Homemade Hollowpoints?

Just thinking out loud, but here goes. A few weeks ago a nice new Glock 22 came into my possession by way of a swap. I have found Federal 180 gr. FMJ ammo priced at $12.87/50rd. box but have only found one box of Rem. 155 gr. HP ammo priced at $47/50 rd. box. If I order HP ammo, the price is even higher due to shipping/handling plus I have a real problem being home to sign for UPS delivery. I've been thinking that I could set up a jig and stop so that I could use a drill press to drill out the tip of the 180 gr. FMJ's to make some homemade HP ammo. I figure I could use my reloading scale to weigh the material removed and thus arrive at a nominal weight of about 165 gr. HP bullet. Since the factory powder charge would be for the heavier 180 gr. bullet, it should present no problems for pressure, etc. If the hollow point allows the edge of the nose of the bullet to remain in factory profile, the resulting round should feed without problems. Please note that the Federal ammo is a FMJ but it is not a round nose but a flat nose bullet. Has anyone ever tried this procedure with factory loaded FMJ ammo? If this is a acceptable procedure, would the hollow point cavity best be formed by simply running in a standard drill bit to an appropriate depth or would it be best to try to use a drill bit that would produce a larger but more shallow hollow point? I have not pulled a bullet so I do not know if the base is solid or open. Given what I have seen of FMJ bullets, I have to assume the base is open. If this idea works I intend to try the resulting rounds out on some of the local hogs. Sincerely. BruceV.

I doubt that you can remove material symmetrically unless you use a lathe. Accuracy will be out the window. Poor hog... I have a supply problem for the discontinued Hornady #3230 (8mm 125gr) for my Sturmgewehr. I had a similar idea, i.e chop off the back end of their 150gr. Sp. But I don't have a lathe... JF

This idea was common just after WWII, when softnose ammo was still scarse, and GI ammo was fairly common.

The idea was to cut off a little of the tip, then drill a hole to produce a hollow point bullet.

It never really worked, as it was hard to predict whether the bullet would expand properly, and a few left the jacket in the barrel as the core blew through the nose of the bullet.

Might work ok in a handgun round, but you would have to experiment to see how they actually shoot.

From my memory, I do not remember any accuracy problems.

I ran across a few of these recently when going through old stuff. Not going to shoot them, however.

Another idea was to pull the bullet and turn it around to shoot it base first. These really expanded, but you cannot do that in a handgun and expect them to feed.

You did not state if the FMJ is a cupped ( completely jacketed ) FMJ or the base has exposed lead. If the bullet has an open base with exposed lead and you drill from the front you leave very little lead to support the peak chamber pressure. You run the risk of blowing what is left of the core out of the jacket and out the barrel leaving the jacket stuck in the barrel. I have had to remove a jacket for a customer that tried this once.

As other folks have said, the jacket design in a hollow point is different than that of a FMJ. I would simply wait until the buying frenzy cools down. FMJ is still gonna hurt someone if you have to use it in self defence.:eek:

Looks like I've been drinking to much coffee! I sat down and took a look at the Fed. 180 gr. load and compaired drill sizes. Then I went out to where I'd been shooting this load at a worn out harrow blade. The pieces of jacket I found do not appear to be very thick... certainly not as heavy as the jacket of a .308 FMJ. From the remnants I found, the Fed. bullet appears to have a open base which probably does preclude opening the nose up into a HP.

Regarding accuracy, I had not thought about unbalancing the bullet by drilling it. Getting it to index for center would be beyond the equipment I have available. The truth is, the hogs in my area are not going to know the difference between a FMJ and a HP. If they drop at the first shot and then try to get up, I'll just give them another round. It's not the end of the world. Sincerely. BruceV.

Hi BruceV, we have done this only on a .30-06 ammo and the results are good. I never want to use it on pistol rounds for the reasons that told you from the others and you`re knowledgeing it by yourself.

Regards

Gunner

Check your local Walmart for the UMC 100rnd value pack 180gr JHP.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/Vie...Item=137346197

Scott

As noted, drilling out or cutting off the bullet point was common when GI surplus ammo was around two cents a round and hunting ammo was scarce. But, while Gunner may have had no problems with .30-'06, I have seen M2 Ball jackets left in the bore when the core blew out, so I don't recommend it.

(The worst result is usually a bulged barrel if the shooter fires another round with the jacket stuck in the barrel.)

jim

Even if all the really bad things don't come to pass it wil probably just be a big waste of time.

The tests run by FBI and othe LE agencies found that a lot of factory HP ammunition did not perform as advertised - just wishful thinking chasing great expectations.

I believe there is an article in the latest American Rifleman on a couple of new products with some potential.

Regards,

Jim

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BruceV

Regarding accuracy, I had not thought about unbalancing the bullet by drilling it. .

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Bruce....have you ever calculated or even considered just how fast a bullet spins....even a pistol ball? It's in excess of 100,000 RPM...rifles can exceed 200,000 RPM! Little inaccuracies in things like concentricity can go a LONG way toward screwing things up!

Just got back from Wal-Mart. They had no HP .40 S&W ammo in stock, but I consoled myself by buying two more boxes of the Fed. 180 gr. FMJ's. I also had a nice little chat with the sporting goods manager. He said they would be receiving some of the 100 rd. value packs. He took my contact information and said he would call me before it was put up on the shelves. In the past he has called to let me know when they had .22LR ammo. Isn't it amazing what happens when you are nice to people? Sincerely. Bruce.

We had used soft point bullets and drilled the hole as deep as you can see the soft point tip. Also used a special die ( normal used for shortening the casese by file down ) so the round is exactly adjusted. And drilling was made on a CNC- machine. It worked, but as you can see there is a lot of work for a product that is cheaper to buy at a store. Sometimes big boys need toys. And for the reasons that jim wrote, we made a cut thru the bullet to see how deep its possible to drill. But all the things we made are out of guarantee.

Regards

Gunner

One of the problems with hollowpointing FMJ bullets is that the typical FMJ jacket is THICKER at the nose than the base. Purpose-made HP ammo has a thinner jacket to facilitate expansion.

Another problem is that most FMJ has a solid nose and an open, non-jacketed base. I've heard of cases where enthusiastic hollow-pointing has left a jacket stuck in the barrel with the core blown out the muzzle. Again, never saw it myself, but hey! It could happen.

There there's the stories of some of the old hunters in Africa turning their hard-nosed big game bullets around to use on softer-skinned game. The base-first bullet supposedly gave expansion. Of course you have to remember that most African game shooting in the golden age of African hunting was close-range stuff.

A decent machinist should be able to whip up a rig in short order that would produce a consistently concentric hole of fixed depth if you still wanted to play with it. I seem to remember these being sold commercially many years ago.

Dale in Louisiana

Forster make a hollow point attachment for their case trimmer. It will make a nice, consistent HP in cast bullets; you may have to crank harder for a FMJ!

Cast bullets do not operate at the pressures of jacketed bullets. Cast bullets don’t leave a jacket behind in the bore either. In a blowout they ether exit or don’t. When they don’t you know it and stop shooting until it’s cleared. Slamming another round into a jacket stuck in the bore will cause shall we say catastrophic events. Not worth the potential problems.

Bruce, I tried your solution many years ago[while in Viet Nam],it is not a really workable solution for reasons cited above. A possible solution would be to pull your bullets and replace them with HP bullets for reloads. No telling whether you will have velocity enough to get expansion or not without experimentation. I'd think,if you used 180/185 grain or perhaps a 200 grain bullet with a powder load for a mil. spec 230 ball you probably won't have any pressure problems but I DON'T guarantee it!Sounds like an interesting experiment tho'. Best of luck and PROCEED CAREFULLY. Nick

Good Lord God help me... I'm thinking! And as my wife would tell you, when I'm thinking, everyone needs to run for cover. The ammo I've got on hand is 180 gr. FMJ which I assume is loaded to full factory velocity for that loading, ie., somewhere around 900 fps. If I pull the factory ball and replace it with say a 180 gr. JHP with a similar diameter, ogive and shank length, it is reasonable to think that the resultant load would be safe and shoot to the same POI. However it will be some weeks before I am able to do anything about experimentation, etc. as I currently have my hands full getting my two congregations ready for Charge Conference. Sincerely. BruceV.

Glock advises due to the rifling design of the barrel do not use cast lead bullets.