Flat nose tool for 32 caliber bullets?

Keith
[subject]
Sunday, January 14, 2024, 16:24 (111 days ago)

How obnoxious would it be to come up with a flat nose tool (similar to your 22lr tool) for 32 caliber pistol bullets?


I have in mind using the 71 gr plated bullets from Berry's to make a flat nose 60-65 grain bullet. I'd load it to 1200 FPS for use in a 32 S&W long or 32 ACP carbine for small game.

https://www.berrysmfg.com/product/bp-32-312-71gr-rn

Obviously, casting could achieve a similar goal, but circumsizing the berry's bullets would be easier, faster, cheaper, simpler, etc.

I made one for the 9mm

Jim Taylor
[subject]
Sunday, January 14, 2024, 17:59 (111 days ago) @ Keith

using Berry's Plated Bullets.

[image]

[image]

[image]

[image]

Loaded with a heavy load of Blue Dot and fired into a bucket of sand.

[image]

[image]

Shooting into sand only shows how well they expand in sand. I haven't shot anything living and breathing with them yet.

I made some pointed mandrel to insert from the top

WB
[subject]
Sunday, January 14, 2024, 19:31 (111 days ago) @ Jim Taylor

Of a Lee push through sizer. I can adjust it in the press. The bullet sizer supports the bullet, mandrel is centered in the die. I use it to swage hollow points into cast bullets. Paco Kelly made an ingenious .22 RF tool sort of like it. Where I got the idea.

I also have ground the tips off FMJ 7.62x39 live ammo (probably not a smart thing to do) using a bench grinder. I went slow, not getting them hot, and just until you could see the lead core in the top. In AR it’s illegal to hunt with FMJ ammo. We were making hunting ammo before you could buy domestic soft points. It never hurt accuracy, eyeballing them to consistency.

I have a letter from an old timer

Jim Taylor
[subject]
Sunday, January 14, 2024, 20:25 (111 days ago) @ WB

who tells of doing that with military ammo after WW1 ... Used it for killing deer and elk.

Great idea, how did you harden it?

Darryl T.
[subject]
Monday, January 15, 2024, 11:50 (110 days ago) @ Jim Taylor

- No text -

I haven't. I will case harden it though.

Jim Taylor
[subject]
Monday, January 15, 2024, 12:51 (110 days ago) @ Darryl T.

Easy enough to do. The procedure is outlined in the old Dixie Gun Works catalog. Oil it, wrap it in leather, wrap tin foil around it, put it in a tin can you can close and toss it in the fire for an hour.

This stuff works very well. I made some firing pins

WB
[subject]
Tuesday, January 16, 2024, 08:11 (109 days ago) @ Jim Taylor

for a Spanish box lock 10 ga. from stainless steel. They did not peen and worked well for me. I learned a lot. My gunsmith friend teaching me used "iron wire" to hold the pieces while we heated them up and coated them.

https://www.brownells.com/tools-cleaning/paint-metal-prep/metal-bluing/surface-hardenin...

Making one that would slice off the nose of a jacketed

Gary Reeder
[subject]
Monday, January 15, 2024, 10:34 (110 days ago) @ Keith

bullet would be completely different than our tool for lead bullets. I don't know of any pocket knife that would cut thru a jacketed bullet.

You have to use a file and if the tool isn't hardened

Jim Taylor
[subject]
Monday, January 15, 2024, 10:39 (110 days ago) @ Gary Reeder

the length can easily change.

They’re plated not FMJ

Keith
[subject]
Wednesday, January 17, 2024, 16:04 (108 days ago) @ Gary Reeder

- No text -

powered by my little forum