Backyard/garage shooting fun

Bob1950

New Member
Location
Livingston, TX
Wax bullets for indoor/outdoor shooting

When we attend public shooting ranges, we only spend our time and money. If we really want to use our handguns for home defense, we need regular specific training, including fast shooting from different positions and under different conditions. Public shooting ranges never allow you this kind of training due to safety reasons. Even if you have a place for shooting, where you can train this skill, the usage of real bullets is very dangerous because sometimes they could go in any unpredicted directions. Therefore, for this training, wax or rubber/plastic bullets are the optimal solution. I have tested the Teflon bullets and found that they are also dangerous due to their hardness. I would recommend switching to wax bullets – cheapest method of defense shooting.

On internet sites, there are many posts describing how to make homemade wax bullets for revolvers. These methods are simple; however, wax bullets made by these methods sit completely inside the cases. It creates a problem to feed semi-autos from their magazines (http://www.guns.freaksho.net/articles/waxbullets.html). I used another method, which might be more time consuming but resolved this problem. There are several simple steps:
1. Remove used primers in several cases (5-10)
2. Enlarge primer holes up to 5-6 mm, using a drill.
3. Lubricate inter walls of the cases with any oil to avoid wax adhering
4. Lubricate also any smooth metal surface with oil. I used metal caps.
5. Put the cases on this oiled surface
6. Holding a piece of paraffin wax, melt it by a soldering iron and fill the cases drop by drop.
7. Give time for wax hardening. You can put the cases in water.
8. Take a small stick fitted to drilled holes and push the wax bullets from the cases. As the cases were oiled, the bullets are pushed out easily
9. Repeat steps 3-8

All bullets have some extensions corresponding to drilled holes. This extension prevents the wax bullet to move inside the primed cases. For shooting, I use standard small pistol primers and add in the primed cases a gun powder (~1/5 of 22LR case volume). For this case, I did a small cap from 22 LR case.

Hot glue bullets for indoor/outdoor shooting

Bullets made from hot glue are a great new alternative to wax bullets for home defense training with firearm. There is a lot of information on this topic on forums how to make them. For example, some people use a mold to make glue bullets: https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/how-to-simple-high-power-hot-glue-bullets.752117/ See also: https://youtu.be/9ANy39pHrDA However, if we do not have a mold, we can make glue bullets, using a technique that I described for a wax bullet manufacture. This method works great for hot glue bullets too, but do not forget to oil the inside walls of the cases. Factually, almost all made glue bullets will be reusable. Accuracy of these bullets is amazing. For example, 5 shots at 8 yard distance in my garage gave grouping 1.25” on the target (dark point 0.75”). At the distance 10 yards, the group was 1.6” with an average point of impact slightly lower (0.5”) the target. A sound report of glue bullet shooting with a small portion of a gun powder is like a bang of a hammer on a plank. So, this sound will not seriously alert our neighbors and police. However, if we want more quite shooting, we can use only primers. For more information about glue bullets, search “Gluelits” on Google. It is a really amazing staff for shooting if we cannot or do not want to go to a shooting range.

IMPORTANT: Always oil hot glue bullets before shooting! It prevents them from sticking to the cases and barrel.
 

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Bob, have you tried any IDPA or IPSC events? Being in Texas, there must be clubs around that offer these. They're not my thing, but I have a number of friends who really enjoy these.
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Tommy,
To be honest, I do not love any competitions, especially at my age. I regularly practice with 9 mm laser training cartridge (I recommend to buy it for dry shooting), hot glue bullets, and 22LR semi-auto. I live in the rural area and can allow myself little more for training than on public ranges. It is enough for me.
 
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