I have looked around
and been most disappointed by the offering of commercially available snap caps for the 500 nitro. The mfr says never to dry fire, and of course I never do anyway, but I wasn’t abut to even entertain pulling the trigger without the caps.
And I can’t find crap. Most of what I can find, IS crap, and everyone who has what I want is out of stock.
So I thought, I have a couple million dollars worth of machine tools at my disposal, why not make them myself?
Here’s the lot.
I machined the contour in the CNC and then left the shock absorber to the manual lathe. I drilled #7 and tapped 1/4-20 for nylon screws per Ironhand’s suggestion.
Hope to finish and test tonight.
19 comments Og | Uncategorized
Nice. I’d love to have a couple mil in machine tools to play with. :)
Nicely done!
I didn’t think of nylon screws. That is a good idea. I was thinking of doing the same, but I had erasers for mechanical pencils in mind. Just counterbore a hole and press in. Turned out nice. Good job.
Those .500 rounds you handed me to look at were impressive, indeed.
Wonder if Magnum Research will make a BMFR, to one-up the .45-70?
Oh, and if you’ll spin out a few more of those snap caps, some folks like me will happily be suckers n’ buy one from you, just for the olde cartridge board.
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
I have a couple that were slightly oversize I can send you, if you like.
Og, I have a package about prepared to send your way. Just plop those oversized in as return mail, and don’t forget the invoice.
Slightly oversize though? Hmmm, I’m thinking the headstamp might be .501 Ogspress?
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
lol. More like .502 Nutball. I will put them in a package and send them to the return address marked ” No such address” and see if they cover the postage both ways. lol.
Nice. Oh to have machine tools at my disposal. Those where the days.
Does give me a thought or too about me own snap caps.
I thought this blog was written in English.
Yes, but sometimes we also speak engineer geek.
I’m just a retired Boatbuilder, and I understood it all.
How ’bout dat?
Reason for having a lathe in the basement #421.
Nice!
I’m a bit envious of the CNC work. Considering the annoyance factor of trying to set up the radius tool for the bullet profile, I probably would have just tapered it. Comes out looking much nicer your way though!
EJ, there are advantages of working for a machine tool distributor. I’ll bring these so you can see them next time we hook up.
That is VERY nicely done sir!
Pretty. When I need caps or dummy rounds, I just put bullets on old brass. The old primers will take some more denting just fine. But I like your idea of pressing in some plastic. I also drill a big hole in the sides so I can tell they aren’t live rounds.
The hole in the sides is a good idea. I’m probably gonna nickel or gold plate these so they can’t be mixed with real ammo. The nylon screw came from Firehand, whose son it was, I believe, who used old rounds, drilled and tapped 1/4-20, and put the screw in from inside the case. 500 nitro rounds are too valuable to do that with, so I made these- and I will just drill out the nylon with a left handed drill if I ever need to replace them. The nylon seems to do very well. The rifle STILL ejects these, heavy as they are, and it’s a bad day of you get hit by one!
I fear neither son or I can take credit for the idea; somebody put that in a comment, he’d used it to make snap-caps for shotgun shells. After which I tried it myself on some different cartridges.
As you note, it works well.
I’m putting that on the list of things to do when I get the shop unpacked after my move!