Thursday, September 17, 2015

HOME SHOOTING PRACTICE (With Wax Bullets)

With the price of ammo, it can be tough to be able to practice your shooting skills. My Dad came up with a way that is not too expensive. Where he got it from, I have no idea. This works real well for those of us who like to shoot "old school." You know, revolvers.

My Dad would shoot down in the basement of his house. It afforded him a way to practice shooting without going to the range or anything. He shot a .38 Colt snubby and a Ruger Security Six. This is also good for those people who like to shoot cowboy style.

Here is a list of the things you will need:

  • A couple of foil pie pans
  • Bee's wax
  • A cheap pan to melt the wax
  • Primers
  • Brass
  • De-primer tool
  • Primer tool to set primers.


Take your empty pistol brass and take out the old primer. If the brass is really dirty you might want to clean it. Next, put new primers in the brass and set them aside for the time being. Next, you want to melt down the bee's wax. After the wax is in liquid form, you want to pour it into the pie pans. You want o have the wax about a 1/4 to 3/8 inch deep.

Next, when the wax has set, take one of your pistol brass and push it into the wax. Give it a little turn as you do this. It's like a cookie cutter. Do this to all the brass that you put new primers in. You are now ready to shoot a wad of bee's wax at a target. You can still reload your brass later on. The primer is just enough to pop the wax out of the brass.

My Dad used a old military canteen he had laying around as a target. After shooting up his wax wads, the old canteen looked like someone had taken a ball-peen hammer to it. After several weeks of his practicing, we went to a range with a friend of his. As they started shooting, his friend kind of looked around the partition at my Dad, and told him he was shooting too fast and was in all likelihood to be all over the target.

My Dad just smiled and brought in his target. A nice tight group of five. A little right of center. His friend just could not believe that my dad had gotten that much better. It pays to practice.

Now I take no responsibility or liability if you try this. Wear eye and ear protection, and (always) follow all gun safety rules.

This picture of wax bullets is from the American Rifleman Web site: http://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2010/4/12/how-to-make-and-reload-wax-bullets/ 


2 comments:

  1. Do you remember that he used vanilla to scent the ones he made for me? I laughed at that, but it was super sweet of him to think of that. 'Course, then he was worried that Nugget would think they were tasty treats. . .

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    Replies
    1. Kathi N, LOL! He thought that you would not like the smell of burnt primers. I told him if he could get them to smell of Jack Daniel's, that he could make a few bucks.
      Love ya.

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