Any interest in a group buy for custom bullet molds?
I recently talked to Jerry about copying the surefire design since he will no longer be making slugs. I know that NOE makes custom moulds of 15 or more. I am still waiting to hear back from Gary Barnes who Jerry said actually designed them, With his OK, I figured we could move foward if there is enough interest. So what do you guys think ?
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Thanks for keeping tabs on this Cronos600. By the way, what FPE are you working with and what is your particular interest in the Slugs ?
I have my 25 caliber 24 inch Condor tuned to 60 to 120+ FPE, so I am primarily interested in 6-7-8-9 ring (in other words 57 thru 86 grain).
At 86 grain at 3000 psi with power wheel set to 13/0, I drop down to 814 FPS, which is as slow as I would want to go, which gives me 126 FPE.
Still waiting to hear back from Gary. I have been told he is still in the process of moving.
So… where are we in the making of more slugs ?
AirGunner1a,
I never measured the hardness as we always made the slugs with near pure lead. We used dead soft lead (in the end we used rotometals to avoid shipments of contaminated lead) and just a little tin to help the lead “wet” the mold. The standard way we did things was to add a couple “ingots” of lead (the rotometal stick) to the pot and then cut about an inch off a stick of tin and stir that in. So, just a tiny bit of tin to break the surface tension of pure lead.
There is no blueprint for these slugs. The mold cutter(s) were the work of an artist using experience and design goals to get to a mold. The rings are there to adapt to a choked barrel and are cut to the size they are because of the limits of the tooling and the ability to get a good fill, I don’t recall a specific measurement. Outside diameter was set to .253 so we could size for the common .25 sizes in use at the time (back when LW barrels were .251…).
Hi Jerry;
What was the Brinell hardness of your bullets ? What was the composition ?
Also, do you have the blueprint spces that the mold was made to ?
I have a bunch of 6-7-8-9 rings and can’t get a good reading.
AirGunner1a (a.k.a. AirGunner1 – 733 posts)
The ring slugs are not copyrighted or patented so you don’t have a legal issue. However, I’m sure the courtesy extended is appreciated. Of course, bullet designs are rarely novel and even then, any tiny change generally avoids legal issues.
I expect there are a couple improvements on the mind of guys looking at the ring slugs and some of them will probably work. If you can find a .25 mold cutter, have at it!
Yeah,I had given up on Gary when lifo2001 said he got ahold of him.I never got any responce so I asked some of the guys WHO I could have make some and If it was legal to do so.Doug has his own design which he said any of us could have copied by Veral so I might do that as well.Nice to see you on here.
I’m glad you’re going to Gary for molds. I know he’s headed to MD this week for final shop clean-up and movement to FL. His email has been AFU (I’m certain his internet provider just wants his big files gone) and significant bits lost during transfer of services.
I expect using PM on airgunrendezvous will be quickest path to contact.
I’ve watched Gary make molds and I know the effort involved. I know there is no significant reduction in effort in making a batch build, some, but not much. I would not expect a volume discount or even an agreement to make a high number. Your best bet might be to find a dedicated caster looking to make small bucks!
Right now we are waiting to here from Gary Barnes who is the person who came up with the (Jerrys) surefire slugs and made the molds which Jerry would use to cast the slugs.Since Jerry is no longer making them we want to have molds made. i dont know if someone will cast slugs for sale once molds are available but someone might.
Ahh.. But that would be just for the outer rings of the Jerry Slug. If the mold is a tad off center, which means the main body and rings of a Jerry Slug are “Out of Round”, then a sizing mold is not going to help the root problem.
Got it. need whomever is making these new slugs to have a super accurate mold.
You use a sizing die and push the bullet through it. A hand sizer and die are around $80. Lee doesn’t make .251 or .257 so you have to go to there custom shop and they will make them. Then they screw in to the hand sizer.
So what is the plan here ?
Is someone buying a mold or making a mold and having someone pour the slugs ?
Are the molds going to be all the Jerry Slugs sizes or just the bigger 6-7-8-9 rings ?
Someone mentioned sizing, which I understand why that is done, but how would one do that except taking a poured slug and squeezing it in a precision mold, which that mold has to cost a lot in itself ?
Count me in to purchase slugs.
I have my modded Condor doing 126 FPE with 9 ring Jerry slugs and staying under 1000 FPS and above 800 FPS. Sweet.
Ring = Jerry Slug, EJ = EunJun, EK = JSB Exact Kings
Chrony numbers (the PSI is only as accurate as the gauge):
Pellet……Weight…..PW…….PSI……FPS……FPE
9-ring……85.9 gr….13/0…..3000…..814…..126
9-ring……86.0 gr….13/0…..2400…..751…..107
6-ring……58.4 gr….13/0…..2800…..916…..109
43.2 EJ….41.8 gr….13/0…..2850….1020……96
6-ring……57.2 gr……6/8…..2900……872……96
43.2 EJ….42.1 gr……6/8…..2750….1009……95
35.8 EJ….35.8 gr……6/8…..2600….1040……86
25.4 EK….25.4 gr…..6/8…..2600….1147……74
43.2 EJ…..42.0 gr…..0/0…..2850…..832…….65
35.8 EJ…..36.0 gr…..0/0…..2400…..974…….76
25.4 EK….25.3 gr…..0/0…..2600….1027……59
Live Coyote….. :4: …..Dead Coyote
Just mailed out the slugs.
Ok guys, the slugs will be on the way to Gary in the next days. Thanks for the contributions.
As soon as I hear from Gary about the molds, I will let you know.
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I have not checked the fpe. I have only had a few chances to shoot at a buddys place. We just target shoot. My main interest in these slugs is seeing what kind of power I can get out of my AF gun while having fun . After using them in my TJs barrel I found them to be very accurate. I also purchased a smooth twist barrel which I was told shoots these slugs well but not bullet style slugs. To me I look at them like JSBs are with pellets, they shoot well out of many different guns/barrels.