Okay, I'm going weird!!

[DeanWinchester]

Just got in a cool mold from a great member here. Don't know if it's gonna work or not but I challenge any of you to produce a boolit this weird!
They fall 189g and right at .311, sized them .311 with a Hornady check. These are going in a little Brazilian mauser rebarreled in .308 winchester. I'm starting at 10.0g of Unique and gonna work up from there. I've got a bottle of Lee mule snot that I have been meaning to thin down. I've got more than I'll ever use, so instead of thinning it, I'm going to dip these in the thick tumble lube, just covering the driving band. Then stand them up and let them dry. It might work, it might not. Alls I know is, nobodys gonna have a load like this at the range!!!!
http://i1216.photobucket.com/albums/dd371/Reloadingfool/DSC03303_zps5fd6ae55.jpg


The short bearing surface is perfect for the 308 neck!http://i1216.photobucket.com/albums/dd371/Reloadingfool/DSC03304_zps22c581fb.jpg




My only real issue might be the nose. I won't know till I try to chamber one. It measures .301-.302. That might be a bit snug, I don't know. I figure, the nose section riding the bore is a radius which makes for minimal contact. If I have decent neck tension, I should be able to close the bolt and shove her right on in. It'll certainly engrave and center the cartridge! OAL is gonna be on the long side but this rifle has pretty long magazine so I don't see an issue there.

It'll be next week before I can get to the range but I cast some today and just HAD to show it off!
...Now, come on! Who's got thoughts on this weirdo???:-P

[rking22]

I've seen that bullet before ,but can't recall where/when. Might have been a pistol sillewet shooter in the early 80s ,???? Looking forward to your results. Concept is kinda interesting, bet you'll be the only one at the range with that one!

[swheeler]

Looks like JL Herters wasp waist bullets from the 1960's.

[DeanWinchester]

It's a copy of the wasp waist. NEI calls it a Hornet.

It's kinda nice to have something like this. I've been so serious trying to make "THE LOAD" in my other .308, a fun break from the norm is much welcome!

[steve817]

I popped this up and glanced at the photo out the corner of my eye the boolit reminded me of a femine hygine product.. Hoollly cow I'm jealous

I was wondering if it had variable speeds.

[retread]

Got to admit, that one made me smile when I saw it! Like to hear how it performs.

[wallenba]

The old 'area rule' concept, wasp waist, actually used on the Republic F105. A valid concept in aerodynamics.

[captbligh]

I'm not an aero engineer, but was a fighter pilot for 20 years and my recollection in the aerodynamics class in pilot training was that the "wasp waist" on the early fighters was to maintain an even aerodynamic cross section where the wings joined the fuselage. The cross section of the wings combined with the wasp waist to maintain the same aero cross section as the rest of the fuselage. That class was many years ago so I may be totally out to lunch.

[DeanWinchester]

I know I'm looking forward to seeing how those aerodynamics come into play as I stretch waaaaaay out there to 50 yards. LOL!

[Hamish]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?94711-wasp-waist-sonic-missile-tail

I found multiple references to board members getting good accuracy with the original copper clad bullets.

Really looking forward to hearing about this one,,,:holysheep

[TXGunNut]

Very interesting. I've seen this type of boolit mentioned but had no idea it was shaped like that. Cool! Looking forward to the range reports.

[KYShooter73]

Thread tagged...I gotta see the results...

[Garyshome]

Strange looking Boolits!

[35 shooter]

That is one radical boolit. Gonna be an interesting test for sure. I'm 60 years old and have never seen anything like it. Can't wait to see how all this turns out! There's absolutely something new to me on these forums everyday.

[country gent]

Would be interesting to recover some fired bullets undamaged and see what the small nose section is doing as to expansion behind the bore riding area. I have seen that style boolit before I think on NEIs site. I shoot a similar boollit in my 40-65 but it is a full bore riding nose. It shoots very well. Definitly worth giving a try and a little experimenting with it.

[sav300]

I have the NEI mold in that style of boolit and have shot it in my 308,hit the 50 yd target.Will do better with more powder.

[Maximumbob54]

I'm curious how hard you can push it with that minimal bearing surface.

[DeanWinchester]

I'm wondering if slump from too soft an alloy can be this boolit's worst enemy?
I cast from air cooled wheel weights. I'm betting if I were to drive them fairly hard, they'd either slump or deform unless I toughened up the alloy a bit.

[Maximumbob54]

I water drop Lyman #2 alloy for a Ranch Dog mold with the thicker than usual TL grooves and I've wanted to cast some softer for plinking. So I wondered if the "rings" of TL grooves would slump down if I pushed them at all to far and it didn't seem to matter. But then I had more bearing surface to conform to the bore. I would worry more if it's too "butt heavy" to stay true in flight. Seems like it would do better with more meat on the drumstick.

[nagantguy]

Right at the top of coolest/ strangest thing I've seen in a spell, keep us posted I might be up for trying something similar.

[Hardcast416taylor]

Looks like JL Herters wasp waist bullets from the 1960's.


That was the same thought of where I had seen them before that went thru my memory!Robert

[AlaskanGuy]

Dean, i hear that when you been casting a while, you get attracted to boolit molds that look just like you do... :)

I would call that boolit sexy, but then you might take it wrong being the weirdo that you might be... He he...:kidding:

I kidding aside, i wonder how this would work in the K31??? It just might fit.... I will be watching....

AG

[DeanWinchester]

I don't know Alaskanguy. You got a K31 I'm guessing?
Tell ya what, why don't I give you a holler the next time I cast with this mold and I will send you some. Then you tell ME if they work.

[DeanWinchester]

I wonder how this "dipping" thing is gonna work out. Doubtful I'll get any leading but I think I may run these through the sizer again after they dry. This LLA is really thick! It's some I've had for years. Took several minutes for it to run to the side of the bottle. I dipped/rolled only the bottom 1/4 of the boolit in it and stood it up to dry. Theres DEFINITELY plenty on there! Lol. I bet they smoke like a tar kiln with a charge of Unique!!

[Bulldogger]

Neat! Looking forward to the range report.
BDGR

[Maximumbob54]

If you haven't read about the 45/45/10 version of alox it's worth a try. In short it's 45% alox, 45% Johnson's Paste Wax (the cheap yellow and red can you can buy in most hardware stores or anything similar to it) with 10% mineral spirits to thin it. I made my first batch in a small cheap crock pot that was marketed in Target as a scented wax bead aroma therapy something or other. It was setting on the clearance endcap and was dirt cheap. I just melted down the JPW first, added the Lee alox, then the mineral spirits and kept stirring. It's of course stanky as all get out so do this in the garage or porch area. I then (spilled) bottled it back into a few empty bottles. I drop an extra bullet from whatever I had handy to give the bottles a shake and get them mixed up from settling. That works SSSSSOOOOOO much better than just regular alox that White Label Lube now sells it in bottles ready made. It actually works so much better than just alox that I advise anyone that tumble lubes to just stop now and do the 45/45/10 mix instead. And it works pretty darn good on rifle bullets as well. I still have that mini crock pot and I sometimes use it to dip bullets in the goop and then set them on wax paper. You can scrape the excess lube back off into the pot so it's not wasted and the scrapings from the sizing die go back into the pot as well. This stuff seems to work on super soft stuff that I cast for my 148gr WC's for .38's all the way to some full power .30-30 which I admit isn't a barnstormer but is still up there in pressure. This is of course all a repeat of info from numerous threads and I bow to whomever figured this out in the first place but I can never repeat it enough because it works so well.

[DeanWinchester]

MaximumBob54, yessir, I use 45/45/10 a LOT but, as we all do, I accumulate things. I've probably got over a dozen bottles of tumble lube and that's on top of a ketchup bottle full of 45/45/10. I'll never use all that! I was diggin' through them and one of the older bottles was seriously thick. I thought about thinning it down before it dries out completely but then I thought, NO, I wanna try this. I've got so much, who cares if I waste a little.

Funny, I use the lid from a 3 gallon plastic bucket (new one) for drying my tumble lube boolits. These I hand dipped in the LLA mud, and stood them up. I only did (20) as a trial run. I grabbed on a little bit ago and picked up the whole bucket lid! LOL!!! That stuff could be an industrial grade adhesive!

[AlaskanGuy]

Your On Mr. Dean.... I would gladly try them sexy things... :D

[Lonegun1894]

Y'all have me curious on this one too. I have heard of wasp waist bullets, but never seen one before, so thanks for the education.

[DeanWinchester]

Got some loaded today. Went ahead and loaded up some "Hi Velocity" loads with 12.0g of Unique since I'll be shooting long distance at 50 yards. I figure the extra velocity might help me at those "extreme ranges" LOL!


http://i1216.photobucket.com/albums/dd371/Reloadingfool/2d23f73c-b163-4bcd-ba6a-33128afdd0ef_zpsf9a5925c.jpg

[Skipper]

Is the nose section bore-riding? If so, you might want to smear a little lube on it.

[DeanWinchester]

Yeah, it is. It doesn't engrave real heavy, not like I thought it would. I may have to lube that part a bit but I'll try them this way first. This old Mauser is my truck gun and this needs to be a good truck gun load. Exposed lube of any kind is a dust/dirt magnet. I'd rather not if I don't have to.

[DeanWinchester]

Guys, remember I am half blind and that tiny little sight gets mighty fuzzy at 50 yards. But, here is a 20 round group at 50 yards from the ole mauser. Many, many of you do better on a daily basis, but I ain't complaining. Talk about a hoot to shoot!! Slight of a feed issue with a full magazine. I think I can sort that out easy.


http://i1216.photobucket.com/albums/dd371/Reloadingfool/photo_zps0078fc40.jpg

[DeanWinchester]

BTW, zero leading. ZERO. No smoke either. I think I'm gonna like playin' with this.

Thoughts on the point of impact? Should I scoot the sight up or up the charge a bit for more velocity? This was 12.0g of Unique. I can safely go another couple of grains.

This rifle has some pretty rough machined surfaces. This week I think it's gonna get some serious cratex work on the feed rails/ramp. If I can get this feeding a little smoother and get the point of aim jiving with point of impact, this may be a serious threat to the title of "Funnest Gun I Own" I didn't shoot this well with other loads I've fed it. May have to pull a Ben and get a scout set up going with a nice piece of glass on the barrel. Been meaning to do that. Now I have incentive.

[emrah]

Sweet. Sounds weird, but just casting and loading those things looks like fun in and of itself.

Emrah

[DeanWinchester]

Sweet. Sounds weird, but just casting and loading those things looks like fun in and of itself.

Emrah

Hearing them smack the paper was fun too.

[roverboy]

Pretty wild looking boolit. I can't tell in the pic what model your Mauser is. Is it a Spanish 1916?

[DeanWinchester]

Brazilian.
It was rebarreled with a military contour replacement barrel.

Pretty sweet too, the added magazine length is the only reason I can run this boolit as a repeater. OAL is 2.9?? ...I wrote it down. Cannot remember. I do know they BARELY fit. I think I'll have to seat them about .010-.015 deeper if I can to get the thing to cycle. That, and smooth up the rails and ramp a bit.

[roverboy]

Nice. I should've bought a Brazilian from J&G back when they still had'em. You snooze and you lose......

[DeanWinchester]

I got a steal on this one. Less than $200 worth of tradin'. It was missing the bottom metal. It's wearing an FR-8 trigger guard now. If I removed the insert spacer I'd really have some room to play but FR-8 parts are few and far between. It's one thing to swap parts like that but I don't wanna start hacking on them.

[AlaskanGuy]

Hey dean, i would pass on working with the sight untill you settle on a final load for the gun... If your gunna up the charge of unique, or switch to 2400 or something like that, you will have to adjust again..... Looks like the load you have in it is grouping well, but i am sure you are gunna play some more before you settle on a load....

It sure does shoot nice it seems, no sign of keyholing... Might wanna try to shoot out to 100 just to see what the holes look like even if it is a long way for you tired eyes...lol ... Dont forget the Bi-focals.... He he...

Also might be cool if you can shoot some into some sand or something and recover a couple boolits to see (with bi-focals of course) how they are engraving..... :)

AG

[DeanWinchester]

Jeez, bifocals? I ain't even 40 years old yet!

Well, I guess it's like a close friend of mine always says, he's in his late 60's. Getting old ain't for wimps boy. It takes a hoss of a man to get old.

[TXGunNut]

Jeez, bifocals? I ain't even 40 years old yet!

Well, I guess it's like a close friend of mine always says, he's in his late 60's. Getting old ain't for wimps boy. It takes a hoss of a man to get old.


Congrats on the good eyesight, use those buckhorn sights while you can! You'll need "readers" and bifocals soon enough. Your friend is right, my shooting buddy is a bit past 70 and I hope I'm tough enough to do what he does when I'm his age.

[DeanWinchester]

I dang near need 'em now. I can start a fire with current prescription. My astigmatism is pretty bad and only getting worse. I'll probably go blind by the time I'm 70. Hopefully I'll get hit by a bus the day before. Lol!

[Maximumbob54]

Dean, look up Mojo Sights. I'm thinking of trying one on a very similar rifle. Mine is a 24/47. It's a peep sight you swap out from the original sight so you can always put it right back to milspec if you wanted.

[DeanWinchester]

Thanks Bob, I will look into that!

[DeanWinchester]

Tried another volley today. This time with a starting load of 2400. I was hoping for a bit of elevation, but it didn't change much. Grouping was a tad better though. Definitely had more zip to it. Still no leading. I like projects like this, where you have zero expectations and the actual results don't matter. LOL!

20 rounds, benched @ 50 yards. Sad eyes and tiny sights AND it was raining. No complaints from me!
http://i1216.photobucket.com/albums/dd371/Reloadingfool/photo_zps658f14a7.jpg

[leadman]

If your gun still has the ladder sight on it you may want to stand it up and try it. I have a couple of military guns that this works out on. If it hits too high then you can add J-B Weld to the front sight to increase the height.
You might contact the Dutchman here and ask if he is making any scout scope bases for your gun. I have one of his for my 1891 Argentine Mauser and it is high quality work. The B-Square mounts tend to be too high for me but the base can be milled down some to lower the scope. I had another member here mill down a B-square for my K-31.
Does look like an interesting boolit and I wonder how it shoots at long range.