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Thread: Carpenter Bee Load

  1. #1
    Boolit Mold Brettitt41's Avatar
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    Carpenter Bee Load

    Well after reading the last thread on making bee loads with walnut media I just had to try it out. I loaded them up in .38 special cases with 1.5gn of bullseye, a card wad, fill the rest of the case with media to about 1/32 from the case mouth, another card wad and then a healthy crimp at the case mouth. The shot pattern was fine but the primers backed out, probably from lack of pressure to expand the primer case. So how to fix that problem. Up the powder charge or something else such as hot glue the case mouth after the wad?
    Just remember no matter where you go there you are. "Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear" George Orwell

  2. #2
    Boolit Master
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    Drill the primer holes larger

  3. #3
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    Yep, use a 1/8" drill and enlarge the flash holes in the cases you'll use for these loads.

    When a primer explodes (and lead styphnate is an explosive), it drives the primer out of the primer pocket and back against the pressure plate. Normally, the pressure generated by a standard regular load would be enough to drive the case backwards and reseat the primer into the pocket. However, loads without that pressure can't do that, which is why cases used for blanks, wax bullets and ground walnut hulls need to have a way to relieve the pressure of the primer so it won't back out of the pocket.

    Hope this helps.

    Fred
    After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. - William S. Burroughs.

  4. #4
    Boolit Master
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    Clever! What's the max range? I use air pistols on house flies and wasps. You can get close enough

  5. #5
    Boolit Buddy para45lda's Avatar
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    I use grits. Similar setup. I dont use a card wad. Grits over powder and drip some wax on top.

    Do not shoot at them under your vinyl soffits. It will put a hole in it. Ask me how I know.
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  6. #6
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    Cream of wheat is your friend here ,I did rim the primer hole just a little,don't use magnum primers
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  7. #7
    Boolit Buddy

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    Have shot several thousand of the walnut media loads in 38 spl, 357 mag, 45 Acp and 45 Lc but have never drilled out the primer holes or put a crimp on them, just used a overshot card pressed into the brass over the walnut media and used clear finger nail polish to seal them. I only crimp the shot shell loads in 45acp,9mm and 380. But have never used Bullseye either.

  8. #8
    Boolit Master
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    This is a fun thread! I use my case forming loads for rifles for the same thing, using corn cob media and toilet paper for an "over shot card." With the larger cases and powder and "shot" charges I've occasionally knocked them down, dead, at about 15 ft. I might have to try a revolver this summer. 45 Colt should make a dandy bug gun...
    "In general, the art of government is to take as much money as possible from one class of citizens and give it to another class of citizens" Voltaire'

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  9. #9
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    I didn`t drill out flash holes for bee loads in my 44 mag contender.

  10. #10
    Boolit Grand Master In Remembrance
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    Regards
    John

  11. #11
    Boolit Mold Brettitt41's Avatar
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    Thanks John Boy. I have plenty of those for snake management. They are just a little too much for carpenter bee management, and costly. The lead shot loads could possibly damage vinyl siding and give the wife further ammunition against me that shooting bees is ridiculous.
    Just remember no matter where you go there you are. "Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear" George Orwell

  12. #12
    Boolit Master Baltimoreed's Avatar
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    I have used a badminton racket to ‘swat’ ‘em. Good PT, couple years ago I swatted 600 plus. Wasn’t as many the next year.

  13. #13
    Boolit Buddy
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    I've used 410 shotgun, half dose of powder & millet bird seed load...Fun Stuff...unclemikeinct

  14. #14
    Boolit Master Jim22's Avatar
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    A bit out of place but I used to have trouble with a neighbor's dog coming over to crap in my yard. I yelled at it and chased it off but it came back. So I took a 20 ga shotshell, poured out all of the shot and almost all of the powder. Put the wad back and filled it with either popcorn or dry beans. Either will work. Aim for the back end. Twice was all it took to make him stay away.

  15. #15
    Boolit Master
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    Ahh...similar to the old "rock salt" loads. They also worked.
    "In general, the art of government is to take as much money as possible from one class of citizens and give it to another class of citizens" Voltaire'

    The common virtue of capitalism is the sharing of equal opportunity. The common vice of socialism is the equal sharing of misery

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  16. #16
    Boolit Master
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    Shooting bees in the city limits of the nearby town would get the gun confiscated and a night in jail for the shooter. When it comes to carpenter bees and hornets, I prefer bee spray with a 25 foot range. LOL.

    Adam

  17. #17
    Boolit Buddy

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    Have spotted a couple of carpenter bees the last warm sunny day we had. Time to break out the bee loads, when the red bud tree in my back yard is in full bloom they will be everywhere around here. They seem to come just as we are eating lunch. Can see them on my south porch through the double windows, sometimes they make it into their holes before I get there to shoot them. Have several hundred 38 special and 357 mag loads ready to go.

  18. #18
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    Those bees are more good than bad, they fertilize everything in your garden, I have only been stung once and that's when I picked up a female and she was quite angry by being picked up. The males don't have stingers.

    I get great enjoyment out of "bee boxing" if you wave your forearm at them, they will fly in close then perform their evasive maneuvers, you can keep this up for hours.
    Got a .22 .30 .32 .357 .38 .40 .41 .44 .45 .480 or .500 S&W cylinder that needs throats honed? 9mm, 10mm/40S&W, 45 ACP pistol barrel that won't "plunk" your handloads? 480 Ruger or 475 Linebaugh cylinder that needs the "step" reamed to 6° 30min chamfer? Click here to send me a PM You can also find me on Facebook Click Here.

  19. #19
    Boolit Buddy
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    Quote Originally Posted by DougGuy View Post
    Those bees are more good than bad, they fertilize everything in your garden, I have only been stung once and that's when I picked up a female and she was quite angry by being picked up. The males don't have stingers.

    I get great enjoyment out of "bee boxing" if you wave your forearm at them, they will fly in close then perform their evasive maneuvers, you can keep this up for hours.

    I have a live and let attitude relative to the wildlife on my place........deer, the occasional bear and I'm somewhat overrun with the small stuff.......still, I gotta draw the line on those damn bees!

    Everything from my front door to wooden trim on my home has been 'bee'd',,,,,had to replace cedar trim that in truth looked like honeycomb.............THEN come the damn pileated woodpeckers to act like Sousa's drum section...........last loads I cooked up were using rice or grits...whichever is handiest. Wife made me stop after I sorta trimed her amarillis (sp).

    Anyway, you CB shooters keep up the good work, need be, I'd testify in your defense! (I can supply damning photographic evidence!)

  20. #20
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    $1.97 can of wally world carb cleaner with straw in nozzle works great, get close and douse bee and down it goes.
    10-x

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check