Primer activated cartridges

[BobWright]

On another forum I've been in a discussion about the use of wax bullets, and that reminded me...........

Years ago I bought some practice cartridges in .38 Special. The cases were green plastic with three scallops around the rim. These took small pistol primers. The bullets were dark gray, nearly black, plastic, softer and more "rubbery" that the cases. They were short wadcutter shape, with tail fins on the base. Who made/marketed these now are forgotten by me.

Speer sold a practice round and I bought these for .44 Special/Magnum. These had a red plastic case, slightly shorter than a .44 Special case, with a black wadcutter bullet. And they took large pistol primers.

I was fascinated by these for awhile but soon the novelty wore off. They would penetrate one side of a corrugated box, which was handy as you could retrieve the bullets, punch out the fired primer and seat a new one, then snap the bullet back into the case.

A memory from out of my past...........


Bob Wright

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

The late great Bill Jordan used wax bullets for his fast draw practice and gun handling shows, there are pictures in No Second Place Winner showing how he made them. I had the Speer plastic bullets and cases years ago, biggest disadvantage was the POI was way off-too high ?-due to their light weight. Recall going down into the basement on miserable rainy, snowy, icy days and practicing with them. Like an air pistol, let you get some inexpensive practice in.

 

[reddog81]

I have some of the Speer black plastic bullets and the red cases for .38 Special. The black wadcutter bullet also works in a standard 9mm case. Accurate enough to hit a paper sheet from one side of the garage to the other. I bought them from Midway within the last 4 or 5 years.

 

[.38 Special]

I still have some of the Speer cases with rubber bullets, but I gave up on them as the bullets didn't seem to last very long. Later, I got onto a Bill Jordan kick and did a lot of loading with wax bullets and pistol primers. The "bullets" were cut out of cakes of paraffin, exactly as shown in No Second Place Winner, and they had to be loaded just prior to use - the primers don't have enough poop to ensure that the bullet makes it out of the barrel unless they are pushed all the way to the bottom of the case, where they then contaminate the primers in short order.

Ultimately I "discovered" the fast draw crowd. They use cases drilled out for shotgun primers, along with pre-made wax bullets. The cases are slightly expensive and available in limited calibers but they apparently last forever, and the wax bullets are sold by the thousand for not much money. The process is simple and fast: pop in a primer (no tools needed, just drop it in with fingers), push in a wax bullet flush with the case mouth (again just by finger pressure) then load and fire. Remove the case and drop the primer out (it usually falls right out, but sometimes needs a rap on the bench) then load it up again. The only downside is that shotgun primers are shockingly loud, at least in the garage or basement, and require ear protection and indulgent neighbors.

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

I bought some of that Speer plastic ammo a bazillion years ago. Pretty sure they were for 38 Special. Red cases and black bullets if I recall correctly. A long time ago, no idea what happened to that stuff.

I also seem to recall messing with wax bullets in my 45 Colt / 45 ACP Ruger Blackhawk, also a bazillion years ago. I seem to recall I was shoving a standard primed case into a sheet of paraffin for the bullets, but I may not be remembering correctly. Just a primer, no powder. This was when I first discovered that primers back out with light loads and will jam the cylinder if there is not enough pressure to reseat the primer in the case under recoil.

 

[ThomasT]

To make wax bullet loads you need dedicated cases. Dedicated because you need to drill the primer hole out bigger to keep the primer from backing out. I made these by first pouring the melted wax in a pan to around a 1/2" thickness and letting the wax cool. Then pop out the wax block. Take the unprimed case with the drilled primer hole and shove it into the wax so it cuts your wax bullet. Then seat the primer. I would suggest you mark those drilled cases so they don't get mixed in with normal cases. I filed a notch in the rim so they were permanently marked.

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

To make wax bullet loads you need dedicated cases. Dedicated because you need to drill the primer hole out bigger to keep the primer from backing out. I made these by first pouring the melted wax in a pan to around a 1/2" thickness and letting the wax cool. Then pop out the wax block. Take the unprimed case with the drilled primer hole and shove it into the wax so it cuts your wax bullet. Then seat the primer. I would suggest you mark those drilled cases so they don't get mixed in with normal cases. I filed a notch in the rim so they were permanently marked.

Fellow down the road uses something like that in a .44 to shoot squirrels in his barn. It doesn't kill the squirrels, does seem to stun them pretty much, sure does make them mad, but they stay away from the feed bins for at least a while. Way he makes them they're louder than a .22CB.

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

To make wax bullet loads you need dedicated cases. Dedicated because you need to drill the primer hole out bigger to keep the primer from backing out. I made these by first pouring the melted wax in a pan to around a 1/2" thickness and letting the wax cool. Then pop out the wax block. Take the unprimed case with the drilled primer hole and shove it into the wax so it cuts your wax bullet. Then seat the primer. I would suggest you mark those drilled cases so they don't get mixed in with normal cases. I filed a notch in the rim so they were permanently marked.

Yeah, I learned that a bazillion years ago when I made up some 45 Colt loads with wax bullets. The point of opening up the flash hole is it prevents the primer flame from building up enough pressure in the primer pocket to drive the primer out. I drilled out a few flash holes, but haven't loaded wax bullets in eons, so I dunno what ever happened to the brass with drilled out flash holes. I bought my Blackhawk in 1975, so I was probably messing with wax bullets sometime around then.

 

[ThomasT]

I was making the wax bullets around 1988 and have no idea where the cases went. I don't think I modified but 18 cases anyway and probably chunked them after I bought some of the Speer primer powered bullets and cases that I still have. I like the Speer practice bullets except when you lose one. Shoot into a carboard box with a piece of old carpet on the backside and you should recover every bullet.

My BIL and his friend decided to shoot each other with them and found out the hard way these are more powerful than you think. The bullets cut through their Tee-Shirts and cut a circle on the skin and left a nice bruise. It only took one shot each to learn. Idiots.