Wooden (etc.) bullets...?

AJMD429 · Post by **AJMD429** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 7:06 pm

The rising prices of lead (and probable legislation restricting 'stockpiling' of lead or banning it at some point except for LEO's or 'registered reloaders') got me thinking outside the box.

Has anyone ever tried to load other projectiles...?

I've seen WOOD bulleted 'practice ammo' in military loadings.
I know Barnes sells solid copper bullets (maybe I'll buy some solid ground rods if they still make them!)
How about steel in a sabot of copper or plastic? (of course the antis would hysterically call them 'armor piercing')
How about ROCKS

I plan on putting some pea gravel in plastic sabots sometime and shooting them to see how they 'group' The shape probably sucks ballistically, but even then - what if you coated them in shaped plastic cases?

These are things you couldn't do as easily with bottleneck cartridges, due to smaller dimensions, pickier powder selections, etc., and things not likely to work in semiautos (maybe those wood ones cycle AK's though), so maybe the leverguns will win out in the end since they are generally large-bore repeaters.

Old Time Hunter · Post by **Old Time Hunter** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 7:23 pm

This has been tried before!!!

These are from pre-1890 years,

Andrew · Post by **Andrew** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 7:57 pm

Sabots would be simple and adaptable. A solid copper hollow-point , I believe, would work pretty good.

Big Bore 94 · Post by **Big Bore 94** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 8:18 pm

I had a chance to fire a bit of West German 7.62 w/ blue plastic projectiles in an HK. It was a hoot. I was hitting targets when I fired. Marksmanship was kind of lacking in the German armee. They kept getting more upset. Then in a show of sportsmanship they took back their toys. Then refused my pleads, begging, and bartering for some more range time. I would SWAG 100 meters to be the maximum effective range.

Leverluver · Post by **Leverluver** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 9:43 pm

I recall an article from 25+ years back where they fired full sized (but obviously under weight) wooden bullets from a 44 mag revolver at 4,000+fps. Bet that would sting......at least inside 25 yds.

DO NOT use ground rod for anything going down a barrel. They are not made of copper, but low grade steel rod that has been copper plated to conduct the juice.

Forget home made copper bullets also. Copper hit $4.00 a pound today. That means any rod that you might want to use will be ~$7.00/lb for small quantities, maybe $6.00/lb if you want to buy 2 tons.

Old Ironsights · Post by **Old Ironsights** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 9:54 pm

Turned BRASS rod works well... and is, in fact, used quite frequently by the Long Range 50BMG crowd...

sore shoulder · Post by **sore shoulder** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 9:57 pm

We use em for knocking down hard plastic silhouettes. You can see them come out of the barrel, and they tumble and are not accurate past 50 yards, but they are fun, particularly on FA.

Rusty · Post by **Rusty** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 10:44 pm

I had a shop teacher that was telling me about the wooden bullets issued by the Kaiser in WWI. He said at first the Allies were terrified of them saying that they would be filled with thousands of splinters.

There was a thread going on one of the forums some time back about using your bullet moulds to make bullets out of a hot glue gun stick.

Post by **Chuck 100 yd** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 11:00 pm

I like to make mine out of lead!

Harry O · Post by **Harry O** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 6:58 am

Old Time Hunter wrote:This has been tried before!!!

These are from pre-1890 years,

Old Time Hunter: Can you tell me anything more about the cartridges you posted? I have some 45-70's that are identical to that right down to the silver colored case. I have wondered what they are for.

Old Time Hunter · Post by **Old Time Hunter** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 9:14 am

Harry,

My understanding is that they were used by the company provisioners and fired out of their Trapdoor forager rifles, sometimes loaded with shot behind the wooden bullet. From what I read, they thought that by using the wood bullet, there would be something left of the rabbit for dinner.

Gun Smith · Post by **Gun Smith** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 10:19 am

I've taken a few wooden nickels, but never shot any wooden bullets.

morgan in nm · Post by **morgan in nm** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 10:27 am

Old Time Hunter wrote:Harry,

My understanding is that they were used by the company provisioners and fired out of their Trapdoor forager rifles, sometimes loaded with shot behind the wooden bullet. From what I read, they thought that by using the wood bullet, there would be something left of the rabbit for dinner.

Years ago, I had a box of those wooden bullets, not loaded into any cases and filled them with #8 drop shot and poored wax over the shot and they worked good. Only problem is that I later learned that those bullets were significatly hard to find expecially in the original 1887 box. Unfortunately, I only have 2 left.

Jason_W · Post by **Jason_W** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 11:34 am

I'm wondering if some sort of composite, non-metal will be the future of bullets. They can do some amazing stuff with carbon.