 Win --my personal favorite

[heathydee]

I use the lathe , placing a 30 calibre boolit in a 5/16' collet and parting the nose off with a sharp HSS tool . This process gives a uniform result . The latest tests have been with the 230 grain Lee Blackout boolit .


http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?232188-30-06-One-in-Ten-Twist-and-the-Modified-Lee-Blackout-Boolit

[MT Trapper]

A friend of mine made a jig for his table saw and cut the point off. Never tried it but he said it worked great.
Trapper

[oldfart1956]

Just today I was running some Lee 90368's thru the Lyman 450 (130gr. .309) and gave just a right smart further push down on the lever and flat pointed them with a flat-nose punch. Trying these in 30/30 and being a tube loader and I'm a bit paranoid...! :) Worked dandy. Audie...the Oldfart..

[camotruck]

It would be cool to have a flat top punch with a small pointed cone shaped punch in the center to make a small hollow point in the flat meplat.

I tried using a BB to make a HP in my .357 boolits, but I felt that it moved too much material out to the ogive making a HP WC. One of our members is cutting me new HP pins to try.

Camo

[Artful]

Artful, your post is very interesting. I have often wondered if a pointed-spitzer type cast boolit could be made to tumble. I can see where the method you mention could induce yaw upon impact.

And midflight trajectory changes as well - check this out

http://vidoz.com.ua/video/PMQByABGCWp.html

notice he made a full wadcutter (well as much as you can with a heeled bullet) and it flew in a curved path.

[Kim]

I use a flat tipped punch on my Ideal 457406 HP when sizing. Leaves a nice meplat with a deep hole in the center. Two black bears looked like a trainwreck when hit with them!

[Whiterabbit]

I need a way to do this to m33 50 cal ball bullets that is repeatable enough to not affect accuracy at 100 yards. And not risk the core shooting right out of the jacket at 2400 fps.

[fouronesix]

I need a way to do this to m33 50 cal ball bullets that is repeatable enough to not affect accuracy at 100 yards. And not risk the core shooting right out of the jacket at 2400 fps.

:) That's no joke! Not easy to do in practice and even harder to predict results using or modifying 100-year-old bullet technology.

As to the stability questions (including the terminal ballistics).... all the various high speed video equipment now available or accessible via youtube reveals the truth, free for the viewing. There's a reason the specialized bullet manufacturers have spent a lot of time and money, including contracted independent testing, to work out some of these things. It took Barnes a long time to solve the pressure and accuracy issues with their "X" solids-- that's after marketing and selling a bunch of them for years!

But, valid testing and real-world business risk come at a cost that has to be passed on to the consumer. I know that GS bullets contracted with an independent lab for this work. The current design of the North Fork FP and CP solids seems to have overcome most of the issues, but unfortunately the cost to consumer is pretty high. Most of those bullets are not for casual plinking or target shooting, but for serious hunting where only a handful will be shot anyway. The cost is really pretty low, all thing considered.

[Whiterabbit]

minus load development, which can take hundreds of rounds to have a high level of confidence the bullet goes exactly where you want it to.

[fouronesix]

Very true! That's where "comparable" cheaper jacketed bullets and possibly cast bullets are useful. However, once the rifle is zeroed at whatever range (usually about 50 yds for the big boomers) with cheaper, similar bullets.... proving, chonographing, pressure checking, final zeroing, confirming accuracy, etc. (with purpose, care and attention) the expensive bullet outlay will be minimal.

Of course all this is for serious shooters/reloaders/hunters planning to use something like a big DG rifle for its intended purpose. But, there's no harm in shooting a big gun just for the heckuvait no matter if it will ever be used for DG or not. Once in a while I do it for no reason other than a "change of scenery".

There're no subs' for range time with full loads- especially with these big guns. Fact is, many buy them, talk about them (a lot) and shoot them very little (just enough to get the flinches). Then grab some factory ammo and off they go perfectly comfortable letting the PHs clean up any messes. Then return home and talk about them some more.