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pathfinder
07-23-2010, 01:24 PM
What would be the limiting factors for turning solid copper rod on a lathe. Making boolits from solid copper is the Barnes way isnt it?
Edubya
07-23-2010, 02:25 PM
The weight differential is considerable: http://tinyurl.com/copper-vs-lead

EW
littlejack
07-23-2010, 02:35 PM
Time!
Hardcast416taylor
07-23-2010, 02:40 PM
About 10 years ago I got ahold of 200 copper wire feed weld tips. They were .312" dia. with thread on 1 end for screwing onto the auto wire welder. I would chuck these in a drill and file the threads down to a somewhat tapered flatpoint. I used J&B weld with a straight pin to plug the wire channel. I used 220 gr. jacketed load data for the .303 Br. I got about 3" groups for 5 shots at 75 yds with an old #4 Mk 1 Enfield.Robert
MtGun44
07-23-2010, 04:57 PM
Cost of copper and lathe time. Make sure you add shallow grooves like a
Triple Shock Barnes if you want experiment. Lowers the pressures a lot and makes them
more consistent. Also, anneal your copper by heating it red hot. Cooling rate makes
zero difference in hardness of copper alloys.

Bill
XWrench3
07-23-2010, 06:01 PM
to be efficient, i would think you would need to modify an automatic screw machine somehow to run them. plus, you would need to get a heck of a buy to be cost efficient. i agree, you would want dead soft copper and run grooves around them. then, you would have to figure out how to make them expand. i really doubt that just drilling a hollow point in the end of one would do a good job. if i was doing it, i would use grease in the grooves like a cast boolit. that should really cut down on the copper fouling.
DIRT Farmer
07-23-2010, 06:54 PM
If you rember your summer reading asignments from, in my case a long time ago, Dr Watson, of Schurlock Holmes fame walked with a limp after being shot in the leg with a peice of copper wire from the North India Telegraph. A piece of wire cut to length was the projectile of choice for reloading the 303 cartridge by the Afgan rebals who were working on kicking out the infidels in that round.
Johnch
07-23-2010, 10:30 PM
On Accurat Reloading there is a guy that has posted a number of threads on his turned bullets and how he makes the hollow points expand

http://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/frm/f/3621043

I find it interesting , but have 0 knowlage on the subject other than what I have read

John