Lathe turning bullets - Question for Saeed?

15 July 2003, 01:36

1894

In the (acedemic?) quest for a good solid for my 9.3x62 I wondered if it would be possible to turn down on the lathe a box of 300gr .375 Speer Africa Grand Slam Tungsten Solids to .366?

What sort of equipment is required to turn bullets on a small one off scale?

15 July 2003, 07:04

<eldeguello>

Why not? The Nosler Partition jacket bullets were originally turned from solid blanks on automatic screw machines before the cores were inserted.

15 July 2003, 07:18

Groove Bullets

1894,

You are asking if using tungsten carbide to make a bullet will work? Short answer is no.

If you are talking about boring a jacket and inserting carbide, thats a different story. My question would be, why? If you were going after tanks, yes, but game animals?

Don

15 July 2003, 10:01

<Austin>

dear groove bullets, Africa grand slams, are copper jacket tungsten core with lead inbetween. The question is will turning down the copper jacket make it too thin to perform properly. A .375 down to .366 is only .0055 per side, I would think that would be just fine. The problem is It's not going to be easy to turn down a finished bullet. Most bullets are finished by pushing them through a carbide die.

15 July 2003, 10:15

TomP

quote:
Originally posted by 1894:
In the (acedemic?) quest for a good solid for my 9.3x62 I wondered if it would be possible to turn down on the lathe a box of 300gr .375 Speer Africa Grand Slam Tungsten Solids to .366?

What sort of equipment is required to turn bullets on a small one off scale?

I'd be more tempted by turning down a Barnes X or one of their solid bronze bullets.

Tom

16 July 2003, 03:00

Groove Bullets

Austin,

After re-reading the post I get it. Sorry [Frown]

They want to turn down the outside diameter of an existing bullet from .375" to .366". The thing that would concern me in doing that would be concentricity since one would have to hold onto part of the bullet, turn it, then turn the bullet end for end and turn the balance of the OD (outside diameter). Using a 3 jaw universal chuck would not accomplish this. Using a draw collet would get one closer but still not accurate enough - for me.

The diameter difference (from .375" to .366") is .009". If the wall thickness is now .0055" then there is only .011" of wall available leaving a wall thickness of .001" (per side) IF the existing wall thickness is uniform and one could obtain no runout at all prior to turning.

If this is what is asked I would say no way.

I assume that the lead is bonded to the inside of the jacket? If it is then the turned bullet would have lead engaging the rifling since the grooves in a barrel are deeper then .001" (wall thickness of copper jacket left after turning).

Don

[ 07-15-2003, 18:18: Message edited by: Groove Bullets ]

16 July 2003, 03:12

Gatogordo

GB:

No, he wants to take a .375 diameter finished bullet with a tungsten core (a Speer African Grand Slam), I don't think it is tungsten carbide, but am not certain of that, and reduce the diameter, that is trim the jacket to 9.3mm.

16 July 2003, 03:26

Groove Bullets

Gatogordo,

Sorry, I had a brain fart, lol

I obviously have not cut through the mentioned bullet but .0055" of wall thickness for the jacket seems very thin to me. Thats about the same thickness as 2 sheets of standard writing paper - very thin.

I am not sure what game animal is the quary and I assume the user really likes the results of this particular bullet.

If the original poster could list the animal(s) being taken with the .366" diameter bullet I could design a bullet for your application. I am currently in the process of manufacturing 375, 416 and 458 caliber bullets so adding a .366" diameter bullet would not be a problem.

Don

16 July 2003, 03:28

Groove Bullets

Sorry for the double post. [Frown]

Don

[ 07-15-2003, 18:29: Message edited by: Groove Bullets ]

16 July 2003, 05:59

<JOHAN>

1894

my simple advice to you is get the woodlegihs FMJ and you will need to look no futher. YOu got two weights to choose from. Option numer two is to look for the old steel jacketed RWS FMJ. I think they were 285 or 293 grain.

I would love to try the Bridger solids, but they can't be shipped to Sweden because of this war on terrorism [Roll Eyes]

With good bullets around I would not been thinking about turning down 375 bullets.

Auf Wienerschnitzel [Razz]

/ JOHAN

17 July 2003, 00:47

1894

The jacket (from the pictures) is pretty immense reducing it by that amount looks to be of the order of 10% or so.

If it's tremendously difficult then no point but I don't like Barnes and I don't like steel jackets (or more precisely what they do to barrels) I gather from Montero that the copper wash may be deeper than the lands in which case that is the way I would go.