Plastic filled, cast hollow points?

[delmar]

Inspired by the glue bullet thread (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=17577&page=7) and by the corbon powRball (http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.hipowersandhandguns.com/CorbonPowRball_files/image006.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.hipowersandhandguns.com/CorbonPowRball.htm&usg=__ATEWAR7GJyyGazrppxNpMq6A0-M=&h=383&w=444&sz=19&hl=en&start=34&um=1&tbnid=E88rEScegDie-M:&tbnh=110&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3DCorbon%2B%2B%2522PowRball%26start%3D2 0%26ndsp%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dorg.mozil la:en-US:official%26sa%3DN) I was thinking about using a hot glue gun to fill the cavity of cast hollow points, before hand loading.
Should work, don't you think?

[Boerrancher]

I don't think it will. Here is the reason. The glue will be too soft to do anything other than fill the hollow cavity and keep it from expanding. The beauty of plastic inserts in Hollow pt bullets is the plastic is harder than the copper jacket and the lead. By filling in the cavity of a cast hollow point you will be turning it into just a boolit with some glue on it, because hydrolic pressure is kept out of the cavity, which is what makes a hollow point expand.

Best wishes from the Boer Ranch,

Joe

[Glen]

Sorry Boerrancher, but you're wrong on this one. A) the plastic is not harder than the copper or the lead, and on the plastic filled HPs the plastic tip breaks away and is commonly found under the hide at the entrance wound. and B) The glue probably WILL work because it IS soft and will serve as a hydraulic fluid to promote expansion of the HP. The old-timers used to fill their cast HPs with bacon grease or tallow to do exactly the same thing, and it worked great.

[runfiverun]

i have used hot glue to make hornady xtp's for years[before they come up with it] into the leverwhatever they call it.
they seem to still do their job.
course i was using their 44 and 45 bullets.
guess it don't matter if they expand or not i never recovered one from an animal.
but plugging a hollow point will keep it from expanding.

[delmar]

I wonder how well an air soft plastic BB would fit into the cavity with a little hot glue?

[delmar]

i have used hot glue to make hornady xtp's for years[before they come up with it] into the leverwhatever they call it.
they seem to still do their job.
course i was using their 44 and 45 bullets.
guess it don't matter if they expand or not i never recovered one from an animal.
but plugging a hollow point will keep it from expanding.
If it doesn't expand, is there a point to using hollow points?

[Boerrancher]

If it doesn't expand, is there a point to using hollow points?

This is how I am going to answer that question. When I was a young lad learning all about Hunting, Fishing, Reloading, and Casting, the fella that taught me most of what I know told me this about Fishing lures. He said,"There are two types of lures out there, those that are made to catch fish, and those that are made to catch fishermen."

Best wishes from the Boer Ranch,

Joe

[Leadforbrains]

First off I am no expert, so my opinion on the subject is just that. I do alot of reading about guns and ammunition as I have been fascinated by this since I was in elementary school.
The bisectional pictures of most commercial plastic tip hunting ammo show a holllow space behind the plastic tip. I presume the space is for the plastic tip to move back into the lead portion of the bullet to promote expansion. I have even seen ammo with a lead ball or a BB swaged into the nose for whatever reason. I have recovered hollowpoint bullets that have been plugged with whatever I have shot them into that have failed to expand properly.
In my opinion and depending on what you use to fill the hollowpoint with you could turn that same hollowpoint into a solid, or some kind of soft point. You could theretically control expansion or maybe even promote it depending on what you fill the nose with, and what you are shooting it into.
You could run a series of tests and post your findings here.
Oh, another thing is primary bullet contruction and velocity also plays a big part, so your results can vary in that aspect also.

[Ed Barrett]

This reminds me of the original Minie bullet. They tried clay, metal, and other types of plug material in the base. Then they found if you don't use anything it work work just fine. The definition of elegant is "just what is needed to do the job at hand perfectly, no more no less."

[dubber123]

One of the magazines had an article on making cast HP's work. Most if not all of the information was given by a scientist that worked in a forensics lab. (Might have been FBI, I don't recall) Anyway, this was back in the 70's when lead HP's were still widely used by agencies.

During a "slow spell", they killed time by trying to make these lead HP's work dependably. I believe their final solution was wax in the cavity. They determined you needed hydraulic pressure to make a HP expand. If you shot something, and the HP got plugged by clothing on a person, hair on an animal etc., expansion became erratic. By "pre-plugging" the cavity with something that went to a liquid state under pressure, (wax), the Hp's worked perfectly every time, consistantly.

Whether hot glue would become liquid enough under pressure, is the big question. The article had alot of good pics of boolits recovered from expansion tanks, and the results looked pretty obvious to me.

[delmar]

One of the magazines had an article on making cast HP's work. Most if not all of the information was given by a scientist that worked in a forensics lab. (Might have been FBI, I don't recall) Anyway, this was back in the 70's when lead HP's were still widely used by agencies.

During a "slow spell", they killed time by trying to make these lead HP's work dependably. I believe their final solution was wax in the cavity. They determined you needed hydraulic pressure to make a HP expand. If you shot something, and the HP got plugged by clothing on a person, hair on an animal etc., expansion became erratic. By "pre-plugging" the cavity with something that went to a liquid state under pressure, (wax), the Hp's worked perfectly every time, consistantly.

Whether hot glue would become liquid enough under pressure, is the big question. The article had alot of good pics of boolits recovered from expansion tanks, and the results looked pretty obvious to me.

Wax does sound like a good idea! I may not need it though. I just bought the pistol two days ago, and I might find that hollow point feed through it just fine.

[arcticbreeze]

One of the magazines had an article on making cast HP's work. Most if not all of the information was given by a scientist that worked in a forensics lab. (Might have been FBI, I don't recall) Anyway, this was back in the 70's when lead HP's were still widely used by agencies.

During a "slow spell", they killed time by trying to make these lead HP's work dependably. I believe their final solution was wax in the cavity. They determined you needed hydraulic pressure to make a HP expand. If you shot something, and the HP got plugged by clothing on a person, hair on an animal etc., expansion became erratic. By "pre-plugging" the cavity with something that went to a liquid state under pressure, (wax), the Hp's worked perfectly every time, consistantly.

Whether hot glue would become liquid enough under pressure, is the big question. The article had alot of good pics of boolits recovered from expansion tanks, and the results looked pretty obvious to me.

I think this might be the article

http://www.shootingtimes.com/ammunition/st_70hollowpoint_200811/

[dubber123]

I do believe that is the article, thanks.

[Leadforbrains]

Cool article! Thanks for the link Articbreeze.

[runfiverun]

i know on a bone shot they made a mess of the area, but just two nice holes when through the lungs.
i was using the glue to help flatten the trajectory a bit more.
this was before i realized that all those cast boolits i had been shooting for years would do xactly the same thing .