.375-.408 BT high BC hunting bullet....anyone?

[nielsenbe]

I have no bullet making experience at this point. I would like a 375-408 boat tail high BC bullet. Does anyone know of someone making these style bullets? I want to neck down a BMG case and get these bullets to a 3500 fps velocity if possible. I am guessing it would be very difficult to get jacket material and possibly dies for such bullets. I am looking for any information or ideas you guys have.

Thanks, Brad

[talon]

375-408?  Is this the possible caliber range of the bullet you are looking to design for, or a jacketed .375cal having 408gr, or a .408 having 375gr?
  I make .375"d, .406"d and .411"d bullets, but not in a BT design. Generally speaking you don't see many BTs above .308"d, as the design works best for sub-sonic ballistics (I think) in the smaller calibers. Maybe what you are after is the ULD (ultra long distance) with BT or RBT design. This would be a long bullet with a nose of from 8S to 12S (spitzer). I know of no one who could help with such a bullet supply.

[Donna]

Let me first welcome you to the forum.

Unfortunately large caliber jacket are hard to come by but there are some people that do specialize in making them. Almost any style and caliber of bullet can be made. If you are not interested in making this type bullet yourself there are others that will be willing to make it for you, of course for the right price. If you want to get into bullet swaging and make it yourself, there are die makers that will bake the dies for you and you could buy the correct size jacket or you could make your jacket from copper tubing and if you don’t want the really thick jacket you could keep running the copper tubing through a draw die and a series of punches to thin out the copper tubing but keep the proper outside diameter forming your own thinner large caliber jacket and pinch trim to length yourself, then form the rest of the bullet as normal. It would just depend on how much time and/or money you are willing to invest in this type of bullet.

Typically home swaggers make what is called a rebated boattail vice the factory type of smooth boattail. There are several reasons for this; one is that it is easier for the die maker to make, but this does not mean for a substandard method. In fact, the rebated boattail design has been proven superior to the factory style boattail. Why don’t the factory bullet companies use the rebated boattail? One company does, Lapua bullets are using it on their 30 calibers.

Donna :wink:

[tiger]

Use 380acp or 223rem brass for your bullet jackets. I use my vertical mill to trim twelve casings at a time (well, I have that many in the vise at a time). Both of those calibers will get you dead-on-ballz 3/8". I wish I were so lucky to be shooting a caliber that can use a casing so close to finished diameter

Talk to Dave @ C-H. http://www.ch4d.com  He does exactly what I am talking about.

I have no bullet making experience at this point. I would like a 375-408 boat tail high BC bullet. Does anyone know of someone making these style bullets? I want to neck down a BMG case and get these bullets to a 3500 fps velocity if possible. I am guessing it would be very difficult to get jacket material and possibly dies for such bullets. I am looking for any information or ideas you guys have.

Thanks, Brad

[talon]

.375 Jackets with .020" wall and up to 1.3" long  are commercially  available at about 9 cents each if you don't have a mill or access to cartridge brass. The major issue is having the dies cut in less than a year's wait for what you want to do or finding someone who has the tooling and can make the bullets for you. Most of the .375 point form dies on the street are non-BT(or RBT) 4 or 5S.  But to push the bullet to 3500fps, you would need a very thick jacket (.050 or .065" wall) to hold the bullet together, so now we are talking 'H' dies and at least a Mega Mite press. Putting a BT on this thick jacket would be VERY difficult for anything less than a hydraulic press. And, I don't believe it would be beneficial as to range (under 500 yds) or accuracy, not at 3500fps.

[nielsenbe]

So what would the cost be for a setup? I think I could recover some of the cost by selling the bullets to people that are also interested in the same sort of rifle. I have about 4 people that I could sell the guns to if there was a good bullet available. Is it possible to make more than one weight of bullet with the same set of dies? The scary part is picking a bullet design and spending thousands of dollars to find it won't shoot. It makes shooting a regular old 50BMG seem cheap.

Thanks, Brad

[talon]

Brad,
    Go to  www.rceco.com  and click on"Commercial Equipment" and take a look at the HydraSwage press and available die sets. You will need the RBT (long range) I believe. You can also get the jacket making kit for .050 or .065" walled jackets. Also back click to RCEs home page and click on New Products to see 2 other less fancy presses to do the same job (you will definitely need hydraulic power). FOB prices are shown: what is not shown is the amount of waiting time involved and shipping costs.
  Other items you will need is lead and copper or brass tubing. For lead you can make or buy lead wire or cores. For tubing you can buy ready made tube  bullet size billets or otherwise find your own source of tubing as swaging tool makers only carry .030" walled tubes these days. Prices for these options are about:
 lead wire: $2/lb + shipping , plus core cutter (about $50)
lead cores: about $2.50/lb + shipping
 Make your own wires or cores: about .30 cents/ lb after you buy a wire making set ($395) and core cutter. To cast your own cores you will need a mold (about $80) and lead melting furnace ($150 +/-).
 Copper jackets in .050 or .065 will run about 20 cents each from a maker who is now tooling up to produce them.  And, yes, you can order them in the lengths you need, up to 1.3" I think, so that answers your question about making different weight .375cal bullets. Tubing is very expensive right now, but it comes in 6' lengths at about $1.75/ft. You will need a saw to cut it to billet lengths and something to trim/bevel the edges.
 Then you need swaging lubrication that you can make yourself for about $7/lb. A pound goes a LONG way.
 These are the majority of the tools and supplies you will need, and their approximate costs. In most cases they will take time and some effort to acquire. On the otherhand, if you would be satisfied with a flat base .375cal bullet having .065" walls( to be able to withstand 3,400fps) I know someone who is about ready to make some. Too, if you pay for him to get a RBT add on die set ( about $225) he would be able to sell you what you want (I think) as soon as he gets his Type 6 FFL. ( you can make bullets all day long for yourself, but it's the law that sales require a blessing from the ATF). If you are interested in this arrangement send me a PM