Home Made Wax Bullets? And Primer?

[jjohnson]

Hi, Gents!

It's time to start playing with Cowboy Action loads for practice.... best price I've found for wax bullets is $25/1000, postpaid.

Being a tinkerer and tightwad (like a lot of handloaders) is there a cheaper solution that'd be worthwhile? I can get paraffin cheaply enough, but it seems to me that some of those wax bullets aren't all paraffin. Any good recipes out there?

Second part of the question - lots of folks use standard shotgun primers for these loads. If I'm modifying my own brass, what drill are you guys using, and do you countersink? With what (tool)?

Thanks in advance!

 

[DanLee]

Make your own. Just prime the case and shove it through a bar of paraffin.

Dan

 

[Oyeboten]

Who is selling these Wax Bullets?


Anyway...if in .45 LC, or .38, just a plain regular Prinmer would do fine for 20-30 feet Paper Targets.

I used to do this a lot indoors with a Colt 'Navy' just using the Percussion Cap and Wax Bullets I made in the Bullet Mold...worked fine.

 

[Schutzen]

In years past, Speer sold a plastic bullet and case unit. You primed the case with a small pistol primer and fired as a normal cartridge. The range was limited to 25 feet or so, but it was good practice. You recovered the plastic bullets, deprimed and reprimed the cases before reinserting the bullet in the case. You see them at gun shows from time to time.

 

[Beelzy]

Hot glue sticks. ;-)

 

[jjohnson]

These guys sell 'em.

Yep, several outfits sell them - I found this one on Google a couple more times than some of the other guys http://www.gunfighter.com/waxbullets/
some of these outfits also sell brass that's been worked to accept a shotgun primer - bigger is better on that, I guess.

I know about the Speer plastic bullets - I bought some of those well over 30 years ago. Thing is, I'll be using these outdoors, likely on horseback, so I'm not going to dismount and go looking for the black plastic slug every time I let one go. I don't really want to use plastic (it's litter on somebody else's property) but paraffin isn't a big deal. I don't want to use anything flammable, either (grass gets really dry sometimes) so things like cork are out.

I was just figuring there might be something that works better than just straight paraffin, so I figured I'd ask around before I get started.

Dude... hot glue sticks?.... Hmmmmm, that's getting pretty close to a real bullet.... heeee heeee.

 

[icanthitabarn]

The big gun store in my state has those plastic rounds. $15 for 50.

 

[The Bushmaster]

Danlee has it. I have made hundreds of wax bullets by warming [until pliable] a rectangal of canning parafin and just pushing the case mouth through the parafin. Then warming the mouth of the case with a match to seal the wax. You can do this after you prime or after you can prime as your last stage.

I will warn you though that the wax bullet is a messy thing to clean out of the bore and quite sooty even with just the primer for propelant.

 

[MCgunner]

Too messy. Buy the plastic ones and you can trap and reuse them.

 

[LightningMan]

If you are just using the wax bullets for revolvers, all I do is melt down some candles, mix in some bee's wax about 10%, pour into an old pan (one you will not use for cooking again) You want it to be at least about 1/4" thick. Let it cool in the fridge. Now you will need to open up the flash hole of your case's by drilling them out a bit larger, this prevents the primer from backing out & locking up your revolver. Once the wax has cooled just press your primed case's in to the wax. Works for me. LM

 

[Remo-99]

You could also just try using mag primers before going to the trouble prepping cases for shotshell primers, to see if they function well enough, in the case of large primers anyway.
That's what used in 45acp, but then it doesn't have a cylinder gap to bleed off charge pressure.

Also by adding small amounts of beeswax to paraffin will soften the mix up some, just add as much/little as needed to get the desired hardness/softness. But you'll need a wad or two of cardboard or similar with softer wax, otherwise it's just gonna blow the centre of it.

 

[rcmodel]

No need for 209 shotgun primers.

1. Drill out the flash holes to 1/8" or primer cup pressure will blow out the primer and bind up the gun. (Some guns will be hard to cock and some guns will not turn at all.) The ones that work but are hard to turn are very hard on the cylinder hand. SO drill the flash holes.

2. Melt paraffin canning wax from the grocery store in a flat aluminum pan until you have it 1/2" deep or so.

3. Let it cool enough to become solid but not hard.

4. Press cases into the wax to cookie-cutter the bullets out.

5. Shoot & enjoy.

rc

 

[bullseye308]

Priming should be done last, just so you know. If you have a bullet mold laying around, coat the inside with just a tiny bit of olive oil then fill up the cavities with hot glue. Trim off the end flush with the mold after it hardens and load that up with just a primer. Lots of fun and can be used many times. Best to put a pillow in a box and hang a target in front to let the pillow stop the bullet.

 

[odies dad]

http://www.gunfighter.com/waxbullets/cr-making.html
Here is a post on modifying cases. I use 44 special cases in a 44mag Virginian Dragoon.
For bullets, I use parafin wax melted in the bottom of a small cake pan to about 1/2". If you can add some bees wax it works a little better. After the wax sets to firm but not too hard, use the modified unprimed case like a cookie cutter, add your 209 primer and shoot away. The primers will usually pop out easily after firing. For the ones that don't, I keep a small bolt handy and pop them out.
Sounds and recoils about like a 22. Cheap and fun to shoot. If you save your fired wax, you can remelt it.
It works best if the wax is still a little soft when you are doing the cookie cutter thing. If the pan is a bit warm, the bullet will come out in the case instead of sticking to the pan.

 

[ClarkEMyers]

No Second Place Winner by Bill Jordan has an extensive discussion - currently 209 primers seem to be the easist primer to find in stock - some of the use of shotgun primers was to get enough energy to activate a stop plate and for all I know a little difference in bullet speed was enough to determine the winner in fast draw contests.

 

[junkyard_red]

I've had very good results with a one box canning paraffin to one toilet seal mix.