Smithy
02-02-2015, 05:33 AM
Posted prior about my home brew defensive loads I'm working up for the 2.5" 410 and am now ready to load a few to check out at the range. Patterning them and adjusting powder amounts to get the most bang for my buck. I may have mentioned the steps before on homemade equipment as well as the commercial equipment bought for this specific load, but there have been adjustments to my procedure that have simplified the operation and ended up with a better projectile in the long run. My son in law took several pictures that are now on PhotoBucket just waiting for me to edit and arrange into a proper sequence of shots to show the operation from chunk of lead to finished load column so all can see what I'm talking about. I hope to get the pic's up in a couple of days so check back now and again.
I have four commercially bought pieces of equipment and around the same in homemade pieces of equipment to get the job done and love that I've altered the use of the equipment's original purpose and have the homemade stuff to catch the missing holes in the equipment needs to get the job done. My son helped me design and manufacture the homemade equipment and I was responsible for the modifications to the commercial equipment and it has all finally come together to produce the desired finished loads. I ended up with a shell just under 2.5", but not enough to count. If using a full 2.5" hull I'd just have to add one BP Nitro Card Wad as a filler in the load where my slightly shorter hull doesn't require this filler wad. Six of one and a half a dozen for the other?
The pic's will show basically the use of a Lee 18 cavity 00 buckshot mold and then the cast strings of buckshot being cut apart to produce round balls of 36 caliber. A couple of hammer whacks flatten two sides and then held in some pin nosed pliers another couple of whacks make for a four sided chunk of lead. This is fed into a Lee .340 diameter size die. Reason for the hammering is to make sizing and latter swaging much easier since a 36 caliber round ball is a bear to pass through the Lee .340 size die. Then my aluminum making gas check die produces nice .014 thick aluminum gas checks that only serve as a base punch lead reformer and to prevent excess flashing on the base of the swaged bullet. After four cylinders are swaged they fit perfectly into my Corbin HC-2 knurling tool (now powered with an angle drill). After knurling I'm left with four lead cylinders that have a reduced base shank for paper wads latter during loading. I can fit four of these cylinders into a Ballistic Products Long Stretch 410 wad which with the amount of Lil Gun pushing the load out, fit perfectly into the 2.5" hull.
The reason for the knurling and for the diameter choice is to allow the diamond pattern of the knurling to grab onto the wad mentioned above throughout the bore and with my Conductor's round hole punch of 7/16" ran through my 357 steel shell holder and punch, which forms a cupped wad out of 3X5 card stock. These card stock wads fit into the shank area previously held by the aluminum gas checks and fold up nicely when inserted into the Stretch Wads from BP. Upon firing the card stock wads will catch the wind/air and separate causing the cylinders to also separate and create a small but separate pattern that should prove to be quite effective against home defense targets.
Next to occur will be the pictures visually explaining what I'm talking about and then finally a trip to the range with hopefully a correctly chosen first load of Lil Gun as my propellant of choice. I'll make sure to include some pictures from the range when taken to show how effective or ineffective the loads actually are. More to follow. Smithy.
I have four commercially bought pieces of equipment and around the same in homemade pieces of equipment to get the job done and love that I've altered the use of the equipment's original purpose and have the homemade stuff to catch the missing holes in the equipment needs to get the job done. My son helped me design and manufacture the homemade equipment and I was responsible for the modifications to the commercial equipment and it has all finally come together to produce the desired finished loads. I ended up with a shell just under 2.5", but not enough to count. If using a full 2.5" hull I'd just have to add one BP Nitro Card Wad as a filler in the load where my slightly shorter hull doesn't require this filler wad. Six of one and a half a dozen for the other?
The pic's will show basically the use of a Lee 18 cavity 00 buckshot mold and then the cast strings of buckshot being cut apart to produce round balls of 36 caliber. A couple of hammer whacks flatten two sides and then held in some pin nosed pliers another couple of whacks make for a four sided chunk of lead. This is fed into a Lee .340 diameter size die. Reason for the hammering is to make sizing and latter swaging much easier since a 36 caliber round ball is a bear to pass through the Lee .340 size die. Then my aluminum making gas check die produces nice .014 thick aluminum gas checks that only serve as a base punch lead reformer and to prevent excess flashing on the base of the swaged bullet. After four cylinders are swaged they fit perfectly into my Corbin HC-2 knurling tool (now powered with an angle drill). After knurling I'm left with four lead cylinders that have a reduced base shank for paper wads latter during loading. I can fit four of these cylinders into a Ballistic Products Long Stretch 410 wad which with the amount of Lil Gun pushing the load out, fit perfectly into the 2.5" hull.
The reason for the knurling and for the diameter choice is to allow the diamond pattern of the knurling to grab onto the wad mentioned above throughout the bore and with my Conductor's round hole punch of 7/16" ran through my 357 steel shell holder and punch, which forms a cupped wad out of 3X5 card stock. These card stock wads fit into the shank area previously held by the aluminum gas checks and fold up nicely when inserted into the Stretch Wads from BP. Upon firing the card stock wads will catch the wind/air and separate causing the cylinders to also separate and create a small but separate pattern that should prove to be quite effective against home defense targets.
Next to occur will be the pictures visually explaining what I'm talking about and then finally a trip to the range with hopefully a correctly chosen first load of Lil Gun as my propellant of choice. I'll make sure to include some pictures from the range when taken to show how effective or ineffective the loads actually are. More to follow. Smithy.