Drill a lead bullet to make it lighter?

[Baltimoreed]

What do you guys think? I’ve got a box of 500 perfectly good 300 gr .454 lubed, lead truncated nose, hard cast bullets and am thinking that I might try to drill out the bases so I can use these drilled out bullets in my old .455 martial Smith, Colts and Webley revolvers chambered in .45acp, .45lc and .455 calibers. I’m using these for my cas/wasa matches, targets are close and big but 300 gr is just too much lead. Naturally I will eventually cast the scrap into something else. If I can remove 50-70 gr they would be fine. I would use my HF mini mill to drill a hole in a piece of hardwood 29/64 = .4531 in my table vice then experiment with other drills to drill out the hollow base, weighing each as I drill. I’m thinking that I would cut the board so it could compress slightly to hold the bullet in the hole. I don’t want it to slip but I don’t want to change the diameter. My current load of 4.0 gr of Bullseye and a 200-250 gr .454 rnfp seem to work fine for my solid base bullets but I’m all out of .454’s except the 300s. Of course I could always melt them and recast them but why when they’re ready to go except being too heavy.

[Conditor22]

Not sure I'd drill out the base for a revolver, maybe the nose but I'm afraid they would be out of balance.
If you want to do this, I would drill a hole slightly smaller than the diameter of the boolit between 2 pieces of hardwood the depth of the drive bands. once centered, you close the vise, drill, open the vise, replace the boolit and it will be the same depth as the last one.

Personally, I would swap or sell the 300 gr boolits and cast the size you want. Shame to risk 500 goo heavy boolits.

[rondog]

You have a mini-mill, just mill some length off the base to make them shorter and lighter. Should be able to make a simple steel fixture to put the bullets in with a set screw to hold them in place.

[GARD72977]

Before you screw them up justtrade them or buy some more. Next to impossible to do a good job and keep them concentric.

[jmorris]

If they are lead and you cast, throw them in the pot and turn them into the bullets you want. Or just reduce your powder charge and work back up. Now you’ Have load data for 200-300 gn bullets.

[GregLaROCHE]

I’ve often thought about drilling out the nose of some 500gr .45-70 boolits to make them into hollow points, but never did. I think balance would come into play. Maybe if you had a mini lathe, but that’s starting to get into a lot of work. Easier to melt and recast.

[Bent Ramrod]

It is eminently “do-able;” rather labor- and time-intensive, though.

Forster case trimmers have an attachment that allows drilling of a concentric hollow point in a loaded cartridge, and the late, great Al Goerg once offered a centering cap that went over the bullet and allowed accurate drilling by hand. Either of these could probably be modified to drill a boolit base.

If you got your hardwood fixture well-centered and the depth stop set, you could certainly drill holes in boolit bases within a thousandths of dead center. Certainly close enough for pistol shooting.

I’ve only drilled hollow points, myself, in a lathe collet. It’s pretty tedious work. I’ve found Kroil to be a great drilling lube for lead. It keeps the chips from sticking to the drill, and building up around the drilled cavity. Both of which will happen, otherwise.

[country gent]

For a few bullets to test an idea its good to drill ( for special shapes a spade drill can be made) but for large batches modifying the mould is less work in the long run. Even with the lather set up is a tedious job and indicating setting sure dead stops and getting them right and the same from batch to batch is a chore. Modifying the mould you set it up once and make the changes then everytime you cast its the same exact thing. No further set-up work now second operations to modify.

[Baltimoreed]

Rondog, This is why I pose questions on these forums. I hadn’t thought of actually milling them, a great idea. The lube groove is near the base so I milled the nose off one with no problem, the lead cut like i was cutting brass, it wound up weighing 228 gr +-. Makes a beautiful.45 wad cutter. I’m going to carry a 250 gr rnfp to measure and cut a 300 the same length and see what I’ve got. Photos soon.

[bangerjim]

Trade or re-melt them.

Milling/drilling/messing with them is too much time spent. And you will end up with out-of balance slugs if you drill. Milling setup time is too great for shortening boolits.

I had the same situation a couple years ago and I forgot about machining them all together. Just re-melt and re-cast to something you want. Molds are cheap. Your time wasted is NOT! At least in my situation.

But do whatever fits your time and needs.

banger

[Baltimoreed]

232860232861Here’s the milled bullets, these 10 weigh from 228 to 230 gr. I love how mirror like the milling cut looks. The 1% weight difference is in the original bullet, not in the milling. IMO milling is easier than recasting them. Loaded some up into 45 lc brass. They look like the Webley Manstopper minus the hollow point or hollow base. I also want to load some into .455 brass. Raining cats and dogs today but clearing tomorrow so I’ll see how they shoot then.

[Conditor22]

now that's a wadcutter:), I'll be watching this.

The milling looks like fun, not sure how fun it will be after 500 boolits

[bmortell]

I tried putting lead bullets in a wood hole once and drilling, think I was going for hollow points. but anyway it wasn't fun at all, the drill bit grips the lead and clogs and wants to spin the bullet. making something diy style to hold and drill a bullet was deemed not usefull. although im sure its possible if you really go into it.

[El Bibliotecario]

For Robinson Crusoe, who had limited resources and infinite time on his hands, it would be a great idea. For anyone else...

[Baltimoreed]

It does help that I’m retired, not gone to seed and have always liked to tinker and build stuff but .454 dia lead bullets are hard to find. And I like shooting my Webleys. My favorite toy when I was a kid was an Erector Set that had the real electric motor.

[jonp]

now that's a wadcutter:), I'll be watching this.

The milling looks like fun, not sure how fun it will be after 500 boolits

No kidding. I've got some 300gr Lee 45LC and a mini mill I use to cut down 5.56 to 300BO. Bet that would work to make some excellent 45LC Wadcutters.

Whenever I'm in the garage doing stuff like this and my wife comes home she wanders in and asks me what I'm doing. After I tell her she says "been on the internet again, haven't you". To her credit she has never tried to stop me.

[Conditor22]

She sounds like a good woman jonp who knows you well, definitely a keeper.

[Baltimoreed]

My milled off 300 gr bullets are not grouping like I thought they would. They seem to like the schofeld brass better than the .455. Wondering if the square edge is an issue. Today I’ve been playing on the mini mill this afternoon milling lead. Mill 5, load 5, shoot 5. I tried drilling out the base to make a thick skirt, thin skirt—using .455 brass but no grouping. Then I tried drilling out the nose [weighed 260+-gr] and at 10 steps I’m getting about 2 inch groups with schofeld brass. Next I want to try 45lc brass. I’m using my light target load of 4.0 gr of Bullseye. I’m using a pair of .455 SW Hand Ejectors. Tomorrow I’ll try the HPs in some .455 brass. Maybe try another revolver and see if the gun matters.

[Baltimoreed]

Had a breakthrough today, using either the hollow point or cut off wad cutters in the .455 case you have to crimp them in the grease groove to get them to group. I just shot a 1.5 inch group with my target Webley using the wad cutters, 4 holes were overlapping. The wc’s group tighter than the hp’s. May cut the rest of them and use them in .455 brass for my original guns. Need to load up some more.

[Mitch]

you are going to get hooked on the bullets and order a mold now lol.keep a few to send to the mold maker

[Cast_outlaw]

Som pictures of the target would be nice to see and that’s some good innovation with them heavy Boolits