Is there anything in a basic machine shop that could be used to cut bullets down?

Question

I need .25 caliber 60 grain ALL COPPER bullets. I hunt in the California Condor zone. You can't use lead bullets. You can only buy 80 grain all copper .25 caliber bullets. I am a teacher. I know nothing about machine tools. I have a friend who teaches shop at a Trade Tech. He has access to a basic machine shop, but knows nothing about guns or shooting. Is there anything in a basic machine shop that can cut .25 caliber 80 grain bullets into 60 grain bullets?

I have asked this question before, but all the people apparently missed the part about me needing COPPER bullets. They don't MAKE .25 caliber 60 grain bullets.

Answer 1

Simple task but time consuming. Turn them on a lathe. In fact, a tabletop mini-lathe would be better than a machine shop floor lathe. Mount the bullet in the chuck, with the backside facing out, then use a bit to carefully remove material out of the base being careful not to touch the outside diameter. You want to partially hollow the base like a Foster slug. Keep a digital scale handy and weigh the turnings so you don't have to keep removing and replacing the bullet in the chuck. It's a lot of work for a reload....and it'll probably fragment badly on impact. You're cutting 25% of the metal out.



Just looking through the books....Alliant has a load for an 87gr bullet....and Barnes puts out their 80gr lead free bullet that you found. You could drop the Alliant load by 10% and then load the 80gr. It's a perfectly safe load. Chrono it and it should be pretty close to standard factory velocities. Of course, read your books and work up your own load. Don't rely on this anonymous forum poster's word.

Answer 2

Get you a scale that measures grains--buy a handful of the 80 grain bullets and start removing material from the bottom side of the bullet until you reach 60 grains.Then you can call them custom bullets made by you. Who knows maybe the beginning of a lucrative new business for you. As for some thing in the machine shop to help--get a 2 inch thick piece of steel-drill a hole in it the exact size of the bullet-put the bullet iv point down and use the surface grinder to remove excess material

Answer 3

Of course there is - you can run the bullets through a band saw and get 'something'...but my concern is that neither you nor your friend have a clue about remounting your new bullets into a complete cartridge and not blowing up the place. A 25% weight reduction means removing how much powder to retain the original performance?



See what I mean?



Locate a reloader in your area to advise on the cartridge issues, and a qualified metalworker to handle the rest.



As a side note, what exactly do you intend to hunt with this admitted mouse gun caliber?