Home made boolit hollow pointing. Pics...

[Finn45]

I tried to make some hollow points from already sized and lubed boolits using self made hole swaging pin. This is pretty fast and easy method comparing to drilling even with a good drill jig. Bad thing is that this way the nose is enlarged depending of the pin shape and thickness. More trumpet like and skinnier pin would work better with this particular bullet, but this was just an experiment if this works or not at all. I can't see any drawbacks concerning the nose quality besides enlarging, all should stay balanced and centered if bullet is symmetrical in the first place and correct punch and sizing die is used. Comments? I don't know if anybody needs hollow points though, I might need these some day for deer or maybe moose calf, but this season goes with the same boolit BHN9...10 with original solid nose.

Bullet inserted using correct (or so) nose punch. Depth adjustment according to the results wanted. Here it's meant to make contact between the ram and the die retaining nut:
http://pyssymiehet.com/casting/boolitin.jpg

I'm gonna swaage you... Only hassle is to change the nose punch and the swage pin when bullet is in the die, locking the punch with set screw is not necessary. Bullet hardness between BHN9...10 like here goes very easily:
http://pyssymiehet.com/casting/plugcmng.jpg

There we are sitting in close contact. smooth and shiny plug comes out easily with slight tightening of the set screw:
http://pyssymiehet.com/casting/plugin.jpg

After removing the swage pin:
http://pyssymiehet.com/casting/insdie.jpg

There comes the hollow point. Notice clearly enlarged nose:
http://pyssymiehet.com/casting/uprcomes.jpg

Swage pin and the pinheads. Because this particular bullet has pretty good fit, it doesn't chamber normally anymore. More tapered noses, Keith style noses and sloppy bore riders would make this easier without chambering problems:
http://pyssymiehet.com/casting/plugnplay.jpg

The swage pin. This is made from 6.8 millimeter drill bit (metric one meant for tapping 8 millimeter thread), which fits almost too perfectly to the ram hole. There's no shoulder so this goes fully in against the bottom of the ram hole:
http://pyssymiehet.com/casting/swageplug.jpg

Simple tools needed to make the swaging pin. Lathe would make everything easier with possibility to make shouldered swage pin. Drill chuck needs to be in good condition without wobble. Dremel makes fine shaping very easy:
http://pyssymiehet.com/casting/tools.jpg

[StarMetal]

Finn

That very interesting and ingenous!!

Joe

[carpetman]

Starmetal Joe Tells Finn that is very interesting and ingenious---Wow we do have a kinder and gentler Starmetal. Old Joe would have said he just shoots a hole into the point at 100 yards to make hollow points.

[David R]

Pretty darn smart, and now you have a hollow pointed wad cutter.

Nice
thank you

David

[StarMetal]

Oh Kaka, am I ruining my former reputation?

Joe

[Scrounger]

Oh Kaka, am I ruining my former reputation?

Joe

Nah, some of us still consider you a 4 star whacko when you forget to take your Prozac...

[StarMetal]

PROZAC! PROZAC! SPIT SPIT SPIT...YUCK! I wouldn't take that stuff even if they gauranteed me a date with Cameron Diaz or Elizabeth Hurley...or both!!

Joe

[nighthunter]

Thats a fantastic idea. How about a pic of your equipment .... the press and anything above the die area of the press. Maybe a better fit on the nose of the bullet. Might eliminate some of the deformity. I realize the lead has to go somewhere when the HP is formed.

[Junior1942]

My compliments on the excellent photographs.

[crazy mark]

Finn,
A suggestion is to drill an existing TP that is the shape you need and install a tapered pin. Locktite makes a green thread lock that holds things like that in nice. Before I HP'd my first mould I also swaged my own bullets and I modified some of the nose punches that way so I could have a HP. I actually made jacketed 200 gr HP bullets.

[Bass Ackward]

Reijo,

Since you asked for comments. :grin:

Shooting season must be over already huh?

Simple answer is a nose through sizer. Can you make one of those? $11 from Lee.

But the real secret is probably to keep a shorter ..... cavity and then limit it to something .... more reasonable like 25 caliber or less. :grin:

Fill that bullet with some candle wax and you can qualify it as an explosive.

[Finn45]

Alright, thanks for the comments. Drilling and pinning one TP is okay, but it wouldn't have been option for me, hehe; I 'd need to order another one from the US then. And I'm pretty good with my cheap battery drill and Dremel, but not so good that I could do straight and centered hole to existing TP. This way it comes out straight and true very easily. Is there any screw sizes (inch type) which has shank diameter close to TP shank dia? That would be easy, just screw a nut against the end of the thread, cut shank to appropriate length and grind pin form the threaded section.

I was thinking this method also for modifying jacketed bullets for better expansion (like crazy mark did, I believe). I, like probably many others, filed my first Hornady 350RN's flat. Not necessary, but I didn't know that back then, I just swallowed it from the writings. This method should work well for flattening them making flat noses with equal length or even cup noses or hollow points. Paul Matthews mention's in his great book Forty Years With .45-70 that he used to tap these bullets flat or was he using reloading press for that? Anyway lubrisizer would make it very easy and fast producing uniform quality with bottoming stroke.


Shooting season over? No John, no way; it's right in the middle and hunting season is just starting so... Oh yes, I can size the nose some in the press, maybe .452" would do it since I have that sizing die, just need to make base punch to get it straight. I don't know if I got You right, but the die in the press is .459" and only the tapering nose gets whacked here and it interferes with the throat. I have .459" Lee push through also, but it was $35 for me delivered from Lee. Standard sizers are 35e shipped from MidwayFinland. Ouch. Old wacko tricko is to fill the cavity with mercury and solder the top. I have tried soap in 22lr hp's nearly 25 years ago, but couldn't find much use for them since fieldfares lost about 80% of weight without soap. Maybe it would make cleaner wound dunno. Hehe.

[Bass Ackward]

I don't know if I got You right, but the die in the press is .459" and only the tapering nose gets whacked here and it interferes with the throat. I have .459" Lee push through also, but it was $35 for me delivered from Lee.

Reijo,

My 457 die from Lee was actually tapered down to the .455 that it actually sized. So you can set the depth of the die down as far as you need to correct the very small amount of the olgive that needs sized. Cheap taper die. You will need a wooden dowel in the top to tap it back down, but it should require very little effort considering the hole, the small amount of sizing, and as soft a bullets are.

You should be able to make one on the same principal pretty easily.

[44man]

Now what is needed is for the hollow pointing punch to be set in a nose punch of the proper shape to not let the boolit nose expand outward, only upward to displace the metal. I would not shoot big game with them, too explosive and they will lack penetration, especially with the soft alloy.

[Finn45]

Okay John, I see what You mean. Anyway, I'm not going to make anything more specific with this right now and don't even have future plans, but I loaded five of those with reduced charge estimated by QL and they grouped not better not worse than normal ones. COAL was 2.375", they looked something like swelled up .444Marlin.

[drinks]

I have not seen it advertized in several years, but some company made a hollow pointer that was similar to some of the case trimmers, a chuck to hold the bullet, a chuck to hold a bit, one of them was fixed, the other turned with a hand crank, depth was controlled with a lever.
Should be a simple project if a few tools were available, very simple with even a mini lathe.

[fiberoptik]

I have not seen it advertized in several years, but some company made a hollow pointer that was similar to some of the case trimmers, a chuck to hold the bullet, a chuck to hold a bit, one of them was fixed, the other turned with a hand crank, depth was controlled with a lever.
Should be a simple project if a few tools were available, very simple with even a mini lathe.
I bought one of those for the .22. It didn't work well at all. They never came out centered. I sent in a machinist drawing on how to improve them, but they didn't like me much after they cashed my check. Go figure. :evil: