ORIGINAL: bernieb90
Low cost and machining anything in small quantities are mutually exclusive. It would have been much cheaper to go out and buy some Barnes. I originally made this as a boattail, but after talking to some of the folks here it seems like boattails and standard sabots don't work well together. I wonder is there is way of getting my hands on the yellow MMP sabots used in the TMZ and Spitfire. I may just end up going to a flat base design, but keep the nose profile. This is more of an engineering/fun (I am also a Mechanical Engineer) excersise than anything else. I just wanted to see if I could get it to work. Getting the 6 petal expansion required making a hexagonal punch to score the inside of the HP cavity. The bullets were annealed at 900F for30 minutes. Lee my target weight was in the 270-290gr range. Since I used CAD software to do the design I was able to dial it in fairly close. I figured heavier is better especially at MZ velocities. The bullet is intended for game in the Hog/Deer size range so I wanted large diameter expansion and moderate penetration. A far as getting fired, I work for my dad in his shop so the likeleyhood is high

.Thank you all for the positive feedback.
Agreed, low cost and small quantities are mutually exclusive, however I figured you were buying your own copper rods and cutting them down and machining them on your own time, therefore low cost to you compared to buying Barnes. There are Flat based bullet made by Barnes but sold under another name, they are very expensive, so I have not tied them and also I felt the company might fail, so there would not be a supply down the road a few years. Anyway, great idea to make your own if you have the skill and the machine. They look beautiful, I would NOT put the boat tail on the bullet, everything I have read says that is not good in MLers.
Chap Gleason
PS. Here is the URL of the Flat Based Barnes:
http://maximummuzzleloading.com/bullets.html
Chap