Wednesday 4 September 2024

Multi Ball Pistol Loads? - Get wadded ..

Way back in time - before lawful New Zealand shooters came under fire from a punitive regime bent on BANNING GUNS .. I developed and had fun shooting DUPLEX LOADS in a couple of my pistols.

- As part of the "new" - long prepared - restrictions that were passed through parliament under eager haste - a rule was introduced banning ammunition from having multiple projectiles .. because this might be intended to defeat ballistic vests. - So I could no longer pass my tool to a shooting mate and watch the fun after firing five shots at a new paper target and counting TEN HOLES.

https://flicense.blogspot.com/2018/10/first-ever-recorded-firearm.html

I'm unsure as to whether NZ Police Heirarchy have heard of SHOT SHELLS .. but there you go - they are banned.

The two loads that I had fun with were my 10mm Glock 20 using 2 cast truncated cone projectiles loaded into the brass case 'back-to-back' .. and the second "Duplex" was for my Ruger 327 Magnum revolver where I worked-up a load using a light weight bullet PLUS a caliber sized round lead ball loaded in tandem.

Both of these (327 Mag and 10mm Auto) cartridges are great for tandem-duplex loads as they are longer cases than average - as also would be the 357 Magnum and 44 Magnum.

My initial idea was inspired by BOWLING PIN MATCHES - where the ideal 'Pin' caliber seemed to be that 'Slow Slug' .45" acp which was ideal for pushing bowling pins off the table - while my 10mm Glock splintered pins and left the shattered pins spinning around in any direction other than back & off.

My two 10mm cast lead "plates" with a light charge of powder did the trick by making "snake eyes" on target while sticking inside the pin's plastic coat to deliver a nice rearwards shove. 'BRILLIANT' I thought and I then declared this load to be perfect for IPSC 'double taps' onto the cardboard but a spoilsport IPSC Director (Thanks JD mate) said he would simply weigh each pill and declare them to be disqualified as underweight.

A couple of years back I had a laugh by asking our Club President did he think that the Police Service BAN on 'Duplex' ammunition would mean that any MUZZLE LOADER shooter who absent mindedly shoved a second ball down his smokepole barrel or into a revolver's chamber would be guilty of TREASON & the retained death penalty .. He did get a bit red in the face at my question.

ANYWAY .. I've been thinking again, - and my inspiration is that many shooters use a WAD to seperate the charge of propellant from the projectile. This WAD can be made from a variety of materials not restricted to polymer, - cardboard, - wool felt .. dry lubed or greased .. or even screwed-up paper, cotton moistened with spit, or animal skin, fabric wrapping etc.

- Where does any set of Service limitations dictate that a wad may not be made of a metal foil such as LEAD - or what thickness or shape the wad may not exceed - or again - must a wad be placed before or behind a projectile?

Just saying - but "LEAD SINKER FISHING STRIP SOFT ROLL" is offered for sale by Chinese Company AliExpress in various widths and thicknesses that can be cut to size and rolled to shape - Just saying eh. - but how many "wads" might an enthusiast punch-out from a roll of soft lead? - If lubrication is a high priority you might stick a card wad to each leaden disc and grease it for placement away from the powder but next to the ball. A 'composite wad'. - Is there any limit to what you might or might not do with malleable lead pushed out from the muzzle of a black powder charcoal burner?

Might somebody roll about and encase something in lead ? - What effect might a small 'can' of lead filled with plasticine modeling clay have on a softish target? - Who knows - not me 'cos I'm too old & past-it

Blackie Thomas is a black powder cheapskate developing his lubed wads on video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFb-UgewX8Q

INDEPENDANCE DAY ..

- Have you heard of a 'HAMMER SWAGE' ? .. For sure many projectiles commercially are made from chopped lead wire that is fed into a swaging machine to be pressed into a cavity forming the nose & tail shapes. - Shooters can use a much simplified version of this technique to cure a mismatch or shortages 

.. Imagine that you need some .36 inch projectiles but what you have in the shed are .44" caliber. - find a nice lump of steel and drill a hole through it of the right size - find or make an old bolt to fit the hole and use it as a punch to hammer your .44" balls through the hole and Voila and miraculously you now have .36" sized bullets.

But .. what if you've got .36 inch balls when you fancy a handful of .44" caliber pills? - Get out that drill and make your .44" caliber sized hole and another well fitting old bolt - drop each 36" in and give it a healthy whack with the hammer & bolt against something hard and I bet you've now got a load of light-weight fourtyfours. You could even load them two at a time .. Useful Link:

https://svartkrutt.net/articles/vis.php?id=32

There you go,

Have Fun .. Life IS good eh,

Marty K.



















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