Time to make the donuts....

[ridgeway]

Got a few rolls of lead that came out of a musty damp basement. The Avril spools say Wire Solder on it, but stamped in ink, lead wire. The larger bottom roll has a faded hand wrote tag with part of it looks like 1% wrote on it. Its Barely legible. Im assuming that is 1% antimony. Interesting thing is, I cut a same length core from each spool and the 1% is roughly 2 grains lighter. This week, I will see if our XRF gun will tell me what is in each spool. Interesting to see. Atleast this will get me started on making bullets. I will be sourcing new when I learn the process.

 

[liseo]

The difference in weight is expected, as antimony is less dense than lead (almost half)

 

[dcali]

Now, regarding the topic of lubricating the core, suggesting that it might not be important to have the core completely free of lubricant, what is the majority opinion on the importance of washing the jackets with some solvent to remove oil residue from the stamping operation?
Everyone probably has their own theory, but in any case, if you can give your opinion...
J4 jackets seem absolutely free of any oil, whereas the batch I received from Sierra, you could feel it in your hand.

Most of the sierras I've received have been very clean. I've never bothered washing them and the bullets have been very good. Some have been filthy - I suppose it's worth the trouble to ask them for clean ones when you order.

Hines have been crazy clean. I don know what they use to wash them, but they're so dry they kinda crunch when you pick up a handful because of the friction.

Never used J4 - they were a nightmare to order and I gave up. That was a few years ago. Maybe it's better now. But it was BAD. Like they ignored emails after their quoted ship date came and went. After months of silence, I eventually bought some Sierras instead and never looked back. A year later, J4 sends me an email letting me know my jackets were ready.

 

[liseo]

Most of the sierras I've received have been very clean. I've never bothered washing them and the bullets have been very good. Some have been filthy - I suppose it's worth the trouble to ask them for clean ones when you order.

Hines have been crazy clean. I don know what they use to wash them, but they're so dry they kinda crunch when you pick up a handful because of the friction.

Never used J4 - they were a nightmare to order and I gave up. That was a few years ago. Maybe it's better now. But it was BAD. Like they ignored emails after their quoted ship date came and went. After months of silence, I eventually bought some Sierras instead and never looked back. A year later, J4 sends me an email letting me know my jackets were ready.

You're right about the J4. I've had an order for over 18 months and I don't know if I'll ever receive it.

I only bought a small batch of Hines from a distributor and have never been able to buy it again.
I don't even know if they're still in business, as I've never received a response to the emails I sent.
If you have a contact who responds and can share, I will be grateful.

 

[dcali]

You're right about the J4. I've had an order for over 18 months and I don't know if I'll ever receive it.

I only bought a small batch of Hines from a distributor and have never been able to buy it again.
I don't even know if they're still in business, as I've never received a response to the emails I sent.
If you have a contact who responds and can share, I will be grateful.

I got my Hines from Bart Sauter. He was distributing them a while back. I don't know the status of what they're doing now, but Bart would. For what it's worth, the batch of 1.4" .30s I got were extremely consistent both in length and weight.

Sierra has been great. Easy to order from, relatively quick turnaround, and very good jackets.

 

[jackieschmidt]

You're right about the J4. I've had an order for over 18 months and I don't know if I'll ever receive it.

I only bought a small batch of Hines from a distributor and have never been able to buy it again.
I don't even know if they're still in business, as I've never received a response to the emails I sent.
If you have a contact who responds and can share, I will be grateful.

What J-4’s do you need?

 

[liseo]

What J-4’s do you need?

Jackie

My order with J4 is 1,300 in length. But I'm using anything from .925" to 1,400" and everything in between.

For 6mm, 1,150" length or close to that (I'm looking forward to trying the dies I just received).

If you have anything left, send me a PM

 

[ridgeway]

Jackie

My order with J4 is 1,300 in length. But I'm using anything from .925" to 1,400" and everything in between.

For 6mm, 1,150" length or close to that (I'm looking forward to trying the dies I just received).

If you have anything left, send me a PM

Bullet central has J4 6mm 1.150 Jackets stock. They a bit salty though, haha

Any luck with obtaining Sierra 1.140"s?

 

[jackieschmidt]

Jackie

My order with J4 is 1,300 in length. But I'm using anything from .925" to 1,400" and everything in between.

For 6mm, 1,150" length or close to that (I'm looking forward to trying the dies I just received).

If you have anything left, send me a PM

PM sent

 

[liseo]

Bullet central has J4 6mm 1.150 Jackets stock. They a bit salty though, haha

Any luck with obtaining Sierra 1.140"s?

I missed the opportunity to buy from Bruno, who had a good price.

You meant Sierra 1.400" . I have a purchase order with them.

 

[ridgeway]

This is in reference to lead wire spools in post 858. I tested a sample of each, Avril and 1%(larger spool) with an XRF alloy test gun. Interesting to see what is in each sample. Here are the results

Avirl...
Pb 99.59%
Fe 0.133%
Cu 0.178%
Ni 0.120%

1% spool(larger wood spool)...
Pb 98.8%
Sb 1.11%
Fe 0.207%
Ni 0.188%
Cu 0.058%
Zr 0.031%

 

[dcali]

Excuse the sales post, but it seems relevant now. I have a boatload of Sierra 6mm 1.140"s I'd sell for whatever Sierra is charging for them these days. Like 30k of them.

 

[liseo]

Excuse the sales post, but it seems relevant now. I have a boatload of Sierra 6mm 1.140"s I'd sell for whatever Sierra is charging for them these days. Like 30k of them.

Damon

Sending PM

 

[ridgeway]

Well...made my first handful bullets. 6mm 68 grain FB on J4 .825" jackets. The dies were made by Pindell and made out of tool steel of some sort. The die consists of a large 1.25" body and close tolerance inserts that fit up in the body. An insert for core squirting, one for core seating and a point forming insert, along with punches. So with all the gold nugget information here and on BRC, I was able to make some bullets. I made many mistakes and learned a ton. I won't show the mistakes, haha. Just the final bullet. Not sure what ogive the die makes, but looks like a nice PPC bullet. The point has a rather large diameter and won't close any more...I tried and bad things happen, haha. I also have inserts for 22 cal FB and another die/press setup that does a 25 cal FB. One interesting thing is have with the 25 cal die, it comes with an insert that will close the tip. This was made way before the bullet tipping dies that are on the market these days. I'm assuming Pindel came up with bullet tipping.

 

[JoeDuke]

Look good Ridgeway. Show us some pictures of the dies please.

 

[ridgeway]

Joe...here are the dies. The smaller body will fit the 22 and 6mm die inserts. The larger body only has 25 cal inserts. I tried to take a close up of the tipping punch for the 25 cal bullets. They must have been experimenting tipping SR 25 cal bullets back then? Its pretty much a LR thing now days.

 

[ridgeway]

More...

 

[jackieschmidt]

Your metplate size is determined by the size of the knock out pin. Ideally, the tip just just barely enter that pin hole. Any further and the tip will simply “fish mouth”.

 

[ridgeway]

The pin is .050. I tried pointing up more, but starts to fish mouth. If I try to point up till I can detect resistance on ejection pin it really fishmouth and flows up into die. My learning experience pic...

 

[Kiwishooter]

Joe...here are the dies. The smaller body will fit the 22 and 6mm die inserts. The larger body only has 25 cal inserts. I tried to take a close up of the tipping punch for the 25 cal bullets. They must have been experimenting tipping SR 25 cal bullets back then? Its pretty much a LR thing now days.View attachment 1688121
View attachment 1688122View attachment 1688123

Ferris was "tipping" bullets well before someone produced and sold dies for doing this.
He told me at one Supershoot about what he had found when he was doing it to 6mm bullets he was using in the 6BR, a very knowledgeable precision engineer