Homemade pellets?

[Littleton Shot Maker]

Ghosthawk- info on the "guy" in England would be great.
I can cast a swage for most all the weapons in the house, one day it 'might' be nice to have the tools to make a .25 pellet- if it will shoot ok in the Marauder. Maybe I can talk Richard at RCE into a die set for but he would be nowhere close to $70, and it may take 3-4 die set up?? Something like is 500-600 bucks last I checked on the 223 anyway? Depending on what style nose was needed - and base too....

[GhostHawk]

http://nomad-pelletmaker.weebly.com/

There is the site.

From the research I've done he uses a mold, then a single step swaging process with a pin and a die to form the "skirt"

Yes I'd love to be able to create my own, but to get the double kit in .20 and .22 (I own airguns in both calibers) your looking at 175 GBP which I suspect will be well over 200$ investment.

That buys a LOT of pellets.

In fact after going down this road I ended up buying 2500 rounds of 5mm for the Sheridans and another 2k of .22 for the 1322's and my Chinese B3 springer.

I'd love to be able to do it at a pinch. But it is a bit harder than making say a gas check maker.

And if the brown smelly stuff ever did hit the rotating air mover badly enough I would indeed figure out a way to drill a hole into a block and punch out something close enough to use.

Hmmm wonder if Lee makes sizer's that small? Might be an easier method.

[mold maker]

Remember when 22LR was .69 box in stores everywhere, and gas was .19/gal.

[Littleton Shot Maker]

Thanks a ton!
pellets are cheap enough sure, I plan to buy up a small lot: 5-10K to rat hole , of the ones the gun likes BUT, it's just another tool in the arsenal.
I will check that out - I just shot the Maruader today for the 1st time - very cool! Cheaper than 22lr - and I am shooting in the back yard - can't do that ever with a PB!!

[MT Chambers]

I reported on some results with a .30 cal. mold from Accurate a while back, that is for use in my Daystate Wolverine, it is .301" and 80 grains, some said it couldn't be done. Accuracy was quite close to the JSB 51 gr. pellets. I finally have been able to get back to this and have been experimenting to "open" the mold up a bit to .302" and am using them "as cast", and accuracy has improved some and they are def. a usable option. Speeds are down to 750 fps from the pellet's 960 fps, accuracy is great but energy is only up about 5fpe, I have to get out and try to 100yds. and beyond. The cost of .30 cal. pellets is more of a factor then the smaller sizes so casting your own is a good option. Have fun!!

[rsterne]

I developed some rebated boattail airgun bullets, one of which is for the .300 cal FX and Wolverine barrels.... It has shown MOA accuracy from our .294" land .300 groove 26" twist airgun barrel from TJs.... They are 70 gr. and a mold is available from Accurate as # 30-070A.... Also available from Accurate is a .308 cal 79 gr. (#31-079A) and a .357 cal 124 gr. (#36-124A).... There is also a .25 cal 52 gr. mold available from LBT as # 25-52-BST.... intended for the 14" twist TJs .25 ACP barrel....

Bob

[Littleton Shot Maker]

Been wanting a .30 cal- making my own pellets would be just fine.....thanks guys. 'quiet' Airguns are fun to shoot in the back yard too....

[SSGOldfart]

Hmmm anybody got a.22cal mold for pallets?

[rondog]

Remember when 22LR was .69 box in stores everywhere, and gas was .19/gal.

Oh yeah, used to get .22's at the TG&Y store! And most every place else.

[Littleton Shot Maker]

post #22 nomad pellet maker .17-.20-.22-.25 cal.--not many wt. choice though-- single sided or double sided, not cheap, not in-expensive but how else can we do it?? I like being able to make my own projectiles- if I want - or need to. Since I have 25 and 22 springer- I like the single sided molds- not a fan of two sides, but you are only casting cores there anyway....

[Rio Grande]

I know an older gent who grew up in an eastern European communist country.
The people couldn't own firearms but could own airguns, and used them for small game.
One day the government banned pellet sales, so my friend made pellets to sell or trade.
He worked in a government machine shop, so he did a 'government job' and made punch dies.
He would melt lead and pour it in a pan to make flat sheets, then punch the cylindrical pellets out with a press, worked like a paper holer, just heavier precision punch dies.
Reportedly accurate.

[a.squibload]

I have a Blue Streak with the rocker safety.
Recently bought some 6mm Airsoft-style plastic BBs for use in powder coating.
Suppose they could be swaged to 5mm and shot in my airgun?
I assume they wouldn't carry far but might be OK for in the basement.

[XWrench3]

My guess, is that for the 5mm /.20 caliber Sheridan air rifles is that pure lead .22 boolits could be sized down easily enough. The biggest issue is finding something light enough. as even a 40 grain boolit is over double the weight of a standard pellet. Then there is the issue of making it have a hollow base. Which I guess could be done with a good punch while the pellet was in the sizing die. I have thought about trying to build my own swaging die. but i do not have "tooling" to do so. Since there are no lube grooves, and the OEM pellets appearance looks like a drilled hole into a piece of steel, with a slightly enlarged back edge to aide the hollow base seal. It appears that a good home handy man with a GOOD drill press could make a serviceable die for home use. if you were going to make millions of pellets, the die would need to be made of hardenable steel, and hardened. But for a guy who is going to make and use a few thousand pellets, i think mild steel would form up lead wire just fine.

[2TM101]

Pellets are too cheap/available to bother with.

Up to .25 I agree with you. But there is a big price jump between .25 and the next size up. I want to get a large bore Airgun but I need to establish that I can cast pellets for it first - otherwise my 9mm carbine is cheaper to use!

[dtknowles]

I would like to cast or swage 9mm diablo style pellets. They seem to be better than typical pistol bullets in my PCP but they are expensive. Next best might be some hollow base bullets, maybe Minie style. Any mould or die ideas ?

Tim

[dverna]

Up to .25 I agree with you. But there is a big price jump between .25 and the next size up. I want to get a large bore Airgun but I need to establish that I can cast pellets for it first - otherwise my 9mm carbine is cheaper to use!

There are guys casting pellets on the Gateway To Airguns site. I few years ago I spent some time reviewing the pellet casting sub forum. I was looking at .22 pellets and almost no one posted anything worthwhile. Comments like “good accuracy “ but very few specifics like range and number of shots in a group. I concluded they were not having good success.

Getting pellets for .30 and above to work well will be easier and like you said those pellets are expensive so the economics would be attractive. I looked at getting a .30 PCP but the numbers did not make sense. Cheaper to shoot .22 LR and IIRC, downrange energy and wind drift were better on the Velocitor .22’s that are accurate in my 10/22 (5/8” five shot groups at 50 yards).