Wax bullets get very hard when fired

[David2011]

A buddy made up some wax boolits using 1 pound of paraffin, 4 oz beeswax and 2 oz marine bearing grease. They’re soft when he cuts them from the cake. He fires them right away and has noticed that they get very hard when fired. They’re punching through aluminum cans and cardboard. He’s using magnum primers in .45 Colt and no powder. When he recovers them they are much harder than when loaded. Any ideas on what causes them to get so hard?

[Rcmaveric]

I am no material physicist but heat, pressure and friction do strange things to substances. That's just my SWAG. I really dont know.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

[poppy42]

Has he recovered any after firing? I’ve made a lot of hot glue Boolets and never found them to be any harder after firing. At short distances, they still punch through aluminum cans and cardboard. Neither of those materials offer much give or resistance. As a kid I shot many wads of bubblegum with a slingshot and had them penetrate cardboard and aluminum cans. I seriously doubt your wax bullets are becoming harder after firing! At least not from the pressures generated by a primer.

[David2011]

As I wrote, he has seen that the wax boolits are MUCH harder after he recovers them. I wouldn’t assume that hot glue would have the same characteristics as the wax blend he’s using.

Unfortunately he lives several hundred miles away so I can’t look at it myself.

[Ateam]

too much antimony....:kidding:

[Snow ninja]

When fired and when it hits the target, it gets compressed. When it compresses, it gets harder.

[Larry Gibson]

too much antimony....:kidding:

It's just "magic".....:groner:

[fixit]

Perhaps it has some relation to the principal of Newtonian solids. Typically, this refers to substances are liquid or semi-liquid but in some circumstances, they behave like a solid. In this case the velocity of the wax causes a solid to behave as a harder solid. just a theory

[mozeppa]

too messy ....i use hot glue boolits.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

If I were to guess, if they are harder, I'd bet the hardness only goes so deep.
maybe a function of melting/refreezing the outer layer and forcing the oil/grease out of that portion of the mixture.

[bikerbeans]

Maybe your friend should heat treat his wax bullets and hunt with them?:bigsmyl2:

BB

[poppy42]

Maybe your friend should heat treat his wax bullets and hunt with them?:bigsmyl2:

BB
Yah he could hunt rubber chickens or paper Tigers!:veryconfu

[waksupi]

When fired and when it hits the target, it gets compressed. When it compresses, it gets harder.

That was my first thought too. However, it would be considered a liquid rather than a solid, and you can't compress a liquid.

[David2011]

A subsequent conversation with my friend shed some light. Apparently more time than he had originally indicated had passed between loading and shooting. When he went back to load up more wax boolits the cake was rock hard. Shooting them probably had nothing to do with the hardness. Can anyone suggest a modification to the formula in the first post that would keep the wax cake soft enough to load once it’s cooled? I’ve never made lube so I don’t know what to recommend. His formula looks similar to some lube recipes.

[Dusty Bannister]

Warm the wax slab and the cases will easily push through the wax to form a slug.

[Burnt Fingers]

Summer wax vs winter wax?

[Alferd Packer]

A buddy made up some wax boolits using 1 pound of paraffin, 4 oz beeswax and 2 oz marine bearing grease. They’re soft when he cuts them from the cake. He fires them right away and has noticed that they get very hard when fired. They’re punching through aluminum cans and cardboard. He’s using magnum primers in .45 Colt and no powder. When he recovers them they are much harder than when loaded. Any ideas on what causes them to get so hard?

When you hit the water on a lake at high enough speed you will break up or crumple like as if you struck a brick wall !
Similar to a skydiver whose chute failed to open.

[notenoughguns]

Equal parts of paraffin and bees wax and replace marine grease with 1 toilet bowl wax ring . I have used this combo for over 50 years , you don’t want them too soft or you will have barrel waxing equivalent to barrel leading . The wax slugs will look like lead slugs when recovered and just put in your pan ,reheat , then re punch . Punch an empty unprimed empty into the wax and then add primer .

[GregLaROCHE]

Wax mixed with Crisco or some other vegetable or grease should work well for your wax boolits. Search for recipes for black powder lube cookies. You may have to experiment to get what works best for you.

[AlaskaMike]

One agency I know of used wax bullets years ago with revolvers for training. Vaseline was used in the mix to keep the wax bullets soft enough. Colder winter temps required more vaseline.

[lar45]

I once used some wax to fireform 30-30 imp cases. I used a light charge of pistol powder, don't remember which one maybe 5 gns of Unique??, then pushed the case necks into some candle wax. I thought I should keep the contender pistol verticle to help the cases form, so I put a folded up old towel over the muzzle to catch the wax. I then thought that it might go through the towel, so I added an empty soup can on top. I then thought that maybe I should add a 2x4 on top of it all, for just in case. I loaded up my wax round, put the stack on top and touched it off. The wax bullet shot clear through everything and took out the florescent lights in the basement also. The wife was not pleased with me.

[yeahbub]

There was a guy who loaded wax bullets for indoor tactical practice, and he got good results from a paraffin and Vaseline mix. I think the ratio was 1:1, but it was easy to adjust for the desired hardness. He kept it fairly soft so he could punch them out with .38 Spl. cases at room temperature and then seat a primer. I could squish them between my fingers pretty easily, but they could still damage things when they hit. They went right through paper, Styrofoam cups, cereal boxes, etc. They could raise a nasty welt when smacking against skin. We found that primers tended to back out and drag, sometimes enough to tie up a revolver. It might be useful to drill out the flash holes on the cases he uses to .125 or so,