Wax bullets

D

Delmar

New member
Anyone here ever shot wax bullets in their BP revolvers?
cr_waxbullets.jpg


http://www.gunfighter.com/waxbullets/
If I do get a brass frame pistol I am going to order a thousand of these. Loads and loads of fun killing cans in the back yard!
 
I'm wondering what type of powder load to use with these, or if they shoot with just a primer. It seems to me, that since in shells they fire using a 209 primer, than in a C&P they should fire with just a primer, as well. Which makes me wonder if this would be a low-coast alternative to using BP in my 1851 for target practice.
 
Primers used in cartriages are a lot more powerful than percussion caps. With percussion caps in a cap-n-ball revolver, you'll probably need either a small powder charge or maybe special nipples with drilled out flash holes to allow enough of the percussion cap gasses to drive the bullet.

Because of the absence of barrel jump from recoil, expect these bullets to impact low on the target.
 
That is wild. Thanks for posting.
Very imaginative, wax bullets.
For cartridge guns, you buy special cartridge cases that take 209 primers, and you can shoot the wax bullets with just the shotgun primers and no powder.
That wax is way lighter than lead, I bet the 209 would get it moving pretty well.
 
It's cheaper than lead balls, but when I finally get my 1851 to the range, I'll probably prefer lead balls to wax bullets. If I did use wax bullets, given what's been said already, I'd expect a 2-3 grain powder charge to work the wax bullets. That might even be too much.
 
I read someplace in an article that suggests 2 gr of black powder but I just use the primer for winter indoor shooting at tin cans from about 15'-20' and they do fine. I also use the plastic, not wax, bullets in my 357 and just primers and at 15' I have shot holes through aluminum cans with them. More fun than a BB gun but the BB gun is cheaper.
 
Not telling any of you to try this at home, but I was actually thinking of using a few grains of smokeless. Shoving the wax, or plastic bullet out of the barrel is going to create so much less resistance that the pressures should be very low.
 
"I have shot lots of these for practice...but I cast mine from glue sticks.. " I use glue sticks in my 45 by just cutting them off and shoving them in a shell. I've played with paper patching them too. I haven't measured to see how close they would come to fitting in a .44 chamber, but they are lose enough in a 45 acp that they might just fit as is.
 
Not telling any of you to try this at home, but I was actually thinking of using a few grains of smokeless. Shoving the wax, or plastic bullet out of the barrel is going to create so much less resistance that the pressures should be very low.
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That would be an extremely bad habit to get into.
 
Not telling any of you to try this at home, but I was actually thinking of using a few grains of smokeless. Shoving the wax, or plastic bullet out of the barrel is going to create so much less resistance that the pressures should be very low.
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Smokeless powder needs pressure to burn properly. The job of the primer is not only to set the powder on fire but also to establish the initial pressure in the case that the powder needs to burn properly. This is why cartrage primers are so powerful.
Black powder only needs to be ignited, that's why it works so well in flintlocks. Traditional percussion ignition, with its extremely small flash hole in the nipple, is only designed to set black powder on fire, not set off smokeless powder.

The phenonemom of detonation in smokeless cartriages with light loads seems to have these things in common. A large case with lots of air space, this means that the initial pressure kick of the primer is less. Weak primers are also linked to this phenomenom. I think that a detonation begins as a blooper or squib and then cooks off into a detonation. Of course, this is my speculation and I have no way to prove it.
But please do not try to use smokeless in a percussion gun, I don't care how strong the gun is. It's not the strength of the gun that's the problem, it's the way the powder charge is ignited.
Give me a custom cylinder for a Ruger Old Army designed to use 209 shotgun primers and I'll shoot smokeless loads all day long in it but I won't even attempt it with percussion ignition.
 
I guess that is why we have these little chats before trying everything that comes to mind.
 
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When I got into black powder many, many moons ago, I had a Wells Fargo .31, replica, maker unknown. I got a Dixie Conical Ball mold for it. Since the Dixie mold did not have a sprue cutter, molding lead was a PITA.

Then I hit on just using it with wax bullets. No problem making them in a small pan in the dorm kitchen. Then I would practice with the percussion cap only.

The little wax bullets would zip right out, fly into a box as a target and I never gave any thought to using powder.

The Doc is out now. :cool:
 
i tried pushing 1/4 inch thick wax down into the chambers of my '51. using caps only, the wax got stuck halfway down the barrel.
maybe the wax needs to be seated all the way to the primer?
maybe the wax needs to be thicker, therefore heavier to increase pressure to shoot it out the barrel?
i need to experiment further.
 
Try the parafin wax that you can get in stores by the canning section, push it all the way down to the primer. You can't use sticky wax, obviously.

The Doc is out now. :cool:
 
I'd expect a 2-3 grain powder charge to work the wax bullets. That might even be too much.
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What do you think the result would be if you loaded "too much" powder behind a wax bullet? Blow it apart, rather than hitting the target?
 
The way I see it, the wax bullets are essentially a hardened wax wad. If you fired the wax bullets with a larger charge, I'm thinking that the wax would deform greatly, break apart or melt depending on how you use. Cap and Ball caps don't produce enough pressure to propel a larger object. In cartridge weapons, I know that a specially made cartridge that takes a 209 primer (shotgun primer) has enough force to project the wax bullets, but... not in a cap and ball, unless you converted your cap and ball to take 209 primers.

A VERY small amount of black powder (or sub) should produce enough pressure to propel the wax bullets, but too much will utterly destroy them, I suspect. I'm speaking rhetorically on this situation, as I've never fired a wax bullet out of a black powder firearm.
 
I have fired plastic bullets made from sections of 1/2" glue sticks, out of my .50 cal muzzleloader, and I have used up to 60 grains of Perodex. It makes a real nice 4th of July noisemaker! I haven't really messed too much with trying to hit a target with it though. I figure the bullet is so light, that I am not going to get an accurate shot over too great a distance.
 
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