shore hardness/materiels questions for those with engineering knowledge.

[henry r]

i'm trying to find a way to set myself up with a reasonable number of .303 drill rounds.

in Australia .303 snap caps are around $18-20 a pair, as i want 30 plus they are simply too expensive for me.

i'm thinking of using some old brass (drilled to differentiate from live rounds) with projectiles crimped in, and a polyurethane plug in place of the primer to take the shock out of the firing pin.

berden .303 primers are .250" and polyurethane rod is available in 1/4".

will urethane rod with a shore hardness of 95A be about right to take the shock out of the pin while still surviving repeated strikes?

the choice of urethane was a guess based on it's use for suspension bushes (repeated hard shocks without permanent deformation), is it the right materiel?

thanks
henry.

Information

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[browningautorifle]

What I'd do for a slamming huge strong action would be make them from live ammo, stripped and just use the case and bullet. I used a small pencil eraser in the primer pocket. As they get bashed up, either remanufacture them or use a new component. You can still shoot a slightly bashed bullet and there's scads of Berdan cases to size, drill out the primer pocket and load a bullet into. Even in the army, our drill ammo took a beating and would need replacing. Nothing lasted indefinitely, not even the armorer's solid steel machined functioning rounds. We had one piece 5.56 drill and I still had to run them through the size die occasionally to ensure function...

[Peter Laidler]

I saw a load of .45" 'drill' or dummy rounds found under an old cupboard in the old Armoury at RAF Abingdon. They were steel cased EC43(?) and the primer pockets were simply filled with a pressed-in lead bar levelled off. But why complicate things?: We used them to test for eccentricity of striker by just filling the primer pocket of our dummy rounds with plastercine or luting that the gun fitters used for taking interior barrel impressions

[Bundook303]

I made mine using white plastic 8 mm dowel in lieu of actual bullets and filled the timer pockets with silicon caulking, which works just fine. The lighter plastic "bullets" mean less damage to nearby furniture when you are laying prone on the living room floor practicing for the "mad minute". Enjoy!

[henry r]

thanks bundook, i've been laughing for 5 minutes now... i'm sure that is exactly how they will be end up being used. now i'm visualizing my families reaction as ejected rounds bounce off furniture or them personally as they try to watch TV or draw/read in the lounge room.

[Bundook303]

Ahh, a little levity never did any harm...I think. Excuse my typo, of course timer = primer. I too wondered about a suitable material to replace the primer. I stopped wondering after convincing myself that any rifle designed to withstand many years of servicemen "easing springs" probably wasn't going to be too bothered by the occasional dry fire session. So it has proved. The caulking in the primer pockets has remained intact, as have the rifles' firing pins, extractors etc. Now the living room furniture is another story....

[mike1967]

None of the original marks of drill or inspectors rounds had any plug, most just had red paint or plain empty primer pockets, So is a plug really required? The first type 455 and 38/200 drill rounds had red fibre inserts.

[browningautorifle]

I've dismantled many 9mm rounds that had a wood block inside.

[Peter Laidler]

That reminds me......... Apparently George Patchett was busy working in his office attached to a workshop at Dagenham late one night on a constant feed stoppage problem with the almost ready for endurance trials with the Mk3/L2A2 type Sterling. He couldn't find any drill rounds because for safety's sake, they were always counted out and in by the stores when needed. So, as he was only watching the action slowly and without a trigger mech fitted (he had a torch shining through that opening.....), he decided to use a magazine full of live rounds he had in his pocket. All went well for the first few slow-motion runs. Well, there's no need to say what happened when his tired old fingers let go of the cocking handle.

The bullet riddled grey filing cabinet was still there and still in use when the factory closed!

So whatever you do, don't use live ammo................

[browningautorifle]

he decided to use a magazine full of live rounds

Pretty funny...I stopped a man from testing his SMG C1 for extraction in the field after cleaning once...he was about to use live blank. He forgot about the fixed firing pin...