Introducing the 400 BTS Mag!

[BT Sniper]

Lucky there wasn't any other shooters beside us, or unlucky as I'm sure they would of had quite a show!

[toolz568]

Found someone to make the reamer and McGowen for the barrel. Need to find out if mcGowen will Install the barrel if I supply the reamer.

[BT Sniper]

I read on McGowen's sight they would cut the chamber for you with customer supplied reamers. I picked up a 300WM savage barrel of theirs second hand. They look to do good work at a good price. Keep us posted with yoru results. Are you getting it threaded for a savage action? How long of barrel are you thinking?

BT

[BT Sniper]

Any of you guys ever use the COW method of fire forming brass?

COW..... as in Cream of Wheat? It works pretty slick. I used it to fire form the 400 BTS mag cases from 300 WM cases. Lots of details can be found online but I'll break it down in simple terms. Maybe I'll get some pics to post latter. Sure thing I'll be using it to form my BTS40 (40-308) cases.

As always use caution in any reloading and do your research to back up what I have posted. What I have here worked for me.

*Start with a case that has a properly annealed neck and shoulder. You better read up on the difference between properly annealed for live brass vs. the full anneal we do on our bullet jackets!

1. determine your case 100% capisity filled with a pistol powder of some sort of your chosing. I used some extra AA#7 I didn't intend to use for anything else.

2. start with about a %10 charge of the pistol powder you intend to use. Example.... say your case holds 80 grains at full capisitiy you start with 8 grains. In my case I used 11 grains of this powder to fully fire form my brass with.

3. cut a 1/4 square of toilet paper and pack it on top of the %10 powder charge

4. fill case to bottom of neck with instant cream of wheat

5. top of with warm softened piece of parifin wax. Just push the case mouth into the wax to top off the now ready to fire form case.

A fun way to fire form brass and cheaper then loading a full charge of powder, like shooting blanks I suppose but these certainly are not blanks. They will put a dent in a garage door. I fire formed my brass out in the forest with the gun in my trusty shooting vise. So all 100 rounds went to the same piece of dirt about 15' in frount of me. At the end of the session there was a bit of a crater left from the bits of wax tearing up the ground, certainly wouldn't want to get hit with anything like that so keep it safe.

I did still lose about %5 of the cases to split necks and in a couple cases I blew the neck all the off the shoulder of the case, probably had to much wax pushed in there? All in all a very acceptable method of fire formign brass in my opinion. I did run a bore snake threw the barrel every 10 or so rounds to clear out any wax and burnt wheat from the barrel.

BT

[BT Sniper]

By the way...... my dad made a first round hit with the 400 BTS Mag @ 300 yrds on a 12" square piece of steal when we where out shooting last. That was with the 190 grain 40 cal bullet made from 9mm brass @ 3000FPS!

[Stephen Cohen]

Great thread BT, I think I want another wildcat now. I use the same cream of wheat method as you to form 375 Ackley improved from 35 Whelen but I fire them straight up in the air.

[BT Sniper]

Thanks, I allways seemed to get a bit of left over cream of wheat in the barrel and figured if I shot it downward gravity might clean a bit more of it out. Probably doesn't make much difference but it is fun to form brass this way.

Good shooting

BT

[BT Sniper]

Played with the 40 cal die today and some 3/8" copper tubing. This is what I came up with !!!!








Can you imagine! Maybe some of you can! Only bullet I've shot this heavy is from my 338 Edge @ 300 grains. THis one pictured above is 340 grains. I'll have to experiment a bit more see if I can make a few of them to shoot.

BT

[BT Sniper]

Sould remind you guys of the orginal Fred Barnes Bullets. He made alot of bullets from copper tubing.

BT

[DDriller]

Heavies are fun! I like the copper bullet, looks like a factory made. What size copper tube am I going to need for the .458?

[BT Sniper]

Got another customer inquiring about making 45 cal from copper tubbing. That search has left us with only two options, size down 1/2" tubing or figure out how to stretch up 3/8" tubing. I don't know of any standard copper tubing inbetween 3/8" od and 1/2". I have some tools on the way soon for stretching tubing up in diameter, I'll see what I can do. What we need to figure out is a quick, accurate way to cut the rolls of tubing. Any ideas guys?

It does look good though doesn't it

BT

[a.squibload]

Played with the 40 cal die today and some 3/8" copper tubing. This is what I came up with !!!!

The 40 cal PISTOL die?
Just don't think that's gonna work in my PM40!
Is a 40/308 too long for an AR action?
You are trying to get me in trouble aren't you?

Edit: just thought about it, guess that nose isn't
possible in the pistol die. Sure looks nice though.

[BT Sniper]

Yep that is the standard CH 40 cal pistol die. Of course it has my improved internials in it. I bored the .250 nose punch to form the round nose. Still it is dificult to not get the SWC slight edge on the nose. That one pictured worked out pretty good actually. The bullet nose would normaly stop at the same point as the end of teh copper jacket with say a flat nose punch. The exposed lead tip is what my bored nose punch allowed me to make.

Just figured out that about 325 grains (reliably) is about max I can get out of the CH with the copper tube jacket. My dies have more room but not an ideal ogive for riffle bullets. Think a new 40 cal die might have to be on the horizon

I don't own an AR.....YET!...... what length will fit in the action? I don't know? but I do know the 40-308 with the pistol type bullets can have a shorter OAL then with riffle 30 cal bullets.

BT

[DDriller]

A 40-308 should work in an AR10. BT's magnum will be too long.

[bohica2xo]

A 308 case will not fit in an AR15. The AR10 series rifles are chambered in 308, so it would work there with a re-barrel.

Of course it will fit in a FAL magazine, so I might have to re-barrel this for fun:



Nice work on the new bullet Brian.

B.

[BT Sniper]

Thanks B. Well now, that is an interesting looking gun. Bull pup of some sort? I bet it would work good to keep the punks from steeling the poted flowers of your pourch there in Vegas Or shooting coyotes in the dark! COOL!

BT

[BT Sniper]

Speaking of bullets...... I got a new bullet design in the works for the 40-308. Still from the 9mm and still at a weight of 190 grains but I plan to use a AL 6mm BB in the nose. Should look pretty good! I allready made a few with the airsoft plastic BBs but the shinny AL ones should look awesome!

BT

[bohica2xo]

Yeah, that is my nighttime lead dispenser. 18" barrel, and barely 26" overall.

With the Gen III sight you can call a 'yote in & the only light is the muzzle flash.

The barrels are not all that hard to change - a bit like the savage with a gas system. A new barrel may be in it's future.

B.

[b52fizzle]

What about 12mm copper tubing for 45 caliber less force to size and 10mm for .40 also it seems like it would be more successful to size down than to expand you would be goin off the ID not the OD and still have to possibly size back down to needed dimension. Could see it being useful if no other option were available.

And I like the roundnose on that kinda reminds me of the heavy medium bores like the 35 remington, in fact I always liked the idea of necking up the 35 to .400 or even the 7.62x39, a short heavy brush gun, but bullet options were scarce you may have opened the window!

[BT Sniper]

Interesting! Hard to find? Quick google search was pretty slim for 12MM or any metric copper tubing sold here in US. I did find some 10mm tubbing. Is that OD or ID? it was about $4.50 a foot! Think I'll stretch my 3/8 $0.80/foot tubbing for that price. Yet I'm still interested if anyone knows more please feel free to post.

By the way I just got some AWESOME looking 300 grain pills for the 400 BTS MAG! Thick copper jacket and a 4s Ogive!!!!!!!! They look SWEET! I'll post some pics soon


BT