Welcome back Stone Fence

[Buffboy]

You've been missed. Did you ever get that 1876 sorted out? Your bullets worked marvelously this year again with my 1893.

Merry Christmas

[Duff L Bagg]

Welcome home Stone Fence, glad to have you back.

[Hobie]

I'm also pleased to hear that you're back. How's the family?

[Stone Fence]

Guys it's good to be back. My son Samuel is 2 and a half now, doing marvelous and quite the little man in a kid suit. The other day I took him to the sitter and went surface streets whereas his mommy usually hops on the interstate-- he says to me "Daddy aren't we going that way" as he points to the freeway on-ramp!! He doesn't miss a trick. I can't wait til he's about 4 so he can go hunting with daddy....

I never did get the Chaparral .45-60 shooting-- did not send it back to Charter and still don't have the headspace problem solved. Someday I'll get some rims thinned on the .45-60 brass so I can shoot that darned thing.

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

[Ysabel Kid]

Good to see you back SF!

[1886]

Welcome back. Lets hear about those bullets that made you so famous. 1886.

[Stone Fence]

1886-

As some know, I started swaging my own jacketed .378" (also .375") bullets about 4 years ago as a hobby, because what I wanted wasn't available (at least at a decent price) in the marketplace. I've since added heavy .357 (190 grain) bullets for .357 Max, a .401" TCFP for .38-40 and 10mm, and new .431" 270 grainers for Marlin .444's.

I'm thinking about doing a boat-tail spitzer (with small flat) in .338 cal for the new Marlin .338 Express-- there seem to be NO .338 levergun bullets out there anymore.

I'm going all out with the bullet biz, attempting to make it my livelyhood. At this point, enough guys have tried my bullet that I am confident I can make an exceptional quality product-- it's simply a matter of getting the word out. I have an ad coming out in Handloader magazine Jan. 1 - please look for it and tell a friend that might be interested. I can make practically any style/ caliber/ weight bullet wanted, if a guy will commit to buying enough bullets to make it worth ordering the tooling..

[KirkD]

I'm going all out with the bullet biz, attempting to make it my livelyhood. At this point, enough guys have tried my bullet that I am confident I can make an exceptional quality product-- it's simply a matter of getting the word out. I have an ad coming out in Handloader magazine Jan. 1 - please look for it and tell a friend that might be interested. I can make practically any style/ caliber/ weight bullet wanted, if a guy will commit to buying enough bullets to make it worth ordering the tooling..

By cracky! I'm sure glad to hear this. I believe there is a real market out there for what you can do. I'm still hoarding that batch of beautiful .379 diameter 38-55 bullets you made up, carefully rationing out how I use them. I've already planned to use them in my original Winchester Model 1894 SRC 38-55 to harvest a Whitetail deer one of these autumns. They would be loaded to duplicate Winchester's original H.V. load. When I do, I will post an account with photos.

I'm also very intrigued by your mention of a 38-40 bullet. Now that gets me excited too! I cast my own bullets and don't use factory jacketed bullets anymore, but your bullets are so nice that I do get excited about them and they seem like excellent candidates for Winchester's various High Velocity loads. Can you post a photo and details of your 38-40 bullet? I just may want to order a batch. I'll bet they would be especially good for Winchesters original High Velocity load for the 38-40.

By the way, I'm glad to see you back, Stone Fence. For you fellows who want to see some of his work, the photo below is my own stash of Stone Fence 255 grain .379 diameter bullets. I had the open box sitting next to my water softener for about a year and they got a coating of softener salt on them, so some of them have slightly blue cannelures from the copper oxidation, but it is only cosmetic and it is my fault for having my bullet shelf right beside the water softener. I've since moved my important stuff away from the water softener salt bin. When I received them from Stone Fence they were squeaky shiny. ....

[Stone Fence]

Thanks Kirk for the kind words.

I have never got the hang of posting pics, but e-mail me at : david@custombullets.com and I will reply with a pic of the .38-40 bullet. It is a little fuzzy since my digital cam wont do close ups well, but I think you can get a feel for the bullet. It is truncated cone with an about .20" cal flat on it and a short .50" inch jacket that just makes the turn over the ogive. They weigh 192 grains.. many vintage guns have less than pristine bores and so need a jacketed bullet, though you don't want to shoot a truckload in original guns. I am lucky in that my '94 Marlin has a 20's vintage Marlin CORPORATION marked barrel on it, so never was shot with BP ammo. It is clean as a whistle and shoots my bullet (swaged with 20:1 lead) like a dream.

If you knock over a deer with my bullet please do send an account and pics-- always eager to hear the hunting stories. If you're willing, I will even put it on my website!
-Stone

[WCF3030]

If you knock over a deer with my bullet please do send an account and pics-- always eager to hear the hunting stories. If you're willing, I will even put it on my website!
-Stone

Could we get a link to your website?

[JerryB]

Stone Fence, what about 32-20 bullets? I just don't have any luck with cast in my 1917 Winchester 1892 24" rifle, Kirk has helped me with some jacketed loads that are really great.

[Buffboy]

I've used your 38-55 bullet the last three years for deer hunting. Let's see, there's this is the buck from 2006. I didn't get a picture of the prairie dog at 150yards .

That one was hit head on at the V of the collarbone and it penetrated most of the way through the animal. It exited through the loin near the end of it. I lost about an inch of meat around the exit. DRT
Didn't get a picture of the 2007 doe, the antlerless buck from 2008 (both lung shots) or the coyote I shot(lung shot). None of those went far. This years buck the furthest at about 30 yards(that was a high lung hit). The other two went feet(inches with the yote), not yards.
I did get a picture of the 2008 antlered buck.

This one was hit in the back of the neck but I missed the spine so another shot was placed through the ribs as he stumbled away. DRT then, total distance traveled about 10 yards.

I'm a believer in your bullets and I still have over 50 (of the original 100) I got from you. I've been very stingy about using them. I will be ordering more after the new year, just to have a hoard of them for the future. Looking at your prices, you are the best price out there too for 38-55 jacketed bullets and are hands down the most accurate in my old 1893. I just may get to "plink" with it , it will be nice to use them for fun rather than hoarding for "business" only. I don't know if they expand or not. I load them to 1700fps for my old rifle. I've never recovered one from a game animal, but the wound channels are classically good and show no signs of over expansion or breakup. Penetration has been through & through in all my applications of your product.

Feel free to use these pictures on your website.

[Stone Fence]

Wow, Buffboy thanks!

that just warms the heart to hear that the bullets are accounting for deer, going all the way through, and that they aren't travelling far. And the fact that it is being done with an original 1893 Marlin is just icing on the cake!

I will get with my webmaster in the next week or so and use your pic-thanks!
-Stone

-JerryB- I have no current plan to do .32-20 bullets--there are just too many good jacketed bullets already out there, and being a one-mand band, hand making bullets I can't compete with the big boys on things already available. Have you slugged your bore? Do you need a special size of jacketed bullet? If you can find a couple of others with the same diameter requirement and you all will buy several hundred bullets, then we can talk about ordering custom tooling. Thanks!

http://www.custombullets.com
e-mail: david@custombullets.com

[JerryB]

I slugged the bore and it is a .312 bore, I sent it to Kirk and he got the same reading. There are several 32wcf shooters on here so I'll just wait and see what comes of it.
Thank's, Jerry

[Stone Fence]

JerryB-

looks like you are in good shape then. I would look at the Speer 100 grain JHP for loading the .32-20.
good luck with it, and do ping me if you want anything not readily available.
-Stone

[AmBraCol]

If you knock over a deer with my bullet please do send an account and pics-- always eager to hear the hunting stories. If you're willing, I will even put it on my website!
-Stone

Could we get a link to your website?

Going by his e-mail address above I'd guess that it's safe to say that this is it...


http://www.custombullets.com