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Thread: AP Rounds. How to place cores?

  1. #1
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    AP Rounds. How to place cores?

    I was wondering if anyone has played around with making AP ammo at home?

    I was hoping for ideas on how to place a hardened tungsten core in the center of a lead one. Then just core seat and point form as usual.

    Thanks.

  2. #2
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    Just be carful. Tungsten is a lot harder then most of our swage dies and if given the chance will scratch heck out of expensive swage dies.

    I don't advise the use of Tungsten cores or Tungsten powder for cores. Not worth it IMO.

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    Quote Originally Posted by BT Sniper View Post
    Just be carful. Tungsten is a lot harder then most of our swage dies and if given the chance will scratch heck out of expensive swage dies.

    I don't advise the use of Tungsten cores or Tungsten powder for cores. Not worth it IMO.

    BT

    Of course I would be very careful not to let the core touch the die. True AP ammo isn't really available to the public, and is even rarely used in the service from what I gather. So, naturally I want some.

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    Boolit Buddy uncle dino's Avatar
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    A core seat punch with probe the diameter of your tungsten core. Almost like a hollow point punch but with straight sides..d

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    Boolit Grand Master Outpost75's Avatar
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    Dropping a steel ball bearing or rivet into the nose cavity of a HP bullet and then forming it in the die usually works pretty well.
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    Swaged cores with the correct size hole in them would work. The issue with a straight hole will be ejection of the holes punch as it will drag the full length of it. Tungsten is very hard and will damage the dies if it comes in contact with it and also the nose punch ejector if it comes in contact with them. The other issue will be keeping the 3 pieces centered and alighned when seating the core and point forming.

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    Boolit Buddy uncle dino's Avatar
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    A punch similar to this. This one happens to be 20 ga.. I swage a .375 plastic filler into center of slug. I swage the hole, insert filler material, then press it all together with a regular core seat punch..with tungsten you will probably want an expendable punch just to press it together Click image for larger version. 

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    i always used my standard die i made and placed an inconel rod from a spark plug in the ejector hole against the ejector pin and swaged the bullet around the inconel piece and then sharpened it.. i can do that with my dies, not sure about commercial ones.. another way to do it would be to make a penetrator the shape of a smaller bullet, swage a core with a hollow in it where the penetrator will drop into it, then drop the core with penetrator into the jacket and point form it. if done correctly with a pure lead the lead will flow around the penetrator like the old steel core bullets..these bullets will be a lot lighter than a normal bullet at a lot higher speed and will knock the hell out of armor plate.. there are a few way of doing AP.. i make my own dies so not to worried about experimenting with them..

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    I was leaning towards making a hollow core. Just not sure exactly how to keep everything centered.

    I have been using stainless steel bearings, 4 mm I think. But I have only shot them through paper so far. Very accurate. The bearing never touches the die.

    I went online to find surplus black tip for 5.56 and found out they don't sell it, so I m getting some. That's the standard.

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    Thread on here about using a .177" bb. Like a daisey bb gun uses.

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    I was under the impression that making AP bullets could land a person in Club Fed for quite a while.
    Last edited by garandsrus; 08-26-2017 at 07:36 PM.

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    it is only illegal if they catch you... i pretty much think the feds can go suck on a rotten egg.

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    Boolit Buddy tiger762's Avatar
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    Both definitions are predicated on it being used in a "handgun". Seems like one could make AP rifle rounds all day long. Ones that are not gray-area dual use (handgun and rifle). No one would ever imagine a handgun designed around the 30-378, for instance. Just a guess. I stick with soft lead 'cuz it's easy

    "a projectile or projectile core which may be used in a handgun and which is constructed entirely (excluding the presence of traces of other substances) from one or a combination of tungsten alloys, steel, iron, brass, bronze, beryllium copper, or depleted uranium."

    "a full jacketed projectile larger than .22 caliber designed and intended for use in a handgun and whose jacket has a weight of more than 25 percent of the total weight of the projectile."

    Quote Originally Posted by garandsrus View Post
    I was under the impression that making AP bullets could land a person in Club Fed for quite a while.

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    Quote Originally Posted by jdfoxinc View Post
    Thread on here about using a .177" bb. Like a daisey bb gun uses.
    I searched for .177's and didn't come up with much. Would you be using them as a ballistic tip or putting them on top of a core and seating it in the point die to form a full metal jacket?
    Bill

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    Quote Originally Posted by Minuteshaver View Post
    Unfortunately they only dealw ith the ss109 green tip junk now in service. If mister 7.62x51 fmj cant deal with it, they typically call mr A10 to deal with it.
    Yep seen the videos. Makes me proud.

    I haz the 7.62x51, it's hard to feed but I just can't afford the A10. Unfortunately. I would love to have one.

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    Quote Originally Posted by tiger762 View Post
    Both definitions are predicated on it being used in a "handgun". Seems like one could make AP rifle rounds all day long. Ones that are not gray-area dual use (handgun and rifle). No one would ever imagine a handgun designed around the 30-378, for instance. Just a guess. I stick with soft lead 'cuz it's easy

    "a projectile or projectile core which may be used in a handgun and which is constructed entirely (excluding the presence of traces of other substances) from one or a combination of tungsten alloys, steel, iron, brass, bronze, beryllium copper, or depleted uranium."

    "a full jacketed projectile larger than .22 caliber designed and intended for use in a handgun and whose jacket has a weight of more than 25 percent of the total weight of the projectile."
    Thats the cite I was using as well. Im not doing anything illegal.

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    Bbs are pretty soft.

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    that is exactly correct, bbs are soft. you can squish a bb with a hammer. using a bb will not make AP rounds, it is no better than the standard mild steel cored ammo. for it to become a AP round the penetrator must be hard enough to survive contact with armor.. i think the bb was originally used in small hollow point ammo like the 25auto for forced expansion.. where people got the idea that a bb that has no real inertial mass and is blunt and soft as butter makes it AP is a mystery..

    now depending on what caliber your using you can get SABOTS and just drive a bullet shaped piece of bronze or steel at the armored target.. this does present a bit of a problem though as the bullet would be a lot lighter and the ballistic coefficient and range would suck. the only other method i know of is to make the bullet like a driving band or driving cup and push the penetrator into that.. you could just about just press a thick copper cup with groves cut in it like the solid bronze bullets over the base of the penetrator. as long as the copper was thick enough to prevent the penetrator from getting into the rifling it should work in theory, it would most likely be like shooting solid copper..
    Last edited by Mauser 98K; 08-26-2017 at 11:18 PM.

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    Mimicing the green tip which has a steel penetrator in front of the lead core. So core into jacket bb on top point form.

    The armor referred to in those laws is LEO vests, not bradleys or Hummers.
    Last edited by jdfoxinc; 08-27-2017 at 08:53 AM. Reason: Added content.

  20. #20
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    The ATF has a pretty liberal interpretation of what they consider AP. As previously mentioned the way the law is written the AP applies only to handgun rounds. To the layman that means 9mm, 45, and 40, or even 25 ACP.

    However to the ATF they apply the rule to anything which may be considered a pistol Which now includes AR-15s, AR-10, Encore pistols. Unfortunately the Encore pistols do have some remarkably absurd chamberings. The same caliber bullet used in a .308 Win may also be used in a 300Blk Pistol, or a 300 RUM. Because of that its illegal to manufacture any AP rounds in .308 Caliber. This has caught more then a few manufacturers by surprise and forced them to discontinue their lines of Brass Solids made primary for Dangerous Game.

    Just a word of caution here, but it is a very interesting educational discussion.

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