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Messing Aroound: CNC Turned Bullet

300sniper

Hot Rolled
Joined
Nov 14, 2006
Location
Greenwood, Ca
CNC Bullet Turning - YouTube

I won't even pretend to know the first thing about designing bullets. This machine has been powered down for about a year and just came to life again. I drew this up real quick and wrote a program to get some confidence in the machine. It's not the right machine for making bullets, that's for sure.



 
I made up some solid brass .45 ACP bullets with relief bands like yours have. I mentioned it in a gun forum and several people spoke up saying the law would consider it a "cop killer bullet", even pasted the language to me. I thought that law was only for PTFE coated bullets but they said any harder material. Well, since then of course Barnes came out with their solid bronze rifle projectiles, so I don't know.

There was a time when I would reject a claim like that, but the laws have become so stupid and meaningless the last twenty years I no longer assume it's crazy just because it makes no sense.

I entertained the idea of making a few hundred .308 boat tail bullets in my Omni-Turn, but I've gotten fearful that some law designed by Oprah fanatics would find me out. I know they are sold commonly in Shotgun News ads.
 
I think they can be "cop killer bullets" only if they are for handguns. Rifle bullets of any nature will penetrate the Kevlar vests.
 
I made up some solid brass .45 ACP bullets with relief bands like yours have. I mentioned it in a gun forum and several people spoke up saying the law would consider it a "cop killer bullet", even pasted the language to me. I thought that law was only for PTFE coated bullets but they said any harder material. Well, since then of course Barnes came out with their solid bronze rifle projectiles, so I don't know.

There was a time when I would reject a claim like that, but the laws have become so stupid and meaningless the last twenty years I no longer assume it's crazy just because it makes no sense.

I entertained the idea of making a few hundred .308 boat tail bullets in my Omni-Turn, but I've gotten fearful that some law designed by Oprah fanatics would find me out. I know they are sold commonly in Shotgun News ads.

You'd be in pretty sketchy territory with monolithic handgun bullets. You'd have to get ATF to agree they are designed for sporting purposes. Probably a lot of work for personal use. You should be fine making rifle bullets even though I'm not sure how that works because technically, a handgun can be designed to fire any cartridge.
 
These are .416 cal bullets I load for my .416 Barrett chambered rifle. Made by Lehigh defense and have a G1 bc of .900+. They work very well in my reloads.image.jpg
 
Sorry to send folks down a rabbit hole on handgun bullets. It's all smoke and mirrors for the voting housewives anyway, as I understand it no police officer was ever killed with even one "Cop killer" bullet. So it's another "feels good to the uninformed" legislation's.

On your solids guys, your seating die must be special to accept that long needle nose, I wonder if it has much effect on ballistics.
 
I think they can be "cop killer bullets" only if they are for handguns. Rifle bullets of any nature will penetrate the Kevlar vests.

Logic has no place in gun legislation.

What you think is a rifle, someone will say is a handgun bullet because someone sells a 'pistol' commercially, chambered in that round. That's how many carbine cartridges came to be classified as being handgun cartridges, like 5.56x45mm, 7.62x39, 5.45x39, and basically any rifle cartridge ever available in an AR15, etc etc.

It's all horse shit anyways. The way the law is written is retarded. There've been bans on solid-copper/brass bullets, SPECIFICALLY to accommodate the people who think lead rounds shouldn't be used in hunting waterfowl, or who are afraid to leave lead 'out in the wild' where the critters might get it. For shotguns, shooting steel is no big deal. Shooting solid steel bullets without a sabot in a rifle would be stupid at best. So Barnes and others try to sell solid copper/brass bullets. Enter the stupid "cop killer" laws regarding solid hard metal projectiles...

I know the ATF was "taking comments" about a "sporting exemption" for the rule, but don't remember what the outcome was. Personally, I like the copper bullets because you can get a bigger bullet per-grain which = bigger wound channel. That's up to 30% more bullet per bullet! (gaming reference)
 
Over 5 inches long and .75 to .85 in diameter. Wowsers! I can not see any purpose for those things, which means you have too much time on your hands, maybe you could give ma some (time that is).
 
No purpose? That's what anti gunners say about every gun beyond single shot .22's :)

It seems like a wonderfully fun rifle for long range interdiction. After all there was a specific reason behind the second amendment, but it may just be for record breaking target shooting.

I had a GAU 30MM gattling barrel from a Warthog here for a while. 1.181" bore, I gave it to a friend of mine and I don't know what was done with it. Originally the first owner wanted to shoot it using fixed case cartridges, but couldn't figure out how to do it legally. There are a lot of guys shooting 20 MM sniping rifles, for target fun I guess.
 
Over 5 inches long and .75 to .85 in diameter. Wowsers! I can not see any purpose for those things, which means you have too much time on your hands, maybe you could give ma some (time that is).

When China's immoral geneticists increase their cloning and genetic engineering capabilities, making a twist Jurassic Park into a wartime reality, you'll be happy to have a man-portable weapon to take down the invading sauropods, therapods, and dromaeosaurs.
 
Over 5 inches long and .75 to .85 in diameter. Wowsers! I can not see any purpose for those things, which means you have too much time on your hands, maybe you could give ma some (time that is).

It's just a display to put on my desk. I just got the machine powered back up after it sat for nearly a year. I'm just getting a bit of confidence in it and myself before I toss an expensive barrel blank in it.

Oh, it's .968" diameter.
 

Hey whats that on the counter there? Light a cigarette and you would be batting 1000...lol. Don't know too much about machining bullets for personal use. Even though at an earlier stage in my life I manufactured probably 500,000 rounds for the GAU-8 Gatlin Gun on the Warthog (A-10). One thing that sticks out to me as a machinist about your bullets.....assuming you did very little "hand work" to them after machining, I would say your lathe is cutting on center very nicely.
 
that long needle nose, I wonder if it has much effect on ballistics.

Oh, yes! Folks tend to forget that over long-enough ranges, a projectile moves at a wide range of velocities, usually in AIR. Center of pressure shifts.

.50 BMG and similar rounds, same basic balance of shape, is a lot closer to optimal at managing that dynamic over the flight-path than might first appear. Plenty of Gummint research. Even more field-experience.

Tough act to follow for anyone with fewer resources.

And then... sharpish tips want protected in handling, magazines, and final feeding. Even the least imperfection introduced can have waaay too much effect on accuracy at longish ranges.

Design compromises. The proven SURVIVORS of many "thinking-out-of-the-box" ideas.

Good ones endure. And win wars.

Bill
 
Hey whats that on the counter there? Light a cigarette and you would be batting 1000...lol. Don't know too much about machining bullets for personal use. Even though at an earlier stage in my life I manufactured probably 500,000 rounds for the GAU-8 Gatlin Gun on the Warthog (A-10). One thing that sticks out to me as a machinist about your bullets.....assuming you did very little "hand work" to them after machining, I would say your lathe is cutting on center very nicely.

Zero hand work. I did flip them around and face the parting nub off. That's how I came up with the .968" diameter, 31/32 was the next smaller size collet I had.
 
I knew they had a larger diameter than the 5/8 T slot. Did not figure they were made for an existing barrel, that's why I guessed paper weights. If you count getting familiar with the machine then it was worthwhile. Still wish I had that kind of time.
 
I knew they had a larger diameter than the 5/8 T slot. Did not figure they were made for an existing barrel, that's why I guessed paper weights. If you count getting familiar with the machine then it was worthwhile. Still wish I had that kind of time.

Now they are paying for themselves. I posted it on a couple other forums and people want to buy them. Win win.
 
Now they are paying for themselves. I posted it on a couple other forums and people want to buy them. Win win.

Every buck that can help cover FFL and ITAR fees counts, one supposes. Wouldn't blame 'smiths if they added iPad batteries or Stereo earbuds to their lines.

Amazing that folks will spend a coupla grand on that crap over a year's time, yet expect serious work to be done for a few small beans.

:(
 








 
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