"Opening" up Hollow Points on Match Bullets for Varmint Hunting

J

jasonprox700

Member
Hypothetical question:

If a guy had a boat load of match hollow point bullets in .22 & .243, would they be able to drill out or open up the hollow point to allow for faster expansion?

I'm just curious because from time to time, I am able to get my hands on match bullets for dirt cheap. They murder the paper and steel I shoot, but I'd like to be able to use them for varmints and not have to worry about the bullet not expanding. I've seen where people have opened them up and inserted polymer tips (Berger bullets) and they claim they work well. That may be another avenue I could go.
 
I have been using the Sierra 52 Gr. Matchkings for ever on Sage Rats and P-Dogs from my HP 22's with no problems. Not saying that they expand fast or not. They do kill what I hit, as long as that happens I aint changing.
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They do make a tool to square up the tips of Hollow point, I have no idea if you can set them for how ever much you want to take off or not. Might be better than drilling out.

DAB
 
My go to bullet in the 22=250 for coyotes is a 52 grain match hp, trust me you won;t have to worry about them working...Russ
 
I am just worried about them in my .223's. I have a .22-250, 3 .223's, and a .243 WSSM for my varmint arsenal (the .22-250 is the only one that is not an AR, for now!
 
I have a rancher friend in SD that has probably killed more coyotes than 90% the people around and most of them with a hornady match bullet out of a 223 loaded with 748 powder. Russ
 
I would sell the match bullets/trade for a good Sp bullet.

I shot Sierra Match HP on p. dogs and they did not do well at all. I had to shoot for shoulders and head shots with the 52 & 53 HP. However, these same bullets work well on coyotes.
 
do not drill out the points unless you plan on weighing each bullet and then sorting each one into little matching piles of like weights. i cant imagine that accuracy could benifit from the different weights that one would get from the drilling process.
 
I use to do it many years ago by making a jig using a small block of 1" thick mild steel. I drilled a hole slightly bigger than the bullet diameter and to a depth that was about .050" under the length of the stock bullets. I would clamp this in my bench vise and drop a bullet in the hole and file it down flush with my jig. Worked great and bullets were very consistant in weight and it didn't affect accuracy at all. Down side was it was time consuming and I would have to take the jig out of the vise each time so I could shake the finished bullet out. Was it worth it....probably not. In fact I did it to some Sierra 60 grain hp's for my .243 and they ended up being not even close to fur friendly!
 
Even with the size of a sage rat, I doubt the match bullet's will give you much of an edge. If you go messing with the tip of a match bullet I would think you mess with the integrity of the bullet. Suddenly a SMK might be little better than a Herter's model perfect bullet of the same weight and caliber; might even be worse!

If opening up is what your after, why don't you try bullets made to do that? Nosler BT's, Hornady V-Max's, Sierra Blitz King and Speer TNT. I think Hornady may even still make the 50gr and 55gr SX bullet's. They were explosive as could be. Some 50gr'ers that a buddy of mine tried to load right at 3500fps in his 22-250 were neat. We could see them coming apart in the air!

I use 75gr V-Max's in my 243. Shooting target's at 200yds, the bullets were shreading going thru the paper and backstop. Backstop was 1 1/2" styrofoam! Guilding metal all over behind the target!

Years ago I had a 222Rem that I used 52gr SMK in. Boy did they shoot. But my varmit bullet was the 50gr Hornady SX, boy did they shoot!
 
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I often thought of doing this with a drill press and a depth stop set on the ram. A jig similar to Ducksoup's above would be needed. Something else to play with! Often wanted to try it on fmj's to see what would happen. Once set up, if you did it in a production mode, even surplus fmj's would provide decent short range accuracy, and at the price of bullets today, would be worth it....but who needs something to be worth it around here to want to do it!?!?! LOL!!!
 
Personally I think you'll end up spending a whole lot of time with almost identical performance to what you would have had without messing with them. Varmints are going to go down fast with anything coming out of the muzzle.
 
Originally Posted By: Mike BI often thought of doing this with a drill press and a depth stop set on the ram. A jig similar to Ducksoup's above would be needed. Something else to play with! Often wanted to try it on fmj's to see what would happen. Once set up, if you did it in a production mode, even surplus fmj's would provide decent short range accuracy, and at the price of bullets today, would be worth it....but who needs something to be worth it around here to want to do it!?!?! LOL!!!


About drilling out FMJ's

I have no first hand knowledge of this but I heard / read some where if you cut/drill,grind ETC the tip off of FMJ's when you shoot them they can shoot the lead/core right out of the jacket and it(Jacket) could stick in the barrel and the next round fired would/could blow up your rifle.

Don't know it as a fact but does sound very plausible.

DAB

 
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Originally Posted By: Jack RobertsIf you want to turn FMJs into expanding bullets, just load them backwards.

Jack

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I use 70 gr. Matchkings through a .243, and I can't EVER recall having one exit a groundhog. I've found the jackets to be every bit as thin and frangible as a Blitz Varminter bullets i've used in the past.

Maybe i'm wrong, but i've had excellent results.
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Figure on what a given bullet has to do. An elk bullet has to stay together and penetrate while expanding, it's got to be tough.

A deer bullet less so.

A varmint bullet even less so.

A match bullet has to survive punching paper. Anything tougher than paper should make it explode, so should be highly frangible in tissue.

The biggest thing a match bullet has for it, is it should be more consistent from round to round to be more accurate overall. Drill it out and you've got an equally frangible bullet that is less accurate than it started out as. I've blown up lots of PD's with sierra match .223, probably blown them up better than the varmint bullets I use now. Cost more too
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Originally Posted By: Jack RobertsIf you want to turn FMJs into expanding bullets, just load them backwards.

Jack

I've heard of that Jack, and want to play with that - I understand you may be able to get respectable "close"range accuracy with a serious thump factor for caliber with that technique.

Originally Posted By: DABOriginally Posted By: Mike BI often thought of doing this with a drill press and a depth stop set on the ram. A jig similar to Ducksoup's above would be needed. Something else to play with! Often wanted to try it on fmj's to see what would happen. Once set up, if you did it in a production mode, even surplus fmj's would provide decent short range accuracy, and at the price of bullets today, would be worth it....but who needs something to be worth it around here to want to do it!?!?! LOL!!!


About drilling out FMJ's

I have no first hand knowledge of this but I heard / read some where if you cut/drill,grind ETC the tip off of FMJ's when you shoot them they can shoot the lead/core right out of the jacket and it(Jacket) could stick in the barrel and the next round fired would/could blow up your rifle.

Don't know it as a fact but does sound very plausible.

DAB



Now that you mention that, I believe I read where someone had that problem on open based bullets! Knowing me, I gotta try it to find out! Spend all day looking up the barrel to see if it shed the jacket to save a few cents per shot!??!?! LOL!!
 
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