Time to make the donuts....

[jackieschmidt]

It's a cool, windy, rainy day here in The Forbidden Zone....good time to seat cores. They get pushed down using this trick C.S.D.'er (Core Stuff'er Down'er) tool, courtesy of the Hu Hot Mongolian grill.

Now that is high teck

 

[Larry Koch]

chop sticks come in handy.

 

[AlNyhus]

Things that make you go "Hmmmmm????"

 

[AlNyhus]

A real bullet maker would have bullet trays and not be a caveman pushing cores down one at a time with a bamboo chop stick. In an effort to drag my intellect up from somewhere between a single celled amoeba and an early Neanderthal, I decided to improve my core-stuffer-downer tool. Watching an episode of Anthony Bordain's 'No Reservations'...the solution presented itself. There he was...on the street of Hong Kong...eating noodles with fiberglass chopsticks! Quick like a bunny, Jeff Bezos came to my rescue and 24 hours later, a package of 12 pair were at the door of my sod hut on the prairie.

I used one this morning and it worked great. Then, with a flash of new found brain power...I remembered that I also possessed a left hand, complete with opposable thumb. Those stinkin' cores didn't stand a chance now that I could double team 'em. In an instant, I'd gone from the Paleolithic period, blew right past the Mesolithic and landed firmly in the Neolithic period. The CSD tool is also an APO tool. (Core Stuffer Downer/Air Pusher Outer).

Good shootin' -Al

 

[CJ6]

Now that's High Cotton......

 

[D Coots]

Al, is that common for 30's? Never had to push cores in on 6's.

Later
Dave

 

[AlNyhus]

Al, is that common for 30's? Never had to push cores in on 6's.

Later
Dave

Morning, Dave. The Hood .30 cores I've got here run right at .2598 on average. Due to the jackets taper, they don't plunk right down to the bottom of a J4 .925 or 1.00 jacket. But It's not unusual to drop them in and then discover that some have settled to the bottom on their own....a combination of air evacuating (possibly) and the lower edge of the core finally giving in to the core's weight. At least that's my thunks on it before my second cuppa this morning. I do think there's something to evacuating the air prior to seating the cores, so I don't mind the push-down step. I've heard about the 'Jumping Bean' syndrome but haven't seen it or talked to anyone that has. Urban Legend or fact....hard to say. I'd never say never.

The cores I make run right at .254 and they hit bottom. A lot of pain for no real gain, though. Domed cores would be the bomb, from a material flow standpoint. They might make the punch selection a bit less critical.

Your thoughts?

 

[D Coots]

Just another necessary evil in the process Al.....

Later
Dave

 

[jackieschmidt]

Morning, Dave. The Hood .30 cores I've got here run right at .2598 on average. Due to the jackets taper, they don't plunk right down to the bottom of a J4 .925 or 1.00 jacket. But It's not unusual to drop them in and then discover that some have settled to the bottom on their own....a combination of air evacuating (possibly) and the lower edge of the core finally giving in to the core's weight. At least that's my thunks on it before my second cuppa this morning. I do think there's something to evacuating the air prior to seating the cores, so I don't mind the push-down step. I've heard about the 'Jumping Bean' syndrome but haven't seen it or talked to anyone that has. Urban Legend or fact....hard to say. I'd never say never.

The cores I make run right at .254 and they hit bottom. A lot of pain for no real gain, though. Domed cores would be the bomb, from a material flow standpoint. They might make the punch selection a bit less critical.

Your thoughts?

Al, mine are exactly the same.
I have made my own cores with my die, they fall right in.
Charlie’s cores are just enough larger in diameter that many have to be pushed to the bottom. Some don’t.
They all seat up the same in the die.

 

[AlNyhus]

Cold, windy and rainy today...perfect time to rinse and repeat.

 

[AlNyhus]

The benefit of a press with a lot of feed back...you know instantly when something feels janky.

 

[Fuj]

Ouch......Any clue ??

 

[AlNyhus]

Ouch......Any clue ??

They'll drop right into the group, won't they?

The boundary layer is a real thing but I'm not sure I'd trust it that far!

 

[Tricky5225]

Al, Just tig em up and grind em smooth

 

[Fuj]

They'll drop right into the group, won't they?

Part of them may. I can visualize them starting to peel apart on
leaving the muzzle, then going in sideways in some other zip code. LOL

 

[Mulligan]

I was at the range shooting some test loads a couple of years ago. Another range member pulled in and set up as I was finishing up. Before I left, I went down to say hello and visit with Dave a bit.
He said he had length sorted a wheelbarrow full of 180 Berger's and wanted to test a few.
He had a couple (2 I think???)bullets that were ~.030" shorter than the average length of the lot. And another weird bullet like the one Al posted a pic of that was of the shorter length.

He shot a group of the average length and then shot the couple of shorties...... then the weird one.

The shorties landed about 8-10 inches below the average group at 600 yards ...... less than 1/4" apart..... they wanted to group. He then shot the weird one that was short and had a fold like the one Al posted a pic of....... went right with the other two shorties. I was surprised.

CW

 

[AlNyhus]

It's amazing how funky the tips can be and the bullets will still shoot well. Guy Chism told me to deform the tips and test them. So I cut some tips at angles with a dykes...they shot well. I told Guy what I 'found' and he said something I've never forgotten. "The back steers the front".

 

[jackieschmidt]

The benefit of a press with a lot of feed back...you know instantly when something feels janky.

Al, it looks like the force of the knock out pin exceeded the strength of the jacket.
I think you need to send those bullets to a metallurgical lab and get a complete work up on the material, including a tensile and yield average, along with sample of your bullet lube to a lab and get some real numbers on frictional coefficients when compressed in a enclosed die.
Next, get some bullets from the past made from jackets that never did this, have a complete chemical done on what could have been differ………

Oh, to heck with it. Sometimes this sort of stuff just happens

 

[21PHX]

It's amazing how funky the tips can be and the bullets will still shoot well. Guy Chism told me to deform the tips and test them. So I cut some tips at angles with a dykes...they shot well. I told Guy what I 'found' and he said something I've never forgotten. "The back steers the front".

Wilbur Harris proved it to me 20+- years ago at Rachel’s Glen in Alabama.

 

[AlNyhus]

The bullets from the Randy Robinett crafted carbide die got their first taste of competition last weekend at the Boone Valley Ikes range by Webster City, Iowa. Handicapped by a sub standard driver (egregious error at 100), the bullets drug me up and allowed the only 250 at 200 for the win. My stumble at 100 relegated me to 2nd in the Grand Agg. Nebraskan Mike Toby rose to the top of the Grand via 2 more X's.

Randy made a helluva great die. Thanks for all you've done for me, Randy!

Good shootin' -Al