Time to make the donuts....

[Kiwishooter]

True enough Ian...

I used to have a way of shipping heavy items at a reasonable price, back before covid.
NZ$150 to ship a 9" diff to NZ
Post Covid it cost me NZ$1400 to have a surface grinder picked up in LA, delivered to the exporter, freighted to NZ and tax of 15% added to everything. Freight was NZ$800 and I did think that was cheap.

But gone are the days where I used to pay $50 per box of items and the box was about 24" x 18" x 12" or even $50 freight per mag wheel
Now it's more than doubled.

 

[WIB3]

Hence the reason I sold my Neimi dies. Much easier to purchase them from a reputable bullet maker, with a known reputation.

 

[jackieschmidt]

Hence the reason I sold my Neimi dies. Much easier to purchase them from a reputable bullet maker, with a known reputation.

Around 25 years ago, I went through exactly the same thing.
I had bought a complete 6mm bullet making set up from one of the reputable Die makers. I went through the usual learning curve, and finally got them to shoot pretty good, but could just as easily give Jeff Flower a call and get bullets that actually shot better.

I went through all of the trials and errors, and one day just stood up and said “to heck with it”. My presses and dies sat right there for darned near 2 decades gathering dust. I never even too them off the bench.

Then, several years ago, I decided to give it another try. I got a complete carbide set up from George Ulrich and made up my mind to make a competitive bullet.

I do pretty good with them.

What did I do different this time? Mostly attention to detail. I tried different combinations of core seat pressure, point up length, lube during core seat and lube during point up, taking good advice and coming up with a few ideas of my own, and lots of range time figuring out what worked best.

Also, I am lucky to have a partner. My Friend Ed Bernabeo, who is a few years older than I am and is retired, does the labor, (pulling handles). And, since we both shoot the identical 30BR combination, we have twice the input in how the bullets are doing. Ed has learned to look for any little anomalies during the actual handle pulling and will call my attention to it.

One thing I pay close attention to is the core seat punch diameter. I like it close. The drawback can be if you catch even a slight lead build up on the punch, cases will stick to the punch. The solution is to check it about every 20 bullets and keep it clean.

 

[geo.ulrich]

Around 25 years ago, I went through exactly the same thing.
I had bought a complete 6mm bullet making set up from one of the reputable Die makers. I went through the usual learning curve, and finally got them to shoot pretty good, but could just as easily give Jeff Flower a call and get bullets that actually shot better.

I went through all of the trials and errors, and one day just stood up and said “to heck with it”. My presses and dies sat right there for darned near 2 decades gathering dust. I never even too them off the bench.

Then, several years ago, I decided to give it another try. I got a complete carbide set up from George Ulrich and made up my mind to make a competitive bullet.

I do pretty good with them.

What did I do different this time? Mostly attention to detail. I tried different combinations of core seat pressure, point up length, lube during core seat and lube during point up, taking good advice and coming up with a few ideas of my own, and lots of range time figuring out what worked best.

Also, I am lucky to have a partner. My Friend Ed Bernabeo, who is a few years older than I am and is retired, does the labor, (pulling handles). And, since we both shoot the identical 30BR combination, we have twice the input in how the bullets are doing. Ed has learned to look for any little anomalies during the actual handle pulling and will call my attention to it.

One thing I pay close attention to is the core seat punch diameter. I like it close. The drawback can be if you Capet even a slight lead build up on the punch, cases will stick to the punch. The solution is to check it about every 20 bullets and keep it clean.

Jackie, The reason you are getting build up is you are running to big of a punch back down a size and allow a slight amount of bleedby....

 

[AlNyhus]

Jackie, The reason you are getting build up is you are running to big of a punch back down a size and allow a slight amount of bleedby....

Randy counseled me early on regarding core seater punch diameters. As he and you have both said...it's better to be too small than too big..somewhere between lead build up/copper sparkles on the seating punch and a Rolling Stones tongue slurp of bleed by up the inside of the jacket wall.

If the punch diameter and core material is right and the punch still wants to 'lead up', the first thing I suspect is excessive core seating pressure. With my setup, that shows as flaking on the punch face rather than small little particles. Sometimes, .0005 up/down on the seating punches is a biggie.

With Randy's guidance, I just finished lapping one of my core seat dies .0003 larger. A side benefit was the side effect of acting like a smaller 'punch' was used.

My 2 cents worth from the cheap seats.

 

[jackieschmidt]

Jackie, The reason you are getting build up is you are running to big of a punch back down a size and allow a slight amount of bleedby....

George, I bored a little piece of steel a few thousands bigger than the punch. The edge of the ID is dead sharp. We slip it over the punch and just a few up and down swipes and any lead build up is gone. Takes a minute or so.

 

[brcman]

Randy Robinett- I sent you a PM.

Wayne

 

[AlNyhus]

This should get things started for testing. 114 gr .925's and 117 gr 1.00" on the Blackmon dies and the same on the Robinett point die. On the Robinett die, two different core seat dies were used on both bullet weights, giving different jacket diameters prior to pointing.

Good shootin' -Al

 

[bichettereds]

This should get things started for testing. 114 gr .925's and 117 gr 1.00" on the Blackmon dies and the same on the Robinett point die. On the Robinett die, two different core seat dies were used on both bullet weights, giving different jacket diameters prior to pointing.

Good shootin' -Al

Who made the blue boxes Al?

 

[AlNyhus]

Who made the blue boxes Al?

Those babies are vintage bullet boxes. Best bullet boxes ever. -Al

 

[WayneShaw]

They look like the boxes Guy Chism used.

 

[David Conder]

I have some of those boxes

 

[AlNyhus]

They look like the boxes Guy Chism used.

Yep...Guy used them as did Randy Robinett and some others. 333 .30's fit nicely in each box and both put 334 in each box when you ordered 1,000. Two free bullets with each 1,000....what's not to like?

I said something to Guy about it and he said: "I throw a couple in that fell on the floor. Use those to check your seating depth."

Guy was a smart guy with a bunch of common sense. When I first started shooting BR, it was with a Hunter class gun. I was shooting Guy's 125's and using 748 powder. On my first trip to Van Dyne he came over to introduce himself. He quietly asked if he could show me something about using 748. He did and it worked better. I used that tip until moving to the VV powders.

Good shootin' -Al

 

[RGRobinett]

Though the "blue boxes" were decent, the lid hinge was relatively weak & didn't hold-up to either much pressure, or, a multitude of cycles. But THE BIG deal, was that the [blue box] maker quit selling in bulk. Once MTN began making boxes, I switched to their TN051-16 "Bullet Box: I like the transparency (for storing "stuff), the durability (lid hinge holds-up to the gorillas beating up the cartons during shipping), and the price . . . RG

 

[cp generation]

View attachment 1647023Makes my racing look cheep.......View attachment 1647024

ooooooooooooow funning looking valve covers and heads on that one !!!!

 

[cp generation]

This will make you feel better....we had it on the dyno last Friday and Saturday. Small block Chevy 283-220 horse NHRA Super Stock engine.

Al, hard to see the Carb, is it a wcfb ? or

 

[jackieschmidt]

4GC

Dang Al, I haven’t seen one of those in over 60 years.

 

[CJ6]

What did they dyno at ?

 

[RGRobinett]

They look like the boxes Guy Chism used.

This thread is, "going to the dogs" . . . Here's a link to some [blue box] bullets listed and sold last evening < https://forum.accurateshooter.com/threads/bib-30cal-bullets.4149053/ > the blue box 112-10 ogive (1.00" long J4 jacket) were made Sept, 2009 very near the end of blue box usage . . . up until he departed, I also printed Guy's box labels (10-X) - the only crumbs THE LION would would accept from this lowly mouse. Guy was a GREAT shooter and mentor. RG

 

[WIB3]

Yep, keep to the original post. Kool though.