Hot Glue Bullets for Basement Shooting

[Professor Marvel]

Greetings My Good netizens

as previously promised, here is a very brief discussion with photos of my Hot Glue Bullet project.

It really is dirt simple.

- cast a bunch of hot glue bullets:

1)    this may seem like blasphemy, but since the hot glue likes to stick to the mold (it *is* glue, after all), I have found that
    I need to very lightly oil the mold now and then by brushing the cavity and sprueplate with a q-tip dipped in very light, thin oil.
    Prior to casting lead bullets, one must of course clean, degrease, and de-oil the mold.

2)  I am using "all temp" glue sticks from Wally World. I am trying to find "hi-temp" but have been unsuccesful so far.
    heat up the glue gun, and squirt the glue into the cavity. One should be reasonably quick, but also be aware that the
    glue shrinks as it cools, so be prepared for a learning curve and throw out the bad bullets.

I use a Lee aluminum mold for .44 ( .429 ) and .45 (.452) cartridge bullets , and an RCBS hollow base .450 mold for
.44 Cap and Ball.

3) I drilled out the primer hole of a box of cases with the largest bit I could find that would still leave a shoulder
    for the primer to rest upon. For .45 Colt , large pistol primer pockets, this was bigger than 1/8 but not too big.
    for the uniniated, this is to keep the primers from  backing out and allow as much of  the primer gas out as possible,
    since this is the only propellant we have.
     I blacken the cases using cold blue so I never, ever, use them for actual loads

  For Cap and Ball, I took a set of spare italian cones, and drilled them out with a 1/8 bit. So far I just polished them bright to
  differentiate .

4) squish the hot glue bullet into the case mouth and you are finished. no crimp. I am toying with dipping them into
    light oil ( baby oil, cheap and on hand) as a bullet lube to reduce barrel fouling.

These are quiet, more accurate than wax bullets, and reusable. I have gotten 5 uses of a set so far and they still work.
light oil lube seems to help longevity as well as reducing bore fouling and ease of cleaning.
On the first try I put 50 into a group the size of a lunch plate at 30 feet, out of a 4 5/8" barrel SA

I am toying with the idea of using 209 shotshell primers as they are more energetic, but no good results yet.


ok here's the photos
first, glue bullets and assembled cartridges
next the .450 HB Ideal mold
the .450 Ideal mold open
the .450 Ideal mold with glue bullet in it

hope this helps
prof mumbles