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Rangefinder · August 20, 2011, 12:10 AM

Yup--cast boolits is my other addiction...

I spend a LOT of time there--I think I have a plaque somewhere in the mens room behind stall #3...

PP molds generally are smooth sided with no lube grooves what-so ever. Fun bit of history indeed about all that. But I've found conventional grooves are a non-issue. One of the versions I heard about how PP'ing came about was something to the effect of Frontier-related. It goes that after years out in the west in isolated country, when a rifle was shot out enough to start leading, key-holing, and losing any amount of accuracy it was figured out that the easiest way to make it shoot straight again was to use a bullet wrapped with a layer or two of bible paper to help it grab the riflings again--much easier than trying to lap out a mould in those days. Then they figured out it worked so well that they could punch up the powder charge besides---and what do ya know---it became a common practice. Is there any truth to the story? Couldn't tell ya. What I CAN tell you is that it works wonders for punching up the load on a cast boolit to take it from sweet to WOW!

hornetguy: Paper patching is a bit more than you're grabbing. It creates a literal form of the early jacketed bullet. The paper acts as a barrier between lead and lands to not only seal, but allow the bullet to be fired at much higher pressures than straight lead would otherwise be capable of. If it helps, starting load on a PP bullet is usually the same as the starting load on a modern jacketed bullet. Furthermore, you really don't have to do much or any alloying. For lead loads, I have to be a bit picky about my antimony and tin content for higher pressures, and then don't get expansion at the higher end. With PP'ing, I can use dead-soft, fire at high pressure, get a bullet that flattens to the size of a quarter, and not spend an hour scrubbing out the bore. I'm driving a cast lead bullet PP'd at the same load and pressures as I would a jacketed soft-point. I'd never even dream of trying that with a normal cast-lead bullet. It would strip out so bad my bore would look like a smooth-bore with all the lead left behind and I couldn't hit the broad-side of a barn if I was standing inside it.

August 20, 2011, 12:10 AM	#18
Rangefinder Senior Member Join Date: August 4, 2005 Posts: 2,017	Yup--cast boolits is my other addiction... I spend a LOT of time there--I think I have a plaque somewhere in the mens room behind stall #3... PP molds generally are smooth sided with no lube grooves what-so ever. Fun bit of history indeed about all that. But I've found conventional grooves are a non-issue. One of the versions I heard about how PP'ing came about was something to the effect of Frontier-related. It goes that after years out in the west in isolated country, when a rifle was shot out enough to start leading, key-holing, and losing any amount of accuracy it was figured out that the easiest way to make it shoot straight again was to use a bullet wrapped with a layer or two of bible paper to help it grab the riflings again--much easier than trying to lap out a mould in those days. Then they figured out it worked so well that they could punch up the powder charge besides---and what do ya know---it became a common practice. Is there any truth to the story? Couldn't tell ya. What I CAN tell you is that it works wonders for punching up the load on a cast boolit to take it from sweet to WOW! hornetguy: Paper patching is a bit more than you're grabbing. It creates a literal form of the early jacketed bullet. The paper acts as a barrier between lead and lands to not only seal, but allow the bullet to be fired at much higher pressures than straight lead would otherwise be capable of. If it helps, starting load on a PP bullet is usually the same as the starting load on a modern jacketed bullet. Furthermore, you really don't have to do much or any alloying. For lead loads, I have to be a bit picky about my antimony and tin content for higher pressures, and then don't get expansion at the higher end. With PP'ing, I can use dead-soft, fire at high pressure, get a bullet that flattens to the size of a quarter, and not spend an hour scrubbing out the bore. I'm driving a cast lead bullet PP'd at the same load and pressures as I would a jacketed soft-point. I'd never even dream of trying that with a normal cast-lead bullet. It would strip out so bad my bore would look like a smooth-bore with all the lead left behind and I couldn't hit the broad-side of a barn if I was standing inside it. __________________ "Why is is called Common Sense when it seems so few actually possess it?" Guns only have two enemies: Rust and Politicians. Last edited by Rangefinder; August 20, 2011 at 12:24 AM.