Our parts dealer - who we buy copper and brass from - said he is sending me some aluminum rods.

I was thinking of running a few bullet from these.

Issues that I see with aluminum bullets:
- Aluminum oxidizing on the surface might erode the barrel fast(er)
- Bullets shed velocity too quickly to be useful in any real world application
- I dont think they will be very accurate (High RPM and low BC)
- One has to wonder how bad they will foul a barrel and down the road if that fouling would cause pressure spikes

Yes some where I read of someone trying it.

Have fun but I don't think you will like the results.

I thing Rob (RGB) did some experiments on these ...

to prevent oxide, i think he just clear coated them

My intention is to spray them with Tungsten.

I think they likely will present you with the diametrically opposed situation of useable weight vs bullet length and to get to a weight useful at more than very short rang on very small targets you will have to have impractical rifling rates.

I would look for something like a 50 grain bullet in 30 caliber being about as heavy as you can get to, and even then you will be faced with drastically limited penetration on any kind of animal. If you build a 3-4 twist barrel, that might prove impractical to use for lead core or solid copper bullets. Additionally, aluminum is pretty "sticky" and barrel friction may make it wholly impractical by itself. Moly coating or Tungsten if you can get good adhesion to the aluminum might make them workable for short range plinking.

I will watch with interest because it is an interesting idea.

Saeed, I think you have a touch of mad scientist.

Dave

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
My intention is to spray them with Tungsten.

I'd wonder about aluminum galling in the rifling, like it sticks to a drill bit sometimes. Some kind of lube would be indicated.

quote:

Originally posted by thecanadian:
Issues that I see with aluminum bullets:
- Aluminum oxidizing on the surface might erode the barrel fast(er)
- Bullets shed velocity too quickly to be useful in any real world application
- I dont think they will be very accurate (High RPM and low BC)
- One has to wonder how bad they will foul a barrel and down the road if that fouling would cause pressure spikes

One could moly coat them.

If one would make them length equivalent to say an all copper bullet they would be very light in weight. For a 130 grain copper bullet an identically shaped aluminum bullet would weigh about 39 grains.

quote:

Originally posted by nopride2:
Saeed, I think you have a touch of mad scientist.

Dave

Back in grad school my major professor used to say that a good scientist considers all possibilities.

I once had some "practice" or "training" ammunition for 7.62x39 which appeared to have aluminum bullets. They were coated much like the steel cases they were loaded in and weighed about half of what a regular bullet weighed. The ammunition actually functioned in an SKS and I killed a skunk with it, IIRC.

Winchester-Western Silvertips had an aluminum nose cap, but the bullet itself was conventional lead/copper jacket.

I was picking pellets from the berm a few
years ago and found a few. Seems like they
were about 30 cals.

No clue other than that.

Have fun! I enjoy turning it on a lathe, easy!

George

The idea is not to change anything in my bullets designs.

Just run a few off aluminum rod instead of copper.

Bullets size would be the same, it of course weight will be different.

They may suffer short range stability and will not make a good LR bullet because aluminum density is too low. Seems like a waste of time really. Drill the base and give it a lead core and it may potentially perform well though.

quote:

Originally posted by Wstrnhuntr:
They may suffer short range stability and will not make a good LR bullet because aluminum density is too low. Seems like a waste of time really. Drill the base and give it a lead core and it may potentially perform well though.

All our interest in this is short range target shooting to 100 yards, and what velocity we could get.

Rods are promised next week.

I will post results, of both manufacturing and shooting if that works.

The original Winchester Silvertip handgun bullets used aluminum jackets, but of course their velocity was far below what Saeed is likely looking for.

Their patent number is 4,193,348:

"A hollow point lead bullet is provided with an aluminum jacket which allows the cartridge containing the projectile to feed reliably in auto-loading pistols and yet does not restrict normal expansion of the bullet upon impact with the target."


.

The Lone Ranger when he got hard up for money used aluminum bullets that cost far less than silver bullets.

All you need is a little metal polish and instant silver bullets.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:

quote:

Originally posted by Wstrnhuntr:
They may suffer short range stability and will not make a good LR bullet because aluminum density is too low. Seems like a waste of time really. Drill the base and give it a lead core and it may potentially perform well though.

All our interest in this is short range target shooting to 100 yards, and what velocity we could get.

Rods are promised next week.

I will post results, of both manufacturing and shooting if that works.

Good for you! I totally respect mavericks! The bullets will likely turn out to be suboptimal, but "In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice they are not" - Yogi Berra(?).

So, regardless of the results, good for you for trying.

Lehigh made a run of aluminum .458 bullets - 10 years or more ago, intended for the 458 SOCOM.

As I recall, the ones I received were 97g.

A quick pass through the .458 bullet bin doesn't find any, but I know I've got some still around here somewhere.

There are some pictures of them at the bottom of this post:

https://www.thehighroad.org/in...ugs-fireball.485722/

Looks like they still sell aluminum .458's - they look different though.

https://www.lehighbullets.com/...uct/458-300-458-cqb/

I just saw multi caliber aluminum core with copper or brass jackets, both rifle and pistol at the gun show last weekend. Brand new current manufacture. .30 was the size of 150grain or so regular bullet but weighed 90grains. No load data with them. $49/50 or 100 and I think they were Lehigh's as I was in Alletntown

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:

quote:

Originally posted by Wstrnhuntr:
They may suffer short range stability and will not make a good LR bullet because aluminum density is too low. Seems like a waste of time really. Drill the base and give it a lead core and it may potentially perform well though.

All our interest in this is short range target shooting to 100 yards, and what velocity we could get.

Rods are promised next week.

I will post results, of both manufacturing and shooting if that works.

Interesting. I would think that the low density/softer material should allow more intense powder charges. Do you have a way to test your chamber pressures?

quote:

Originally posted by Wstrnhuntr:

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:

quote:

Originally posted by Wstrnhuntr:
They may suffer short range stability and will not make a good LR bullet because aluminum density is too low. Seems like a waste of time really. Drill the base and give it a lead core and it may potentially perform well though.

All our interest in this is short range target shooting to 100 yards, and what velocity we could get.

Rods are promised next week.

I will post results, of both manufacturing and shooting if that works.

Interesting. I would think that the low density/softer material should allow more intense powder charges. Do you have a way to test your chamber pressures?

Sadly no.

Just from a practical point.

The rods should be here in the next few days, and I will see how that works.