Another Bullet Making Thread (lots of photos & video)
- Thread starter Lee Martin
- Start date
The pointing up process will be posted in a day or so. I just need to download the photos. I finished 1,000 bullets and they turned out great.
-Lee
www.singleactions.com
-Lee
www.singleactions.com
Tim Singleton
Gold $$ Contributor
Lee
Have you had a chance to shoot them?
I hope they went in the same hole for you
Have you had a chance to shoot them?
I hope they went in the same hole for you
Step 8 - Point Forming
I spoke with George Ulrich last week and he told me to cut down on my lube. Going forward I’ll use 0.5 grs per jar for jacket lubing. The cores will then be seated, the jar cleaned with acetone, and another 0.5 grs applied to lube the cored jackets. Since I still had enough lanolin on the jacket at 2.0 grs, I didn’t re-lube after core seating. Instead I went right to point forming. Here are those steps.
The cored jacket is placed on the punch and the press is actuated.
Some video of the point-up process:
Note how careful I am in guiding the thin jacket lip into the die. The final bullets are then measured for:
1) Weight – these by design land at 67.1 grs. I must’ve done good on core swaging because they vary by less than 0.1 grs over a wide sample population
2) Base diameter. All of them mic 0.2433”
3) Base-to-ogive. These are exactly 0.966” with no variation across those tested.
Here are the components involved in making these 8.5 ogive 67 grain 6mm’s. Left to right – cut core, swaged core, empty jacket, core seated jacket, and the formed bullet.
One of the neatest features of a Ulrich bullet is the heal. George grinds a slight radius into the core seating and point-up punches. The result is a straight base with no discernable pressure ring.
My boxed bullets. 500 count on the left, 1,000 count on the right.
This Saturday we’ll see how they fly.
-Lee
www.singleactions.com
I spoke with George Ulrich last week and he told me to cut down on my lube. Going forward I’ll use 0.5 grs per jar for jacket lubing. The cores will then be seated, the jar cleaned with acetone, and another 0.5 grs applied to lube the cored jackets. Since I still had enough lanolin on the jacket at 2.0 grs, I didn’t re-lube after core seating. Instead I went right to point forming. Here are those steps.
The cored jacket is placed on the punch and the press is actuated.
Some video of the point-up process:
Note how careful I am in guiding the thin jacket lip into the die. The final bullets are then measured for:
1) Weight – these by design land at 67.1 grs. I must’ve done good on core swaging because they vary by less than 0.1 grs over a wide sample population
2) Base diameter. All of them mic 0.2433”
3) Base-to-ogive. These are exactly 0.966” with no variation across those tested.
Here are the components involved in making these 8.5 ogive 67 grain 6mm’s. Left to right – cut core, swaged core, empty jacket, core seated jacket, and the formed bullet.
One of the neatest features of a Ulrich bullet is the heal. George grinds a slight radius into the core seating and point-up punches. The result is a straight base with no discernable pressure ring.
My boxed bullets. 500 count on the left, 1,000 count on the right.
This Saturday we’ll see how they fly.
-Lee
www.singleactions.com
BoydAllen
Gold $$ Contributor
I have some bullets that were made with a set of George's dies. They have almost no pressure ring. The story that the bullet maker told me about how he achieves this was very original, and now that I see how it is really done, somewhat amusing. He gave the impression that how he did it was some unique bit of craft that he alone was using.
I think that normally a large pressure ring acts as an expander and reduces the grip of the case neck on the bullet everywhere except on the ring itself. It seems to me that with almost no ring, that a given bushing size will will give more bullet pull, all other things being equal, and that this may require a slight adjustment in tune, possibly by going up a bushing size. For the 133 burners this may be a bonus, since it seems to like higher bullet pull.
I think that normally a large pressure ring acts as an expander and reduces the grip of the case neck on the bullet everywhere except on the ring itself. It seems to me that with almost no ring, that a given bushing size will will give more bullet pull, all other things being equal, and that this may require a slight adjustment in tune, possibly by going up a bushing size. For the 133 burners this may be a bonus, since it seems to like higher bullet pull.
Just another core seating die and a BT point-up punch. I'm actually going to order both from Ulrich so I can make a boat tail version of this 67 gr.
-Lee
www.singleactions.com
Shot these bullets on Saturday and was very pleased with the results. I had limited time, but tried four weights of LT-32 and four seating depths. Surprisingly, at 0.005" in off of jam they seemed charge agnostic. The upper left is in fact three shots and they went in on top of one another. Jam and jam minus 0.005" weren't that good, but 0.010" back started to show promise. Next time I'll go up on the LT and I'll expand my seating window, both in more and back more. I believe touch is between 0.015" and 0.020" from jam, though that's unconfirmed.
I did manage to lay down two five-shot strings on an official target. 27.7 grs @ jam+0.005":
And 28.3 @ jam+0.005":
The first was high 1's, the second was low 1's. Credit goes to George Ulrich for a world-class set of dies, Bart Sauter and the Hines Tactical jacket, and my dad for smithing the rifle.
For complete transparency, winds were light on Saturday. Temperature averaged 56.0 degrees and humidity ~86% (so much for LT not liking wet air). The Shilen has 1,200 rounds on it and the brass has been reloaded 24 times.
-Lee
www.singleactions.com
I did manage to lay down two five-shot strings on an official target. 27.7 grs @ jam+0.005":
And 28.3 @ jam+0.005":
The first was high 1's, the second was low 1's. Credit goes to George Ulrich for a world-class set of dies, Bart Sauter and the Hines Tactical jacket, and my dad for smithing the rifle.
For complete transparency, winds were light on Saturday. Temperature averaged 56.0 degrees and humidity ~86% (so much for LT not liking wet air). The Shilen has 1,200 rounds on it and the brass has been reloaded 24 times.
-Lee
www.singleactions.com
Last edited:
Great story! Thanks for sharing.
varminthunter1
Gold $$ Contributor
nice work, I`m following this thread intently!
Dusty Stevens
Shiner
Great job Lee! Youre doing very well. Maybe itll shed some light on just how long it takes to make real br quality bullets.
Those are some amazing groups for your first go round making bullets. Great job on both accounts. Never realized how much work is involved making custom bullets. 
Paul
Paul
Dusty Stevens
Shiner
Those are some amazing groups for your first go round making bullets. Great job on both accounts. Never realized how much work is involved making custom bullets.
Paul
Now you see why its a labor of love and how a bulletmaker makes about $3/hr if his bullets are good
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