Plastic Boolitz

[Garyshome]

Is it possible to cast plastic boolitz? You know like maybe grind up a bunch of 2 liter bottles for material. They would most likely be very light. Like injection molding. Put a gas check on them. I guess I'm bored.....but not out of stuff to do.

[parson48]

Never tried plastic, but have made and shot hot glue bullets powered by just a primer. They are reusable- to a point.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Just for the sake of conversation, and maybe an idea or two for you, someone, I think it was Lyman, used to make plastic bullets. I've got some in .44 caliber. They came in a lot of maybe 25, and included plastic cases (what you would normally call brass, but plastic) and plastic wadcutter shaped bullets. All you did was put a primer into the case, put the bullet into the case, and you had surprisingly accurate indoor target practice. No powder, just primer. The bullet was flat on the business end, and recessed a bit on the end that slipped into the case.
I think a fellow with one of the small hobby lathes could machine some pretty functional bullets out of hard plastic.

DG

[country gent]

Wax bullets used to be very popular for practice. Speer made plastic bullets for the same purpose. The speers used a plastic case in some calibers. No [pwder just a primer for power on both wax and plastic.

Another promising material would be the poly urethane materials for casting parts. Here you would want a material with a 70-80 shore d hardness ( about boot heel hard),And a mould to cast 25-50 in a pour, due to the curing time. Moulds for this material can be silicon, wood, metal,or plastic. these materials are 1-1 mix or 10-1 mix. cure time can be as short as a few hours to as long as 48 hours.

A duplicate of a 148 hollow based wc in this material would probably weight around 20 grns so a 32 ounce kit ( around 30.00) would make around 600 reusable bullets.

[dverna]

I have some I got with a bunch of other stuff I picked up...just need to find them if you want them and hope I did not throw them out. Free for the shipping cost.

One thing is the stuff from the primer is not good to breath so indoor use is a poor idea, and with primers going for $100/1000 is will not be cheap to shoot.

I wound up getting a decent quality CO2 pistol that my son now has. I am looking at getting another or a PCP pistol. Even a cheap .177 pellet is going to be a lot more accurate than a cast or injected hunk of plastic.

[StuBach]

Hot glue Gluboolits have an extensive thread on here.

Casting hot glue boolits
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink/topic?share_fid=9688&share_tid=17577&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcastboolits%2Egunloads%2Ecom%2Fsh owthread%2Ephp%3Ft%3D17577&share_type=t&link_source=app

Lots of fun and easier/less smelly than trying to melt down plastic

[SSGOldfart]

Just for the sake of conversation, and maybe an idea or two for you, someone, I think it was Lyman, used to make plastic bullets. I've got some in .44 caliber. They came in a lot of maybe 25, and included plastic cases (what you would normally call brass, but plastic) and plastic wadcutter shaped bullets. All you did was put a primer into the case, put the bullet into the case, and you had surprisingly accurate indoor target practice. No powder, just primer. The bullet was flat on the business end, and recessed a bit on the end that slipped into the case.
I think a fellow with one of the small hobby lathes could machine some pretty functional bullets out of hard plastic.

DG

Speer also made them I still have about 50.or so

[Winger Ed.]

You'd probably need a heated pressure/injection mold type system to make good ones.
At least with a thermo plastic as opposed to a epoxy sort of resin.
I don't think plastic would lend itself to casting from a pot like we do with Lead.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Speer also made them I still have about 50.or so

My memory is foggy, and it likely was Speer. I've got some in an old cigar box, but no maker label. It's probably been about 25 years since I used them...!

[onelight]

Speer also made them I still have about 50.or so
I think they even sold plastic cases to load those plastic bullets in.

[wmitty]

I bought some of the speers in the early eighties for a Blackhawk .357 and was disappointed to find the plastic projectile was smaller in diameter than the land diameter of the revolver. I shot one at the door of my International Scout and was surprised to see it broke thru the bondo on the door.
I gained a new insight as to the energy a primer powered plastic projectile could possess.

[Texas by God]

Don't use a wooden backstop for the Speer plastic bullets- they will rebound and hit you. Ask me how I know.....

Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk

[HumptyDumpty]

The Germans used to (maybe still do?) make a plastic 7.62 NATO training round. I have several thousand, and intend to buy more before they disappear from the surplus market. Very light, very fast, and remarkably accurate within 50 yards. They have a slightly smaller rim diameter, because they were used in conjunction with a special lightweight training bolt in the HK G3, and using standard ammo with that bolt would be disasterous. I do have one of those training bolts for my PTR, but the rounds are also great out of a bolt gun. Upon impact with a solid target, they deform in dramatic fashion, but I have recovered a few intact projectiles over the last couple years; eventually I may load them into some brass cases. I wonder if you could 3d print some....

Edited to add that, with sufficient velocity (such as the German ammo I mentioned), these bullets are absolutely lethal at close ranges, and will punch through a variety of common materials, such as plywood and automobile body panels. Definitely not a toy.

[bangerjim]

"plastic" boolits would involve an expensive industrial injection molding system. Just do what thousands of other on here do.....cast Hot Melt Glue (HMG )boolits!

I have been doing it for almost 9 years now. Great fun shooting (when primers were not scarce).

Use your standard boolit molds: spray them with PAM and cool with ice cubes as you inject the HMG. Wonderful plinking slugs.

Wipe off the PAM with a paper towel when done and go right into casting with Pb as usual. Grease is NOT a problem with molds as most bemoan on here. One or two drops of cast boolits and any trace of grease is burnt out and gone. No need to scrub & clean & clean & scrub & clean & scrub as most on here say. Hot lead DOES make oils and greases scurry out of the cavities real fast!!!!!!!

I have fun shooting HMG boolits.....inside the garage and out in the backyard. But beware: you can "shoot your eye out"!

banger :guntootsmiley:

[onelight]

I have some 762x39 with plastic bullets don't remember if they are German .

[tazman]

I like the air pistol idea.
You can get small steel bullet traps for fairly cheap that can be used indoors to stop pellets easily. I have one and use it with my pellet rifle to get trigger time when the weather prohibits travel to the range.

I used to use those Speer plastic cartridges for practice long ago. I used a heavy blanket hung loose to stop them. After several shots in the same place, the blanket would wear and the bullets would punch through. The holes in the walls from the plastic bullets got me into some trouble with the wife.

[Garyshome]

Some good stuff here.

[StuBach]

When I started into Gluboolits I did some testing and with just a LPP in a 45 they can penetrate 10+ layers of box cardboard. I had a stack prolly 15 layers deep I was testing against (remnants of my kids’ cedar fort from Costco) and I would find them buried in the back layers. I ended up creating a shooting box which has a cardboard front (could also use foam board), fiberboard sides, and triple fiberboard back. On the back and part of the sides I lined them with some carpet pad and carpet to dampen the impact and found decent results but the glue still being hot from the barrel would stick in the fibers. I was lucky enough to have some clear flex PVC sheets and these work great over the carpet to stop the gluboolits without damage.

With the old Speer ones, my dad has a plastic shooting box for them which has three offset tilting metal flaps to catch the bullets and deflect them down. He covered them with Kevlar and they worked great without damaging the plastic. Also worked great for BBs and Pellets. Wouldn’t be too hard to make your own.

Bottom of both boxes is slanted so bullets roll and collect in the front.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210125/ff46c4366e4aa395bbcaf4bfc8f8582e.jpg

Did have one deflect once, it bounced around my garage pretty good so be careful.

[fcvan]

I got into the 'Glueblit' thing, still have some converted cases (enlarged flash hole) and a bunch of projectiles. Liquid floor wax was a great tumble lube. I had a dandy of a time walking the farm with my dad, plinking away at the numerous lizards, squirrels, gophers, and jack rabbits, but I was sternly told not to shoot the cotton tails. I generally enjoyed shooting a Ruger OM Vaquero 38-40/40 S&W using the 40 S&W round. Good times, back when primers were to be had for 22.50/1000 almost everywhere. Dad had to try some too :)

[mf79]

they make rubber bullets for 223 for non lethal, I tried them in ar with a special bolt so it cycles

[bangerjim]

If you want a "HOT" HMG round, drop a slingshot BB in the nose of the mold B4 injecting the glue!. And a 1g of pistol powder.

Those things really move and can penetrate well.

But treat them ALL like you would any other round BB or not!

[AndyC]

If you want a "HOT" HMG round, drop a slingshot BB in the nose of the mold

I like how you think - lol

[WRideout]

One of the fun things I used to do was load wax bullets in my 38 spl revolver. I had to drill out the flash hole on the cases, because the primer is the only propellant (Keep those separated from your regular cases.) Push the cases all the way through a block of Gulfwax, then prime them. That's it. The wax goes in first so you are not building up air pressure in the case, which can push them back out. Good for tipping over pop cans at 10 ft.

Wayne

[shaggybull]

I've seen them powered by primer only used for practice accurately shot at 20 feet.

[bangerjim]

I've seen them powered by primer only used for practice accurately shot at 20 feet.

Most people use primers only - with the flash hole drilled larger. I personally like more "bang" for may buck, so I put in a gram of any pistol powder handy (with wadding). Really makes a difference!

But primers only, especially mags, will get you goin'............if you want to waste good primers these days!!!!!!

[onelight]

Most people use primers only - with the flash hole drilled larger. I personally like more "bang" for may buck, so I put in a gram of any pistol powder handy (with wadding). Really makes a difference!

But primers only, especially mags, will get you goin'............if you want to waste good primers these days!!!!!!
Should that be grain of powder ?