Gentlemen,
 
Would you care to speculate on what the bullets are for?
 
Paul

Bear? Self defense in general.

What is the caliber?

Well, one is loaded backwards....
 
Prairie dogs?

I just now noticed the belts are ground off the cases as well...

Bangstick for someone who is opposed to using the traditional shotgun shells?

Looks like they may go to a '... POOR MANS DOUBLE..." of some kind.

Paul,

I dunno!..........They are sure 'nough big tho!:confused:

Ol' John:D

Really nutty person with a BAD case of "wildcateritis"?
Al, where did you come from. I had you figured for 100+ hours per week in the oil patch boom so you could spend 4 months whacking geese this fall!;) :D

OK Paul, I'll bite. What are you doing with thoes?

Hmmm I am wondering if they are for that Collath Drilling you got or have you aquired another toy?

Drinksgin
 
Pretty close to right there pard. Long hours at work and then repairs to the house on weekends I am just about wore plumb out. Got to get out and shoot pretty soon or I may waste away to nothing. Seaon is getting close, thankfully.

Grrr... This is the second 'draft' response.
 
Well boys, the 'clue' was in my choice of words. Those that have seen some of my posts know that I try to use correct terminology when discussing firearms nomenclature. These are in fact bullets, not cartridges. And in answer to RBB's question, the caliber is about .5115". :)
 
As some of you may recall, the velocites I was getting based on QuickLoad charges were 'anemic' to say the least. Twelve to 1500 f/s from charges that were supposed to be yielding 1600 to 1800 f/s. By the time I finished with the chronographing, there had only been a total of about 15 rounds through the bore. The low number of shots, as well as the fact that velocities were very low and the cast bullets are pretty hard (BHN = 24), had me assuming that leading should be low to non-existant. I was wrong.
 
I had run a few soaked patched through the bore, but because I didn't have jags or brushes specific for cleaning .50 bores, I wan't sure I was getting the bore well-scrubbed. So... I decided to drive a bullet down the bore from muzzle ot breech. Holy Cow! I've never seen so much leading! The bullet weighed more than 10 grains more than when it started! You should have seen the lead that bullet pushed out.
 
Anyway, I don't like cast bullet alchemy and bullet lube voodoo, and I don't like leading. The "simplest" solution would be jacketed bullets. However, while there are plenty of .50 caliber jacketed bullets, there are precious few .510" jacketed bullets. I scratched my head a bit trying  to figure out how to copper coat the lead bullets I cast, and couldn't come up with any viable solutions. I was recalling that 'long ago and far away' I had read that the first, and original jacketed bullets were made using the spent cases from .22 RFs.
 
Being a bit of a pack rat, there is a real variety of cases to be found on and around my bench. I knew that the all the 'normal' cases, with heads and rims at about .473", would be too small. But what about those "magnums" I wondered. Turns out, they were just about a perfect fit. All I needed to do was remove the belt. Hmmm.....
 
I reached for the little pipecutter that I keep on my bench, and cut a .300 Weatherby case off to about 1 inch. Hmmmm..... what to fill it with? It looked like a .45-70 cast bullet might be close to the ID of the Weatherby head. It was. In fact, it was practically a perfect fit. A couple of taps with a hammer, and it was snug as a bug in a rug. Next I chucked the 'bullet' in a drill motor, and using a small bastard-file, 'turned' the belt off and the rim to  about .512". Aftr running it through the Lee .510" bullet resizer, it came out .5115". Voila'!
 
I had put a 405-grain Oregon Trail Laser Cast bullet in point-first. That left the flat butt forward in my new bullet. Not exactly 'aerodynamic'. So I started pressing the nose into various bullet seating and sizing dies in an attempt to shape it a bit more 'bullet-like'. The result is what you see in the right-most bullet in the picture. I was starting to think that this might just work.
 
I liked what I saw, so I decided to make another one. That's the one to the left in the picture. (The .458 405-grain Oregon Trail Laser Cast 'core' is to the far left.) Hmmm..... This might actually be feasible. I thought I'd discuss it with others that might not have my 'devil-may-care' attitude, so I gave Jay a call. :)
 
Between us, the only real problems we could see was that due to the primer flash-hole opening the core to chamber pressure, the core might shoot out and leave the 'jacket' in the bore. As you can see, I left the spent primer in the case head, but 25,000 PSI might rupture it and push the core out. We decided that I should call Dave Corbin and see what he thought about the whole affair.
 
I like Dave Corbin. :)
 
He is not one of those people in the world that likes to rain on other people's parades. First, he said that the primer flash-hole was a non-issue. Even if the spent primer was completely left out, the surface area of the wall of the jacket relative to the area of the flash-hole would be many times too large to warrant worrying about leaving the jacket in the bore. Second, and more exiting was the fact that not only did he "approve" of the idea, he had a die I could use in a reloading press that would allow me to use his core wire and make 'real' bullets, with ballistically efficient noses! Yeehaaa! I've sent to him some of my "bullet" proto-types, and he is going to make sure his gear will do the trick. He says others have doen the same sort of thing, but never with a belted case as it was too much trouble to turn the belts off.
 
For me, the .50x.348 has been and remains a labor of love. I knew 'going in' that it was going to require lots of 'custom' stuff. (I forgot about cleaning gear though.) I looked forward to casting/making bullets for it. Therefore, all the hassle associated with making jacketed bullets from magnum CF cases is no deterrent to me. On the contrary, these will truly be custom, hand-made bullets. The time spent making them will be enjoyed, not lamented.
 
There is of course the cost of making bullets from magnum cases. It is after all, a one-off affair. At first, I will simply use pick-ups from the range. It always amazes me to see all of the spent magnum cases lying around the range. Iimage I should be able to pick up a couple of hundred. Next, that amazing 8x56R case (and the Russian 7.62x54R too) is emerging as a potential source of jacket material. While its head is slightly smalller (.495") in diameter, the rim is well over the .510 needed. Turns out, that after swaging the .458" bullet into the 8x56R head, it swells to about .515". Running it through the Lee sizer makes it just right. There are 'tons' of spent berdan-primed 8x56R and 7.62x54R cases wandering 'the web'.
 
So... these pictures are of actual, custom, hand-made bullets for the 'Big Fifty'. Velocity and precision reports to follow.
 
Oh yeah, weights run from 525 to 550 grains. Perfect.
 
Paul

Hi Paul,

    Well blow me down I never thought of the Martini. Pity you are so far away as I beileve I have some Eygptian 7.62x54R brass. Hmm must check as i ahve not sen it since the move and it filled two large Sweet tins, you know the 7lb Christmas family tins of chocolates.
   
   Next it will be swaging Copper Tubing for jackets.

Quote from: BrithunterNext it will be swaging Copper Tubing for jackets.

Actually, Dave Corbin has gear to do that very thing, but he said that for a .50 caliber, it couldn't reasonably be accomplished on a hand-press. Rather one of his hydraulic machines would be required. That means about a $1000 initial investment. I'd have to go back to bullet alchemy and lube voodoo first. :) The dies and paraphrenalia for the reloading press-based method comes to about $250.
 
Paul

Plenty of lube and gas checks should do the job as well.
A 28ga brush should do for cleaning.