good home made ammo

[jrrdw]

a way to make ammo, start out with your bore size, say 3", use a peice of wood 4X4, aprox. 1/8 th the lenth of your barrel, drill a 3" hole all the way through the center, take your time keep it in the center, cut the drilled 4X4 in half, again keep in the center, now, go to local auto part store and buy a gallon of bondo auto body filler, fasten the 2 halfs togeather tightly, mix enough bondo to fill the hole, mix according to directions, to much hardner it will crack, to little and the bondo wont cure, after allowing bondo to setup and cure fully, separate the 2 halfs of wood and pop out your new ammo, bondo can be pointed with a rasp, and then lightly sanded smooth, there you go, happy shoten!

[boilingleadbath]

Somehow I doubt you'll have any luck seperating your molded ammo from your wooden mold... heck, you'd probably require tools to get it out of greased polyurethane.

Furthermore, if you arn't going to make a mold that will shape your ammo, you may as well just buy thermoplascic roundstock - most plastics have better mechanical charistics than epoxy, and are certainly cheaper.

[jrrdw]

i can see what your concerns are, have you ever worked with bondo before? it sets up pretty fast, aprox, 2 hours per quart if mixed according to directions, as for getting it out of the mold, one good thump against the ground and it will pop rite out, (unless your mold is roughly made), shapeing the point will only take 5 to 10 minutes tops, just use a ordinary wood rasp, they work very well with bondo, maby your thinking of some other type of epoxy, bondo has more like a creamy texture, also sets up hard as a rock, ask any auto body shop

[nicholai]

Somehow I doubt you'll have any luck seperating your molded ammo from your wooden mold... heck, you'd probably require tools to get it out of greased polyurethane.

Furthermore, if you arn't going to make a mold that will shape your ammo, you may as well just buy thermoplascic roundstock - most plastics have better mechanical charistics than epoxy, and are certainly cheaper.

im trying that right now
got three 250 watt heater bands, a 10 amp variable power transformer and im working on getting a horizontal aluminum mold machined to make 1.5" ammo and 2" ammo. The machine would be a hand operated press to press the molten plastic and the mold would be clamped down by a simple locking lever.
the material? polypropylene. its dirt cheap, you can grind up milk jugs if you're broke.

[Temple]

I would think you could use a piece of PVC pipe the same size as your barrel cut down the center on both sides to make a mold for ammo. You would have to use a releasing agent like greas or oil of some type to coat the inside of the mold. You could use hose clamps to hold the two pieces of the mold together until the material set. I think this might be easier then wood for some people. Just my opinion.

[jrrdw]

talc powder works very well,yea pipe the same size would make a good mold, thanks for the idea

[nicholai]

I would think you could use a piece of PVC pipe the same size as your barrel cut down the center on both sides to make a mold for ammo. You would have to use a releasing agent like greas or oil of some type to coat the inside of the mold. You could use hose clamps to hold the two pieces of the mold together until the material set. I think this might be easier then wood for some people. Just my opinion.

smart guy, maybe you should be a molder!

thats exactly what i did, except im machining an aluminum mold to the inside diameter of 2" pipe (i took the measurements from charolette pipe and lasko pvc manufacturers since they are two of the biggest that ive seen so far to manufacture PVC) to make the rubber bullets i plan to make. Im almost done making a hand made molding machine which will make some solid plastic slugs for 2" and 1.5" barrels. Hopefully i can someday make a stable ammo that will fire in a spiral pattern as opposed to tumbling through the air. This will be hard seeing that pvc pipe is not perfectly round on the inside, most 2" pieces look kinda like the texture of a human brain on the inside

[jrrdw]

somewere on site here i seen a spudgun with rifled barrel just 2 days ago, the auther showed the tool made to smooth the inside, (a piece of long allthread through a wooden dowel ((made to fit bore)) with sandpaper taped to it), don't know how he rifled the barrel, the rifleing don't have to be perfect, just enough to spin the ammo, maby after smoothing the bore, modify the tool with some kind of cutter sticking out of wood just enough to score the barrel ??

[Temple]

Another thing I thought about while reading some of the posts in this thread While making the projectile you could include a set of fins in the back of the round this would stop the slug from "tumbling" after exiting the muzzle. If you google "120mm smooth bore ammo" you should come up with a picture of a 120mm mortar round you can see the fins on the rear and the long tapered body to help stabilize the round in flight. again i think this might be easier than trying to rifle a barrel.

[Urban Ninja]

Those things are like the ones I made for my mini mortar. They are a 1/4 in in width and work amazingly!

[nicholai]

thats a pretty good idea, something spring loaded so as soon as it exits the barrel the fins "deploy" and spiral the ammo. ive noticed that rubber bullets ive made tumble just like spent 12 gram co2 cartriges. maybe i should try to add some tail fins!

[jrrdw]

well, everone seems to think this shell will tumble, spring loaded fins-to much extra work, my idea was designed to be easy to make/cheep/quickly made, i figure it like this, if the shell/ammo is shaved to a point with a nice taper, and 1/8th the lenth of barrel-4' barrel=6" shell, i really don't see it tumbleing unless it hits something, even if the barrel doesn't have rifling, if rifling is needed-score the shell-waaalaaa rifling problem solved, hit me back on what you all think, thanks for the replys

[nicholai]

ive tried it with solid rubber santoprene with a taper just like a bullet. I think by making the back end of it flat didnt help it maintain a spiral. In fact ive never really gotten a rubber bullet to spiral, it seems almost impossible without some sort of tail stabilizer. Pvc pipe has an inconsistant inside diameter, double that with the inconsistancy of combustion strength (maybe a pneumatic is more accurate due to consistancy??) and you've got a projectile that tumbles.

[Temple]

I think that your plan to make the round longer than the circumfrance of the barrel is a good idea and yes it will give the round stability in the barrel. Some things to look at is when the projo exits the muzzle if the point is not exactly centered the nose of the round will have a tendancy to want to go towards the off set. If I could draw a picture this would be easier. Ok lets try this, Imagine this is the nose of the round coming towards you (.) the point represents the tip of the round. as it exits the nose will want to dive and the tail will come up and the round will tumble. like wise if the point was high the nose would rise and tumble.

If the point is left or right of center the round will or should start to spin kinda like a frisbe. Now if this same projectile had a simple set of tail fins the round would wobble in flight like a wounded goose. Muzzle velocity, wind direction, projectile weight and balance are also all going to play into how the thing flies.

But hey it's not like we are trying to hit the center of the ace of spades at 700 yards. I like it when stuff flies a little goofy makes me laugh that's one reason I shoot beanie babys.

[nicholai]

i shot a dildo once packed with shop rags to make a better seal. the batteries came out of it mid flight and it tumbled like a drunk down a set of stairs. we had a good laugh hehe