Tried making plinkers from buckshot?

[rickster]

Anyone tried making half jacket bullets out of buckshot? I am toying with the idea of swaging 50gr 25-20 bullets out of 0 buckshot and gas checks. Would like to make something similar the Speer 30cal "Plinker." Wondering what would happen if a buckshot ball was swaged into an oversized gas check and sized to 25cal.

[sagacious]

Try it and see. You might have better results casting cylindrical 45gr lead cores and swaging them onto the gas-checks, and scrap lead is much cheaper than buckshot. I have done that with .185" cores swaged onto a fired LP primer (anvil removed) to form 22cal gas-check bullets. Inexpensive, easy, and works very well.

[Caveape]

Hey Rickster!

I've made nice plinkers for 30-06 and 32auto from 00 buckshot.
I remember I used Bullseye powder, but can't remember the exact charge.
It may have been about 7 grns for the 30-06 and 2 or so for the 32auto.

With the case charged, tap in the buckshot even with the case mouth. It cuts a ring of lead off at the mouth. Then fill the void around the buckshot with some lube like bore butter or similar. It made a fun plinker.

I'm sure others here have tried this method before and can give you more specific details.
Research it and get some solid data to use. What I listed is from memory only.

Caveape

[rickster]

Spent several hours making and testing dies. The hard part turned out to be the easy part and the easy part turned out to be the hard part. I was able to squeeze the #0 balls down to size using a die with a 2 degree internal taper. Makes nice little round nose slugs. Could not get .312 gas checks to size down to .257 evenly. Very rarely did one come out not lop sided. I am done messing with this for now. Too much trouble unless I get a stroke of genius.

[sagacious]

...
Could not get .312 gas checks to size down to .257 evenly. Very rarely did one come out not lop sided. I am done messing with this for now...
Yes, you'll need to use 25cal gas-checks. Sizing down larger ones requires dedicted dies, or as you found, they end-up lopsided.

If you have the right size gas-checks, you simply point-form the core alone, then place it nose-down it onto a gas-check, and then point form again. Done.

[bohica2xo]

As you just pointed out, shotshell primers are steel.

I have no problem shooting an annealed steel bullet down a modern heat treated & chrome lined military rifle bore - I make a habbit of it in fact.

Taking an already work hardened primer, and working the metal even more to form a bullet will make a fairly hard steel jacket. I would not shoot such a bullet through any of my vintage 25-20's, and would be reluctant to shoot it through any barrel that was not nitrided or hard chromed.

.257 half jackets can be made from copper easily enough. For 25-20 velocities a rimfire case should be good enough for a jacket.

B.