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Hollow Points

pilotj@execpc.com
Can you take a jacketed hollow point and drill it out to be a hollow point? Just curious. I would like to make .25 cal hollow points.
Am I creating a problem or has this been done?
Thanks,
Jay
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Comments

13 comments

Date Votes
  • fishermanben
    I assume you mean JSP?

    Ben
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  • fishkiller41
    quote:Originally posted by fishermanben
    I assume you mean JSP?

    Ben
    He dunno Ben....
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  • pilotj@execpc.com
    opps, jacketed bullets, not soft points. Sorry...
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  • pilotj@execpc.com
    Guess I should stick to my .45 huh?
    My F/N Browning 1905 is so much easier to carry...
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  • allen griggs
    I have done it.
    I couldn't get any expansion, shooting deer with the Remington Core Lokt with my 30-06.
    I cut off the very end of the bullet with a hack saw, to give me a flat surface to drill into.
    I drilled into the bullet with a 1/8 inch bit. I went in about a quarter of an inch.
    Looked like a pretty good hollow point. Still gave pretty good accuracy for deer hunting. But, did not expand worth a damn.
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  • spurgemastur
    I've been reading a book by a professional African big game hunter (published in the fifties). He makes the point that many jacketed rounds are open on the butt end (is this still true?) and that by drilling out the nose you're leaving a piece of lead in a sheath of copper, which may cause the center to separate from the jacket upon firing, leaving the jacket in the bore -- a potentially dangerous situation.

    But it seems to me that most jacketed bullets nowadays are closed on the butt end.....

    Somebody else will clear this up I'm sure.
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  • Colt Super
    I have drilled out the BACK of FMJs, inserted a droplet of mercury, and sealed it in with guilding metal.

    They explode, spectacularly on impact, but are a bunch of trouble to make.

    I don't do it anymore.

    Doug
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  • nononsense
    In order to succeed with the plan to 'drill' a hollowpoint, the inside of the bullet jacket has to be prepared ahead of time. Look at the bullet section on the right and you see some vertical cuts made to the inside of the jacket. This is called Skiving, small cuts made to allow the jacket to be formed into the hollowpoint while leaving a larger cavity without collapsing on itself. This skiving also aids in letting the bullet tip open up a little more quickly upon impact. Standard jackets do NOT have this skiving so they resist opening. See the bullet on the left.

    6.8SPC6.5Grendelsection.jpg

    Best.
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  • allen griggs
    Thank you, nononsense.
    No wonder my home made Core Lokt hollowpoints didn't expand.
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  • pilotj@execpc.com
    Thanks for all of the helpful info! The rounds I need will have to be factory rounds then. Looks like the best and only option that makes scense.
    As far as using mercury, I thought about that decades ago. Never tried it, but the legal implications nowadays will keep me from trying that method. My one pound bottle of mercury will continue to look pretty on my shelf.
    Just a note, a firearms instructor told me of a friend that did the same thing with mercury. He contended that if the round used didn't kill the bad guy, at least he would end up with mercury poisoning. The man then called the instructor after accidently shooting himself in the leg with one of these rounds. He survived and never got mercury poisoning. End of story.
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  • v35
    I've loaded some 35 grain 25ACP hollow points but I hear they won't expand worth a hoot. In addition,because bullet and case are tiny they're hard to reload without squashing your fingers. You wont want to load many.
    Using full patch military bullets you can slit the ogive longitudinally in three or four places. Impact is said to expand the bullets at the slits. They are Dum Dums.
    Cutting tips or hollow pointing military fmj bullets can cause disaster.Because the copper jacket doesn't cover the base, the core can blow through ,leaving the jacket in the barrel.
    The next shot will split the barrel and probably blow up the gun.
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  • gunnut505
    Sounds as though you're stuck with "factory" ammo due to some legal clause; try some XTPs in your gun and never look back.
    They make 2 types, a Flat Point XTP (FPXTP) or a Hollow Point XTP (HPXTP). I think you will be well served by either.
    Hornady also has component bullets if you reload.
    I've tried many things while reloading to see if there's a difference in penetration, expansion, accuracy, etc., like setting a BB in the hollowpoint, inserting a small sheet-metal screw into the flat nose of a 30-30 bullet, and packing the hollowpoint with railroad "torpedo" paste; not very exciting, and not as devastating as regular loads. I've seen what packing a primer into the hollowpoint does on impact; cool sometimes, just a hole other times.
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  • allen griggs
    gunnut, you are a couple steps ahead of me. I am now shooting deer with a muzzleloader and the Hornady 250 XTP. I have been contemplating putting a bb or primer into the hollow point to see what would happen. Thanks for saving me the trouble.
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