Turning bullets

[Avery Arms]

Anyone ever try turning bullets out of lead or copper?

I used to moderate the groove bullets forum back when Don was making CNC copper bullets, awesome bullets I still have a couple of each size stashed someplace.

Would it not be possible to fabricate a jig or cutter head of sorts so that a manual lathe operator could produce consistent copper bullets without painstaking adjustments?


PP

[MtGun44]

I have heard that a lot of the 50 cal match bullets are turned
from various bronze, copper and brass alloys. A screw machine
would make them pretty fast.

Bill

[arclight]

I made some Silver bullets this way. It's tedious, and it's a little tricky to part them off the same way every time.

It's not too hard to make a wad cutter or a simple SWC, but a real ogive is tricky. I suppose you could also use a radius cutter to make a round nose, or approximate the ogive you want, if you set the radius up for 1.5" or so.

You could make a gage out of thin metal to compare your finished product to as well. That might speed things up as well.

Arclight

[Sam]

Easy enough to make a profile cutter for the job. As areclight said parting would still be a chore
sam

[Sam]

Easy enough to make a profile cutter for the job. As areclight said parting would still be a chore
sam

[smokemjoe]

I have turned Ly. 330 gould down to fit my 41 swiss just to get bullets to shoot. Turned 1/2 and then chuck on the turned part and done the end to match, But didnt match, wouldnt roll down hill, but at 100 yds. put them under 3/4 in. Was scared to try it again. I have turned bullets from a solid piece of lead and they never shot with a hoot. Thats it for lead. Joe

[Cap'n Morgan]

You can easily cut brass bullets with a full-profile tool. Copper would be more problematic, even if you use a free-cutting alloy.

As for parting off, if the lathe has a quick change tool post you could mount the parting tool below the profile tool, and move it up to center height when parting. Or perhaps a special tool holder with the parting tool mounted opposite the profile tool, upside down. Moving the cross slide backwards would then part off the bullet.

In a swiss machine the part is profiled in a single cut, and making a bullet is a matter of seconds. The big advance her is that you can machine any bullet profile you can think of.

I have made drawings for turned bullets for my .270 Win and .375 H&H. One of our customers has a shop choke full of swiss machines, and has promised to run a batch for me one of these days.

[NoDakJak]

Just a little note of interest. The book"American Guerilla In The Philippines" talks about how they made some last ditch ammunition for their 1903 rifles. Primers were removed from the fired cases, the anvil removed and the firing pin indent hammered flat. The compound from matches was used to recharge the primers. Powder was salvaged from a Japanese mine. Bullets were hand filed from solid brass curtain rods. I don't remember anything being said about reloading tools. They say that "Necessity is the Mother of Invention" but I sure wouldn't want to pull the trigger on one of those rifles and I bet that assembling those primers was touchy. Neil

[HotGuns]

Two tool posts that are bolted to peice of steel work great and it works most quickly with a collet attachment on the lathe.

One tool post is mounted in the conventional manner. The other is mounted opposite with a cutoff tool and the cuttoff tool is mounted upside down and placed far enough back that your regular tool bit for the machining operation can be completed without interference. When you are done, you simply crank in the cutoff tool and part it off.

A drill chuck placed in the tailstock with a small rod is used for your stop. Once you get your distance figured out and begin cutting, when you part it off, you just release the tension on the draw bar and pull the remaining stock out until it hits the depth stop in the tailstock.

A tool ground with the contour of the bullet is used in the tool holder.
Doing it this way is quick and easy and very repeatable if you pay attention. Using a digital readout and setting your zero's make this even quicker.

One can easily do several bullets a minute once its all figured out.