Bored Tinker Curiosity

[ET]

While prepping my loading bench to do some reloads for a friend’s 3030 my eye caught the sight of an all copper, boat tail bullet for muzzle loading. Staring at it a question popped into my mind. What would the bullet weigh if the boat tail was removed? Glancing over at my inactive mini-lathe my curiosity took over. I got to know, chuckle.



This is just an interesting or entertaining read for others I thought I would share.
Now some are probably thinking why I don’t make a bunch of 200gr bullets to try. I already have enough on my plate of 200gr bullet testing but rest assured it will sit in the back of my mind ready to be recalled if all else fails, chuckle.
Sooner or later, I will find my pot of gold at the end of the SML Rainbow.

A point of interest is that the outer dimension of the machined 198gr copper bullet is basically the same as a regular 250gr bullet.

[jims]

I was going to say it would weigh less, lol. Looks like you did a nice job on that, is it hard to keep them all at the same weight after being on the lathe?

[ET]

Mar 6, 2021 8:39:14 GMT -5 jims said:

I was going to say it would weigh less, lol. Looks like you did a nice job on that, is it hard to keep them all at the same weight after being on the lathe?

Boy you read that right about maintaining same weight and constant removal from lathe to measure. Then there's the unwanted jaw marks from the chuck. As for weight I feel I could keep them at plus or minus a half grain by finishing the bullet with a file. Yep there would be a lot of work involved but if the end product is worth it. How many bullets would I need for hunting? The real conundrum is finding the right powder to provide the performance needed.