40 S&W Practice shooting in your garage

[BT Sniper]

Yep shooting your full size 40 S&W or 10MM in your garage.

So I was curious, as it seems is the start to all my tinkering. Of course this project involves shooting and swaging. It started out with two different ideas really. I had seen "quick draw" competitions at the local sportsman expos/shows where they would shoot revolvers loaded with shotgun primers and wax bullets, no powder. They would shoot a reactive target that would some how keep time with how long it took a shooter to draw and shoot from the time a light went off or something to that nature. The second idea was to form ballistic tips for my 50 cal bullets from some sort of nylon or plastic.

Well, I had some "black nylon" lying around the shop, it is nylon plastic infused with molybdenum, same moly stuff used to reduce friction in our barrels/bullets etc. I wasn't sure how this stuff would do when swaged under pressure. Again my idea is to use it for ballistic tips. So I grabbed my 40 cal swage die and cut a piece of the 3/8" black nylon, I then proceeded to form it into a nice little bullet (you guys must be able to see where my thought process was leading) :) It made a 20 grain bullet the same shape and size as my typical 185 grain bullets I shoot. The plastic sprung back quite a bit and I was left with a bullet diameter of about .392.

What the heck lets give it a try, now where did I put those primed 40 S&W cases???

I grabbed my 40 S&W pistol, pushed this plastic bullet into a primed case (NO POWDER), grabbed some eye protection, chambered the round and sent the plastic bullet into my garage door. Left a small dent! COOL! Now to get a actual back stop. I put a quick cardboard box together and put two additional layers of boxes inside. A nice little orange target sticker and had an hour of shooting fun. Nothing more then primed cases and I reshot the same two bullets over and over again. Actually shot pretty accurate. They where simply bore riders and if the diameter was a bit bigger they wouldn't exit the barrel. After 10-20 rounds I would simply swab the barrel with a patch and some gun oil to keep things lubricated.

This was a great way to practice a bit of shooting, it was accurate enough to show you your errors in form. Made a soft "pop" noise that was no problem at all to unplugged ears. I had the garage door open to vent the fumes of the spent primers. I would not recommend anyone do this in a closed room.
My wife even had a great time and shoot 5-10 rounds hitting what she was aiming at. Then the real kicker was my wife let me school one of my 6 year old girls in the safety of shooting a pistol. Amazingly my little girl hit the orange sticker from a distance of about 10' all three shots. I was holding the gun while she aimed and pulled the trigger but what a great way to introduce a wife or young one to shooting.

I even set up the chrony. These little 20 grain plastic bullets when propelled by nothing more then a small pistol primer went 248 and 250 FPS for the two rounds I put over the chrony. So what would be the ft/lbs of a 20 grain bullet at 250fps :) Probably good pest control to get unwanted crows off your garbage can, that gives me an idea ;-)

I know what I'll be taking to Grandmas house for ThanksGiving! Wife mentioned the possibility of shooting balloons. Cool to have the wife interested in shooting. She did like watching "Top Shot" with me. Should be a fun little competition with my family, dad and mom over the holiday shooting simple targets in their barn with plastic bullets.

Any of you with one of my 40 cal swage dies could do this. Bullets seem to be consistent diameter at .391 after several firings. It was a heck of a lot of fun. Keep it safe!

Good shooting and swage on!

BT

Check out the pics. Fairly good groups too.


A 19 grain hollow point plastic bullet, my typical 185 grain bullet and a 20 grain plastic round nose. They don't look like plastic do they! These where just my quick R&D bullets. Next ones I make will be even better. They look like swaged bullets made from lead don't they!
http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/uu87/BTSniper/829a514b-25e0-46be-9d8e-6368e537076c_zpsa3099a50.jpg (http://s636.photobucket.com/user/BTSniper/media/829a514b-25e0-46be-9d8e-6368e537076c_zpsa3099a50.jpg.html)



http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/uu87/BTSniper/006_zps3d9e249f.jpg (http://s636.photobucket.com/user/BTSniper/media/006_zps3d9e249f.jpg.html)


http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/uu87/BTSniper/005_zps8392d6ed.jpg (http://s636.photobucket.com/user/BTSniper/media/005_zps8392d6ed.jpg.html)

Shot at about 15'
http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/uu87/BTSniper/003_zps1d874109.jpg (http://s636.photobucket.com/user/BTSniper/media/003_zps1d874109.jpg.html)

[beex215]

another interesting idea

[clodhopper]

That "black nylon" could it UHMW plastic? Used to use the stuff for wear strips at the sawmill.
UHMW stands for Ultra High Molecular Density.
good for lots of uses, never would have guessed you could swage it.
It's kind of spendy but can be purchased as rods.

[BT Sniper]

Nylatron® GS is what they call it I guess. Goes for 89 cents a foot. Can get at least 15 bullets per foot and reuse the bullets many times. I use up old or various primers and it is nearly free shooting practice.

Just made 20 of them. Shot 10 or so. Found out they need to be at least .391 to contact my lands in the barrel. Bullets that where under this size at .389ish or so would keyhole at 15' as long as they contact the rifling in the barrel they shot very well.

It did take quite a bit of pressure to get them to .392 or more. An oversized die would make it pretty easy I bet to get them to about .393ish for these plinkers.

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/uu87/BTSniper/011_zps5bb416e2.jpg (http://s636.photobucket.com/user/BTSniper/media/011_zps5bb416e2.jpg.html)

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/uu87/BTSniper/014_zpsc49c92c6.jpg (http://s636.photobucket.com/user/BTSniper/media/014_zpsc49c92c6.jpg.html)

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/uu87/BTSniper/013_zps4448c58b.jpg (http://s636.photobucket.com/user/BTSniper/media/013_zps4448c58b.jpg.html)

[clodhopper]

Nylatron is castable.
A quick search of UHMW found 5 sticks 4 foot long and .406 dia for under ten dollars.

[rsrocket1]

Those are a lot cooler looking than my cast gluestick boolits. Just please be careful of shooting in an enclosed space. The lead styphnate from the primer really shouldn't be breathed. After shooting a few gluestick boolits in my garage, I quit because of the smoke and I knew that was all from the primer. Now it's backyard only.

[nhrifle]

Be safe and heed the warnings about the primer smoke, but that's just cool!

[BT Sniper]

Nylatron is castable.


How? same as lead? melt and poor into cavities? or does it need to be "injected"?

[MOcaster]

One thing that I did, while not for garage practice, is swage just an annealed 9mm case. If I remember correctly, they come out between 55 and 65 grains, depending on the headstamp. I then fill them with melted wax and they end up weighing 70ish grains. I load them regularly in 40 S&W. I've worked up a load that cycles my Glock. I chronographed some of them and they were going between 1600 and 1650 fps. They are a blast to plink with and are practically free.

[blueeyephil]

I have some rubber 38 bullets that I bought 20 years ago. Ran across them a month or so ago. Did the same thing, back then with them. I wish I could do the .40s like you did. I cast but don't swage. Oh well. Sure made some good looking bullets.

[bangerjim]

I have been casting and shooting hot melt glue boolits in 9/30/38/40/45 for years now. HF glue sticks are very cheeeeep. I used to just load them as clear, but recently have been rubbing them with graphite powder. They look just like shiny gray metal!!! And if you cast a 1/4" steel ball (slingshot ball) in the nose, you get more weight and better trajectory. Make sure your target box is well constructed......I had one ball go thru the metal garage door! They DO come out of the HMG boolit when they hit the box. Wife never figured that one out.........yet!

I even put a grain or 2 of fast powder in them to really make it interesting, yet they are very quiet.

You CAN reuse the non-steel ball HMG's a couple times.

You still must be very careful of the buildup of primer and/or powder fumes when shooting in a garage!

banger

[ReloaderFred]

If you have a .41 Swage die, that may make them closer to .400" after springback. Just a thought.

I've got the dies, but not the plastic..............

Hope this helps.

Fred

[scarry scarney]

Pure Genuis

[BT Sniper]

I was thinking the 410 dies as well. I got a set too.

I'm curious about "casting" this plastic, Clodhopper mentioned it is castable. I would certainly like to hear a little more on that thought. Casting ballistic tips for my 50 might be easier then swaging them. Or at cast them first then clean them up swaging.

BT

[clodhopper]

How? same as lead? melt and poor into cavities? or does it need to be "injected"?
The supplier of nylatron claimed it was castable. Probably some sort of injection process to make bushings and such.

There is lenghty discussion on this fourm on hot glue boolits.
It boils down to useing a hot glue gun, a preheated mold of your choice, hight temp mould release material.
Leave the spure plate open and cut the sprue with a a single edge razor blade.
I tried it and getting the boolits out of the mold was difficult. Hot glue is desinged to be stickey.
Fireing with primer power was fun, and the boolits reuseable.

Sawging would make ejection easyer, and the razor blade on top the mold blocks is just asking for trouble, scratched blocks, and spilled blood.

So a proposal, take some nylatron rods .450 and run then through the hot glue gun. I don't know what temp nylatron becomes fluid, but freeing the slick moly inpregnated casting might a whole diffrent story than hot glue.

[monmouth]

Amazing thread! Anyone ever try a projectile for the .223?

[Prospector Howard]

A company called x ring makes rubber bullets similar to this and Midway sells them in case you don't want to make them. 38 cal, product #713-633, 44 cal #257-438, and 45 cal #489-581. I didn't see 40 cal though. They are pretty cheap, about $14 for 50.

[BT Sniper]

There was a thread in which 6mm airsoft bbs where sized down to 22 cal and good results where achieved.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?68013-Swaging-Plastic&highlight=

BT

[sargenv]

Too bad that lead free primers are so hard to find these days, they would be perfect for this sort of practice.. I found some many years back but alas I've fired them already and have none left.

[rattletrap1970]

Great use for swaging. I do remember rubber practice bullets called X-RING that you just pushed into your "primer only loaded" cases. I bet the speed was pretty close to what you were getting. They were very accurate for say garage use. They of course had to be loaded singly as they are the equivelent of a full wadcutter.

[sargenv]

Speer makes plastic bullets for loading like this also.. at least they used to.. for 38 and 45 cal..

[bangerjim]

Speer makes plastic bullets for loading like this also.. at least they used to.. for 38 and 45 cal..

I saw them in Sportsman Whorehouse the other day. But for the cost of some HF glue sticks ($5/50), you can cast your own in the molds you now have!

Use Pam as mold lube and use ice to cool the mold.....yes COLD mold. And you can go back to using hot lead....HMG and Pam do not "ruin" a mold as some have lamented about! I do it all the time.

banger