Polishing bullets

[JimPag]

Carlos Hathcock’s son, also named Carlos Hathcock, is still very much alive. You made the same mistake the guy on Facebook did.

That is true, but when anyone starts talking about Carlos Hathcock, nobody but nobody is going to think that your talking about one of his kids.

 

[dcali]

I’m just saying that when you use someone else’s actual name in a shooting forum and that someone else is an accomplished shooter, you might confuse he people who know him (or of him).

 

[Steve Blair]

Sierra uses rubber lined cement mixers half full of wood chips tumbling a few thousand at a time. The sizing lanolin lube gets rubbed off and jackets polished very bright.

Before Sierra moved to Missouri, they sold their most accurate bullets 1000 per plain brown box with the lanolin still on them. They shot 30 to 40 percent smaller test groups as well as highest scores in matches. 2 or 3 per box would have visible flaws as they didn't get visually inspected. They were boxed as they came out of the pointing die.

We periodically drove to Santa Fe Springs and bought bulk rejects (by the pound) from Sierra. Most of the defects were cosmetic. Once the ~20% obvious physical flaws were sorted, they shot just as well as boxed at half the price. Of course, gas was cheaper then, too.

 

[KevinThomas]

He got into a scuffle with a pro fisherman a few years ago that was secretly filmed when the pro came in on him (carlos) and he didnt bow down to him. The pro got butthurt enough he sued carlos or his agent did or whatever for all kinds of bs. Carlos was strong willed enough he got banned from our fishing forum after speaking out. It was a big deal in virginia and on the internet for quite a while. Hes a good guy for sure. I was figuring this was him here since he used his real name and had a pretty big internet presence. Carlos sr grew up where i did in arkansas.

Hadn’t heard about that, but can’t say I’m surprised. Carlos is a very nice guy, but when your dad was “White Feather” I can’t really imagine him getting overly impressed with some guy just because he’s a pro fisherman and would thinks he’s ,something special. I shot with him at Perry in the LR Matches in ‘99 and 2000, if I recall correctly. He was a coach in the old LRFS that Mid Tompkins put on back then. Very nice guy, and I think he wound up in the Pentagon for his last few years before he retired. Tough act to follow, serving in the same branch, AND with the USMC Rifle Team where your old man was such a legend!

I chat with him occasionally of FB, but I haven’t heard him mention much (if anything) shooting related in quite some time. And certainly nothing relating to competitive shooting in recent years. Definately does spend a lot of time on the water though!

 

[Cochran]

Hathcock III was also on the US F-class team for the 2002 world championships. He was 6th in the agg.

 

[Enosiophobia]

Loaded up some 115g DTAC's in my shiny polished cases last night. Cant wait to send these into the dirt mound.

Hope Carlos would be proud.

 

[fyrewall]

Imagine, accelerating a bullet from rest and slamming it with up to 60,000 psi from its secure place in a cartridge, held by neck tension, into a constricted zone where the acceleration continues accompanied by barrel engraving to its maximum velocity and spinning it at thousands of RPM's.

You got to be tough to be a bullet.

 

[Nature Boy]

You’d be surprised how many PMs I get asking if I’m the real Ric Flair

 

[DirtySteve]

You’d be surprised how many PMs I get asking if I’m the real Ric Flair

Well? Are you?

lol..

 

[Enosiophobia]

You’d be surprised how many PMs I get asking if I’m the real Ric Flair

I'm so glad you posted here. Our bowling team uses porno cards for bowling poker. Every time you pull the card with the guy that looks like The Nature Boy you have to don the robe and glasses and roll with it on. If you get a strike the card becomes wild. Oh, and you have to do the WOOOOO with the six gun fingers too or it doesnt count. I have a youtube vid somewhere if I can find it.

 

[Nature Boy]

Well? Are you?

lol..

I had a guy start an PM with me that made no sense until he told me he knew the real Richard Fliehr (aka Ric Flair) and thought I was him.

 

[IdahoSharpshooter]

I've always wondered why you would use somebody else's name here myself. I always figured you a Marine shooter yourself, or paying tribute to him. I never wanted to be compared to anyone else, and even in the Army Ranger Company I served with in RVN Hathcock was legendary.
Ah well, we each have our thing. My ex-wife moved back to Idaho and started referring to herself as Mrs. ______ _________ again several years ago.

 

[fyrewall]

Yes, bullets are tough.... BUT, what if bullets are subjected to stresses that they are not expected to take? Does the bullet polishing process involve dumping 1,000's (heavy?) of bullets into some barrel like container with polishing media and tumbling them until shiny. Do shooters expect shiny bullets? Looking at various bullet jackets I see that many jackets are only .020 or less in thickness. What if, during the polishing process any portion of core unsupported jacket was partially caved in? - it would be very difficult to eyeball such a defect and if that bullet loaded it could really screw up some great group. I my self would prefer a plain brown cardboard box containing numerous small plastic bags of unpolished bullets. I would not care if they were lubed up with bacon fat. The price has to be right.

My views of using the name of a real USMC hero for a member's name in all upper case letters is sort of "affected".

 

[Dusty Stevens]

My views of using the name of a real USMC hero for a member's name in all upper case letters is sort of "affected".

But what if he only puts the first letters in caps like our carlos has done?

 

[fyrewall]

But what if he only puts the first letters in caps like our carlos has done?

My error - no penalty for using your real name. The full screen (large) photos sort of warped my perspective.

 

[ebb]

I didn't think much of using a genuine war hero's name, it's kinda like stealing his reputation. But who am I to talk I am using the name of the legendary actor from the Green Acres TV show.

 

[mousegunner]

I met the Gunny at the Las Vegas Shot Show a long time ago, I was kind of speechless but he said it was nice to meet me and like to get out and meet Marines and shooters. I still have his business card. I wanted to go back and get some autographed pictures but I got called out of the show and never went back. Sorry I didn't see him again.

 

[fyrewall]

I knew several WWII, Korean War, and Vietnam war guys who did the real thing and I always noted their gentle modest demeanor and sense of humor to the point they were usually fun guys to be with.

 

[KenOath]

Just a word to the wise; the bullets that are handled (or processed) least, are almost always the bullets that will shoot best. That bullet is at its peak of accuracy potential when it comes out off the sizing die and into the collection bin beneath the press. Anything done after that, will degrade the base accuracy of that projectile. This includes inspection, polishing and final packaging. Sounds odd, but bullets ar actually pretty fragile. Any rough treatment, such as carelessly dumping them into a collecation barrel rather than carefully placing them, will likely cause concentrity problems in the finished product. Final polishing can be tough on them, as Bart explained earlier. Anything that came down to the range for me to use as standards in production testing, never saw the, inside of a tumbler, and were taken literally straight off the press with nothing further done to them.

We can talk about pointing an uniformity meplats in another thread, but suffice it to say, the same cautions apply, and that enhancment process can also work against you if not done properly. People like shiny, well-polished bullets, so the bullet makers polish them prior to packaging. But for years now, those shooters in the know have tried to get them to package bullets straight off the press, unpolished and still covered with the oil used in production.

I didn’t realise Bullets are that fragile, Berger might want to read the post in the reloading forum here “Berger Packaging “. Can’t see Bullets rolling around loosely in a 500 count box being good for them in transit... specially if there coming all the way over to me...