Thread: Nathan Foster

i beleive the part he anneals is the tip which is hollow. The lead being a bit lower. The tip will have annealed before the whole copper will have melted . He does it in a metal pan with some water on the bottom I believe (?)
Maybe try it for your self and then come back with a conclusion.( positive or negative)

Wont annealing the jacket tip make it tougher and delay expansion, whereas heating and then quenching copper will soften it - opposite of ferrous ?

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

Wont annealing the jacket tip make it tougher and delay expansion, whereas heating and then quenching copper will soften it - opposite of ferrous ?

If the copper is softer, will it cause more copper fouling in the barrel?

It’s a real shame that Foster went with this bullet annealing business as it has totally polluted the rest of his work, the world over. Google it, comes up in forums from every corner of the planet it seems.

A lot of what he’s got to say is good quality, but being the hard to please, tall poppy hating bunch that we are we can only focus on the divisive. I know he regrets it.

https://www.ballisticstudies.com/Kno...+tutorial.html

Interesting. So will annealing their front ends turn open-tip SMKs, into hunting bullets?


Sierra Matchking, M80, Sierra Gameking

well LOOKING at what you have sectioned...the SMK has lighter jacket so if opening in tip is same as the SGK it would open up FASTER....by making the metal in front bit softer than rear IT COULD slow down expansion a little but it still wont be as controlled as the thicker one.....
hunting bullet is subjective.......close range needs to hold together and penertrate without blowing up...mid range needs to penertrate and expand enough to do damage...long range needs to expand like buggery to do enough damage with out the shock factor associated with higher velocity...
our parents and grandparents shot deer with fmj milserp .303......but they wounded lots too.....didnt matter if another around next corner...breaking shoulder bones helped to make FMJ do damage rather than pinhole.....
I dont candle anneal....I do however have projectiles sitting on sunny windowsill at times....
dont use eld...type in bigger rifles but do use v-zmax in .223 for varmits
I dont agree with everything the man says but usually more than 95% I do....and the other 5% is different ways of hunting more than anything else....
top bloke who from all Ive seen and experienced goes out of his way to help and give back to community.

A Meplat dia of 25 thou or larger is more important for reliable hunting projectile expansion on game than the hardness of the jacket at the tip

A meplat of 25 thousands of an inch equals 0.635 mm according to my slide rule. Even .30 FMJs have that much meplat.

My apologies

I should have said Meplat hole dia

How many of you has actually put the bullet annealing business to test?

Its rubbish, ive tried it with bergers, sierra hollowpoints as well as SST's which i think he actually names as one of the bullets he anneals.

Problems that happen is

With sst and i assume any other plastic tip bullets, the air in the bullet expands and pops the tip out. So thats pointless

With HP bullets, the lead melts before the copper anneals. The lead expands so it moves forward in the bullet upsetting the balance, and on some of them the lead even comes out of the hollow tip.


Just use eldm if you wanna hunt long range.

And use interlocks if you hunt regular range

Or whatever simmilar there is from other brands.

Lot of his stuff seems to be compied from American stuff.

His bedding compound is good though

Originally Posted by NewbieZAR

With sst and i assume any other plastic tip bullets, the air in the bullet expands and pops the tip out. So thats pointless

With HP bullets, the lead melts before the copper anneals. The lead expands so it moves forward in the bullet upsetting the balance, and on some of them the lead even comes out of the hollow tip.

I get the pun, or the point!

Lead melts at 327.5C but copper annealing required 400-700C so that is a conflict. Lead-antimony alloys have even lower melting point than pure lead.

With Sierra MatchKings or GameKings the copper extends ahead of the lead, so if you stand them up in water (as Foster advocated), to just below the lead level, you should be able to at least anneal the work hardened tips without affecting their lead cores.



Alternatively, as you suggest, don't bother.

Originally Posted by NewbieZAR

Just use eldm if you wanna hunt long range.

And use interlocks if you hunt regular range

Or whatever simmilar there is from other brands.

Lot of his stuff seems to be compied from American stuff.

His bedding compound is good though

Just head shoot the c**ts

Originally Posted by 300_BLK

Just head shoot the c**ts

Bloody oath, what a pointless exercise haha.
Far better things to do with ya time than mucking about heating up bullets

Not gonna try it. I dont want a bullet potentially flying apart due to rpm as it exits the barrel. Plenty of well designed bullets these days.
Question, could a candle flame even get any sort of brass to anneal?
If it did, is there a potential to create a problem with the bearing surface on the bullet. It does with case mouths (fact) so i would think you would leave more brass in the barrel.

Not sure about Nathan he certainly has done a lot of work however his total objection to the use of a bipod pretty much turned me right off his ideas. If you want to shoot off a pack go for it but don't tell anyone who uses a bipod they are wrong.