Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Competitive Shooting Good day to be a bullet maker.

Always a great day when FedEx rolls up with J4 .30 cal. jacket goodness. Good timing...I was down to my last 800!

Well you can make a few now. Happy time.

What weights will you be making?

With my 7 ogive/.625 metplat dies, the 1.00" jackets make great bullets from 115's to a smidge over 132's. The .925's are perfect for 108-ish to the 115 range.

Cores started showing up Saturday so that's a relief....though I can make my own if need be. I keep several spools of core wire on hand for experimenting with different weights, antimony percentages and in case of core supply issues.

Good shootin' -Al

I've stood looking down that rabbit hole for a long time. Part of me is glad I didn't, part of me wishes I had. The bullet casting for ASSRA and CBA (and the shooting thereof) keeps me out of the bars too much as it is.😂

I know a 30BR barrel lasts a long time but that many might get you into the next barrel too

More shooting , more fun!

Well, quit typing and get to work 😁

When I started making my own BR quality .30 bullets in 2006, it was really to find out if I had the skills to make a good bullet. My good pal Randy Robinett (BIB Bullets) mentored me and remains a wealth of knowledge to this day. Without Randy's encouragement, I doubt I would have made the significant investment of time and resources to do this.

Another part is having a major piece of my BR program being done in-house. BR accuracy-level custom bullet availability has always been subject to components and the bullet makers time. Traveling to the IBS Nationals once w/o a comfortable supply of bullets, I decided to never let myself get backed into that corner again.

The final piece is the satisfaction of doing well with bullets you've made yourself. For the few others that I've supplied, seeing them win/place/show is almost as good.

Yesterday was our last tournament of the season....a Score event at 100 followed by a Group event, also at 100. Conditions were pretty snotty with the predominate condition being switchy from 5 o'clock to 8 o'clock which at this range will guarantee not only about a bullet and half of vertical but also some horizontal/vertical displacement if you're focused to much on the flags and miss the mirage snapping back and forth.

In the end, both the Score and Group event wins came down on my side of the ledger. Always fun to give the PPC guys some fun ribbing about a lowly .30 finishing ahead of 'em in a Group event. All in all, a pretty good way to end the season.

Equipment is my Heavy Varmint (13.5 lbs) gun, RB/LP/RE Panda, Bruno/McMillan pattern stock, Kreiger twisted 1:17, modified Jewell trigger and one of Sightron's new SIII Competition ED 36X45 scopes in Harrell's rings. I converted the Panda to what I call a 'Pan-diak' (a Panda/Kodiak crossbreed) by adding a front recoil lug and some other less obvious tweaks.

Good shootin' (and competing)

Bravo!!

My hat is off to you Sir, congrats!

congrats

Al,

Pretty cool - I will at some point start making my own.

Right now with TomE close, I have been buying Vapor Trail bullets … which used to be Clay Spensers …. I had contacted Clay about learning bullet making from him, but life had other plans… so I had to skip it for this last year.

Right now I’m making custom sizing dies to match my custom reamers for 6 creed & 6 Dasher….

In Dec. I’ll be building my first official bench rifle… so making bullets won’t be too far down the road.

I wish you lived closer I’d love to watch you make sum pills.

Grats, Al. I'd bet the satisfaction of doing it with your own is really high.

I'm mentoring a BR pal in accuracy bullet making right now. It's a nice way to pass on what accuracy bullet making is...part technical/part art/part experience.

I make some 150 gr. bullets on the 1.150" jackets with a harder antimony cores with these dies, too. They are a killer good bullet in everything from the 308W to the 300 WSM sized cases. They've worked well on everything from big hogs, white tails, mulies, caribou, black bear, elk and antelope. Plus, they're the 'standard' I use when sorting out any .30 cal. hunting rigs.

Good shootin' -Al

Al,

I was going to try to spend some times with Spensor to do that but things didn’t pan out time wise so I never got to do it…. Right now I’m waiting / trying to get my schedule done.. Moving your house, shop, … all at the same time is a bear.

But it’s on my list - but under the “build my first Bench rifle”…. Done bunches of PRS / Field rifles that shoot at that level but this is my first bench one.
I’m still waiting on the Bat Action to get here… everything else is here already.

It's always a good idea to start a new BR level rifle off with several 'known quantity' bullets to better evaluate it.

I'd encourage you to check pin protrusion, spring weight and the cocking piece fit in the shroud and correct as needed as soon as you receive the action.

Good shootin' -Al