Wax Bullets
Ok........the wax bullet process....see "No Second Place Winner" by Bill Jordan for what I believe is the first published account. What??? You don't have this in your library? For shame.........
Deprime and size your fired .38 brass. Using a drill bit ever so slightly bigger than the flashhole drill out said flashholes. Since you have done this you can never use this brass with loads requiring powder ever again. They are now dedicated wax loads.
You must not prime the case first, as this makes an incompressible air column.
Take a Gulf wax brick, they are about 5/8" thick, and push the case thru the block. To make this easier you can warm the whole block in warm water first or do what I do. I have a small hairdryer, wallyworld $7, that I turn on high and direct onto my pile of cases. This warms the cases and allows them to somewhat melt their way thru the block. You don't want them hot to the touch, just warm enough to cut down on the resistance. I use a small block of wood under my thumb to push the case thru.
You can push them all in one at a time and then unload the block or press one and pull it out right away. I like the latter method as I can get more out of a block this way. Save any excess wax, as this can be melted down to make more blocks later.
Now I remove the de-priming pin from my die and size them again, as it is possible to deform the mouth a bit when pressing them thru. I like to take an unsharpened pencil and press the wax to the bottom of the case. I leave them this way and only prime right before I plan on shooting them.
If you want to store them ready to shoot, then DO NOT press the wax to the bottom of the case and prime away. Store them with the mouth down. The reason for this is that if they get to warm the wax can melt some and deactivate the primer. Storing them this way cuts down on this.
Store in a cool place, like the basement, away from the furnace. I also mark the case head with a black sharpie so I don't mix the brass in with good stuff.
That's about all there is to it. I cranked out 50 in about 15mins last night. You should brush the bore of your gun and cylinder before firing live ammo, but I rarely do. I haven't been bit in the ass by it yet, but I imagine that at some time it will get me with my rotten luck.
Sirveyr666 and I have shot them at IDPA targets and they landed about 50 feet past the target. I have to talk him into trying some force on force with these sometime. Collect the bullet if you can find it and re-melt it as well. I love these for training new shooters and old shooters alike. If you are having a bad range day, pop some of these and diagnose what you are doing wrong without the distraction of recoil and muzzle blast.
A word about re-melting the wax. I store my excess wax in a large spaghetti jar. Place that jar in a pot of water on the stove, a double boiler, and heat it up slowly. When all the wax is melted pour it into a form, I use a Gulf wax box sealled up with Duct tape cut to the proper height for one block. It is slow, but damn cheap.
Also, I shoot them indoors in limited quantities. If you do open a window and place a fan in it. After all, primers do contain trace amounts of lead.
