Altering a 154 gr Hornady bullet for better expansion

Before I start, I must tell you this is not my idea. I blatantly stole this from Junior Doughty at www.castbullet.com. Please go to his site and you'll be able to get all kinds of do-it-yourself ideas. He also sells items for the shooters that are hard to find. Check him out! Let's get started

The idea is to clip off the tip of a 154 gr bullet to give it a large meplat for better expansion at lower velocity than 7mm Rem Mag speeds. Junior shoots his in a 7mm TCU contender pistol with a 10" barrel at ~1650-1750 fps. I shot mine in a 7x57mm at~2000-2200 fps. Go to his evaluation at www.castbullet.com/shooting/7tcu2.htm. I just followed his instructions. First, you need a cutoff saw. Junior and I used a 2" cutoff saw. Get one at Harbor Freight cat# 42307. They're about 25-29 bucks depending on the current sale.

You want a meplat of about 60-70% of the bullet diameter. I used .170" or 60%. I set my calipers to .170 and scribed a mark around the bullet.



In the saw, I adjusted the bullet so the saw would cut at the line. I inserted a 1/4" bolt w/nut and adjusted it to touch the rear of the bullet in the saw vise. I cut the bullet and marveled at my now 145 gr flat nose bullet.



After repeating this 19 more times, I had twenty bullets to load and test. Here is a comparision, 154 gr, altered bullet and a loaded round.



Do they shoot worth a hoot????







I used three powders. AA2230, WW748 and IMR3031. I also have SR4759,5744 and RL 7 yet to try. I think they did just fine with the first three but the fun is in the experimenting. I'll update if the untried three give better results. These were shot at 50 yrds. These will be used in my 7x57mm this deer season and, if I'm lucky, I'll post the results in the outdoor section.

I encourage you to visit Junior's site if you like to make your own stuff. I love his site and have made several of the things he has shown.



Doggoner

Looks good at 50 but I'd try 'em at 100 too.

J.B.

Why not just use a lighter weight flat point bullet?

That's neat, and not a bad idea. Talk about wadcutters for your rifle.