Copper banded bullet

[roughcreek]

Saw these at a local gunshow last week end. Labeled 30 cal, Lyman #2 alloy, 149 gr., 0.311 dia.
Mold HB150. Guy said his Grandfather cast a bunch of them. Didn't have any further information.
Anyone used these??? The bands are copper. He said they were not sized.
Any info appreciated.



Thanks,
Roughcreek

[Shasta]

I believe that was referred to as the Wilk Gas Check:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthr ... gas-checks

It is an interesting concept, but to me, not worth the trouble to make.


SHASTA

[gundownunder]

Looks like a whole lot of work for not a lot of gain.
I did hear about a similar idea decades ago about using zinc washers in the same way.
First you'd need a custom mold, then do a lot of extra fiddling about during casting,whilst trying to keep the mold hot and not burn your fingers.
Then you'd have to restrict your loads to not much better than gas check performance.
And in the case of the Wilks you'd first have to destroy one or two perfectly good gas checks before you start.
I think that pretty much explains why the idea wasn't pursued too vigorously.

If that collection fell into my possession I'd keep a few bullets for curiosity value and shoot the rest and if I had the mold as well I'd keep it as a historical artifact, it would make a nice paper weight.

[Chuck 100 yd]

That was my thought also gundownunder. I can just see someone placing those little copper rings in a mold and casting one at a time.
I bet I could cast at least a dozen good ones in an hour.

[roughcreek]

Thanks, Shasta, With the bullet ID'ed I was able to find out a lot.
I think I will just keep the box whole as a collector piece.

Thanks again,
Roughcreek

[J35]

Saw these at a local gunshow last week end. Labeled 30 cal, Lyman #2 alloy, 149 gr., 0.311 dia.
Mold HB150. Guy said his Grandfather cast a bunch of them. Didn't have any further information.
Anyone used these??? The bands are copper. He said they were not sized.
Any info appreciated.



Thanks,
Roughcreek

Dave Scovill did a nice write up on the Wilk check in Handloader's Bullet Making Annual Vol. 1 1990.

I have a article from the Riflemans magazine titled New Bullets I Have Met by Earnest Coler from 1922, and one of the cast bullets he shows is a bullet designed by Charles Gebhard with a copper ring on top drive band for use in the Springfield and Krag rifles.

Really not much new in the world of cast bullet shooting.

I think the only thing's todays cast bullet shooter's have in their bag of tricks that they didnt have back then is the knowledge of heat treatment of Antimonial lead alloys to gain additional hardness, and more powder and primer choices.

-----J

[piller]

From the difficulty of making them to the relative lack of gain over a gas check on the base of the bullet, it sounds like a solution in search of a problem to me. But, I am not an expert on this subject, so that is just an opinion.