Casting wax

[Nomes]

Can you cast wax bullets?

[Dusty Bannister]

Gulf canning wax comes in sheets. Let it soften a bit, push the unprimed case through the wax to cut wad cutter loads. Casting wax bullets sounds like a lot of monkey motion resulting in a horrible mess to clean up. Try it and let us know how it worked.

[Minerat]

Here are some ideas from the past.

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...ng-wax-bullets

[405grain]

Many decades ago I made some wax bullet 45 acp rounds. These were for some non-lethal pest control. A fatty boy raccoon was getting into the garbage can at night and making a mess. I wanted to alter his bad habits without dusting him off. To accomplish this, first I used a resized case as a cookie cutter to cut some discs out of a styrofoam plate. Then I used a pair of scissors to cut a tight fitting disc out of some card stock. I "loaded" the case with a magnum large pistol primer, then using a piece of dowel pushed in the 1/8" thick styrofoam disc. After that I used the dowel to seat the card stock disc on top of the foam one. Once the "wad" was in place I melted some canning paraffin and poured this into the case until it was full up to the case mouth. I let the wax cool and fully harden.

Sure enough, that night Mr Trashpanda woke me up with his shenanigans. These wax slugs with a 1911 were only good as a single shot, but that's all it took. With a flashlight in one hand and the pistol in the other I went out to confront our unwanted guest. Predictably he was in a testy mood and snarled in my direction as I interrupted his scavenging. At the shot, it was surprisingly loud, but not loud enough to disturb the neighbors. It was also more powerful than I expected: the effect at 5 yards was akin to a swift kick in the stomach. Our friend went flying off the side of the garbage can and quickly scurried off into the night.

Raccoons are clever animals, and this one figured that it was in his best interest not to return to the scene of the crime. I was able to sleep soundly after that. However, a couple of weeks later I was having a conversation with my neighbors and they were lamenting on how a pesky racoon had started raiding their garbage can at night. Discretion being the better part of valor, I bit my tongue and kept the recent events a secret.

[gwpercle]

Yes you can cast wax boolits from a mould ... just melt wax and fill mould , let harden and open sprue . Be careful not to get mould too hot ... wax melts easily .

Another trick is boolits cast with hot glue ... fill mould with a hot glue gun and let cool ... plastic like boolits !
Gary

[lar45]

I was going to try fireforming some 30-30 improved cases with some unique and a wax plug. I got my case loaded and chambered in the contender, then I thought I might put a wad of rags on top of the barrel to cat h the wax. Next I thought I'd put a soup can over the rags, just in case... then I put a 2x4 on top of it all and proceeded to blow a wax bullet through all of that and took out the florescent lights in the basement. The wife was not pleased with me.
Be careful with your wax bullets...

[gwpercle]

I was going to try fireforming some 30-30 improved cases with some unique and a wax plug. I got my case loaded and chambered in the contender, then I thought I might put a wad of rags on top of the barrel to cat h the wax. Next I thought I'd put a soup can over the rags, just in case... then I put a 2x4 on top of it all and proceeded to blow a wax bullet through all of that and took out the florescent lights in the basement. The wife was not pleased with me.
Be careful with your wax bullets...

:
I had an idea that they would hurt ... but , you could do some real hurt with wax !
Gary

[justindad]

I read about the glue boolits being shot by just a primer. How much powder can go under a wax boolit?

[mdi]

It's been many years since I tried this with my 38 Specials. I believe the consensus is primer only. Enough power to propel a wax slug a few feet somewhat accurately. I tried mine at about 10'...

[Nobade]

Take a look at the cowboy fast draw association web site. That is what they use for competition, and if you want 45 caliber wax bullets you can buy them there as well as 45 colt cases modified to take shotgun primers.

[TimD]

Many years ago I loaded 44 Magnum brass with wax slugs by melting wax in a pan then standing the cases on their nose in the wax. When cool they came out easily. The wax was about 1/2" deep. Powered by a primer only they would pass through cardboard at fifteen feet. I enlarged the primer holes to 1/8" iirc and filed a notch in the rim to make sure they were never used for "real" loads. The enlarged primer hole kept the primers from backing out of the case and jamming the cylinder.

[AlaskaMike]

I read about the glue boolits being shot by just a primer. How much powder can go under a wax boolit?

Definitely primer only. At a distance of about 6 ft, through my 4" model 28, a hot glue bullet fired with just a standard small pistol primer went through 7 layers of cardboard before being stopped by a cinder block wall.

I'd never use any amount of powder with hot glue or wax bullets after seeing how well it performed with just the primer alone.

[Nomes]

Years ago we did some wax bullets for a .357 with primers and a small amount of powder(Idon't remember the amount of powder maybe 2g) used them in the back yard for quick draw. They would hurt if you got shot with one. I just ordered some from cowboy fast draw there $15.00 for 500 with shipping $23.
Fun to play with in the back yard, target a Styrofoam Cooler.
Just a small primer not enough bang for your buck.

[Nick Quick]

You can buy them wax bullets of all sorts and colors from various places. Is not worth making them yourself as the "wax" is not pure wax. It is a mix of paraffin, wax and other secret ingredients. If they are not well made they will shatter as they get out of the gun barrel. Some manufacturers want them to crumble at the impact with the target, others want to flatten out so are easy to sweep. I have two molds for wax bullets and never used them.
Trust me is not worth the hassle. What you can do though is buy few thousands, shoot them for practice in the garage then sweep and remelt them and pour in the molds. The composition is right there so you don't have to worry about it. The cons is that when you sweep the garage floor they will get dirty and your new bullets will have all kind of crap in them and that will go through your barrel.
Just buy them honestly. If you need help in buying just let me know and I'll help you choose as I know all the manufacturers.
I am a Fast Draw shooter and even though I have the molds I won't even attempt to make my own.

[country gent]

Heres how I do wax bullets. I have several trays marked at 5/8" from the bottom. I used a mixture of canning wax and beeswax. My 38 cases are modified in that the primer pockets are opened up to LP and flash holes are opened to .105, and the case mouths are chamfered inside only to almost a sharp edge. I use a tray from ammo box and set the cases in then a plate and press 50 cases into the wax cakes with a small arbor press. I then prime the cases.

The LP primers and opened flash holes keep the cases from being loaded with regular loads
The chamfer allows the cases to cut the wax cleanly and presses it tighter giving a good seal
If you prime first then the wax bullets air lock and push out of the cases

A lube would help with the residue left maybe a small amount of lanolin added to the wax. The LP primers give a decent velocity all normal safety precautions should be taken

[WRideout]

Take a look at the cowboy fast draw association web site. That is what they use for competition, and if you want 45 caliber wax bullets you can buy them there as well as 45 colt cases modified to take shotgun primers.

I believe the modification is to open the primer holes a bit. Keep those cases separate from the regular ones.
Wayne

[AlaskaMike]

Given the performance I saw with my hot glue bullets, I wouldn't even bother with opening the primer holes. It seems to me it would make the difference between penetrating 8 layers of cardboard vs. 7 layers.

Beyond that, I would envy anyone who had a large enough primer supply to spend on wax or hot glue rounds instead of regular loads.