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Russel Nash
10-17-2008, 01:45 AM
Hi all,

Yeah, just like the title says.

Sorry, I didn't do a search first.

I just got home from work and I'm too whopped to wade through several pages of results.

I just remember seeing in another thread here how some guy was planning on making a tool to punch out gas checks from aluminum cans.

Thanks!

Bent Ramrod
10-17-2008, 02:40 AM
Certainly aluminum can be deep-drawn to make a jacket. Blasting cap shells and Blazer nonreloadable pistol shells are made from the stuff. Whether the aluminum jacket would stand the stresses of being pushed through the barrel would remain to be seen.

Also I would think that to draw a cup that deep would require a thicker blank to start from than you could get out of an aluminum can. Those things are already drawn about as thin as they can go.

Southron Sanders
10-17-2008, 11:28 AM
Might be an interesting experiement. Theoretically there is no reason it wouldn't work as aluminum has a much higher melting point than lead.

Keep in mind though that heated hot enough, aluminum will burn-in other words, you might inadvertently make some "tracer" bullets without meaning to.

If you do the experiemnt, keep us posted here on this BB of your results!

GOOD LUCK!

Ricochet
10-17-2008, 01:12 PM
Might want to check the thread down in paper patching about patching with aluminum foil.

jcunclejoe
10-17-2008, 03:29 PM
Just a few small points. The aluminum can is about the same thinckness as the riflings are deep, so the jacket would be cut clear through or nearly so by the time it left the barrel. Also aluminum oxidizes fairly quickly and aluminum oxide is one of the most common abrasives in grinding wheels. I would not want to do that to any of my barrels.
Good luck and keep thinking.
Joe

Parson
10-18-2008, 10:43 AM
Never heard of any one succesfully makeing jackets but CH does or did sell the tools to make gas checks from Aluminum cans

Doc Highwall
10-18-2008, 01:13 PM
I would consider that even though aluminum is a soft metal, it is also a abrasive metal. That is why a lot of tools for cutting aluminum are carbide. Another quality of metal you have to look at is ductility. Take wheel weights as a example, lead/tin/antimony with a BHN of 9. Now for a comparison take 30:1 lead/tin it also has a BHN of 9, even though they have the same compressive strength they have different ductility values. The 30:1 lead/tin is more ductile making it better for black powder loads. Aluminium will work harden faster then copper, and we can anneal copper with a torch in just seconds where aluminium is a all together process. I don't think the gains in using aluminium for anything other then gas checks out weight the abrasive qualities on the gun barrel. I will continue to use copper gas checks as long as I can get them. If faced with problem no copper gas checks I would turn to aluminium and use them as little as possible. And if it is a straight case like a 38-55 I would explore the use of wads first.

deltaenterprizes
10-19-2008, 05:44 PM
If I recall correctly,Winchester Silvertips were/are aluminum

Molly
10-19-2008, 06:51 PM
If I recall correctly,Winchester Silvertips were/are aluminum

Yeah, and the fact that Winnie hasn't started using cheap, easy to process aluminum instead of expensive copper in their rifle bullets should be a clue for those of us who are as clueless as me. Also, the Silvertips leave a tough residue in my .357 that's hard to get out. I like my bores to SHINE!

Molly

Echo
10-19-2008, 08:52 PM
IIRC, the actual 'SilverTip' is on the nose of the slug, and shouldn'e contact the bore - or am I mistaken?

Doc Highwall
10-19-2008, 09:11 PM
EasyEd, I believe you are right, that is why they called them silver Tips. I saw them a long time ago and I only remember the tip being silver not the whole bullet.

Molly
10-20-2008, 10:36 AM
IIRC, the actual 'SilverTip' is on the nose of the slug, and shouldn't contact the bore - or am I mistaken?

So what do you think the bore-riding jacket is made of? The silver tips I shot looked like they had a 'silver' jacket all the way from the hollow point back into the case. Sure wasn't copper, and I doubt if it was real silver or platinum. And the 'white' color was wrong for anything except aluminum.
Molly

Russel Nash
10-20-2008, 10:02 PM
Okay... how about aluminum flashing, like what you would put on a roof?

I have no idea how thick that stuff is, but obviously thicker than a soda or beer can.

Russel Nash
10-21-2008, 12:49 PM
I did a little more reading on the thread for gas check tools you can buy off of ebay to make gas checks out of aluminum cans .

It sounds to me that the folks who have recovered cast projectiles with their homemade aluminum checks still in place just have the rifling marks "engraved" into the gas check with NO actual cutting through of the gas check.

Hmmn....

Hmmn...

Things get more interesting all the time. ;)

Ricochet
10-22-2008, 05:28 PM
The Winchester Silvertip rifle bullets I've seen (made long ago) had about as much "silver" (which was aluminum) exposed at the tip as a generous lead soft point. The aluminum jacket extended back a short way under the gilding metal jacket. They've had something more recently called a "Combined Technology Silvertip," I think, that I've never seen. May have a more extensive silver colored jacket. Of course, the original jacketed bullets of 100+ years ago were largely of 80/20 copper-nickel and silver colored. Turkish and German ammo up to WWII had copper-nickel coated steel jackets, and so did Swiss GP11 up till the '80s or whenever they quit making it. They started making the GP90 5.6mm (.223) with those jackets, then switched to gilding metal or "commercial bronze."

Alex Hamilton
10-26-2008, 07:39 PM
Might be an interesting experiement. Theoretically there is no reason it wouldn't work as aluminum has a much higher melting point than lead.

Keep in mind though that heated hot enough, aluminum will burn-in other words, you might inadvertently make some "tracer" bullets without meaning to.

If you do the experiemnt, keep us posted here on this BB of your results!

GOOD LUCK!

Melting is not a problem because the bullet is exposed to the heat for such the short time that there is no time for the heat transfer. The leading in the bore is not caused by melting but by gas cutting.

I don't know if aluminum jackets would work, but I would not use aluminum in any gun, because aluminum oxide which forms on the outside is very abrasive and will wear out the barrel. I would not even use the aluminum cleaning rods for the same reason.

Alex