For what it is worth…A long time BR shooter and HOF member cooperated with me on a project by making a batch of 100 bullets; 36 were defective, and we mixed them with 64 proven excellent bullets made on the same dies and lot of jackets. The gross defects were as follows (six bullets each):
1. Scratching the ID of J4 jackets with a blunt carbide scribe before seating the cores
2. Shaving the sides of cores with a knife, then core seat them into J4 jackets
3. Poor uniformity of lube on the jacket before the final swage
4. Seated cores with insufficient pressure
5. Seated cores with too large of a punch
6. Seated cores with too small of a punch
I sent these bullets to a third party to check on the Jeunke machine, and he was unable to distinguish the good from the bad.
If there are any bullet makers here with a Jeunke machine, I would like to see them try to duplicate my experiment. Maybe others will get different results.
I think the unit measures something. Another long time BR shooter and HOF member put me on to an interesting idea some time ago that one can use the Jeunke machine to identify bullets made on the same swage die with different lots of jackets. I’ve heard that one can calibrate the Jeunke machine to zero on one lot of jackets, and with the same zero – check a different lot of jackets and obtain a different reading (+/- of the original zero). Can anybody verify this?
Greg Walley
Kelbly’s Inc.
Greg, this is as close as I can get . . . probably not what you're looking for . . .
Lou's is an interesting question, and one I've always asked - ok, two questions: 1) what is measured; 2) What is the CALIBRATION standard?
A LONG time ago - too long for me to recall [all of] the details, I submitted a set of bullets, made with varying jacket-wall thicknesses, and different amounts of variation (commonly referred to as "run-out'), to several Juenke enthusiasts. The bullets were bagged, one per baggie, and labeled, "A,B,C, etc. (or, maybe 1,2,3, . . . .) - none of those people could accurately correlate (sort) "readings" to the
measured wall-thickness variation. I believe I included several jackets of each incremental variation.
The "run-out" probably ranged from 0.0001" to around 0.0007", as measured ON the J4 production DATUM lines, using a Starrett dial indicator, mounted on a Niemi Engineering jacket "spinner", prior to core-seating. I have NEVER contended that the Juenke machine measures NOTHING, but I do not believe it measures wall-thickness uniformity. My opinion has always been that it measures, "geography" - but, that's just an opinion. My bullets - both BT and FB - have invariably "tested" well on this device - why, I do not know - I suspect good dies.
I have been on record as being, and will continue to be mistrustful of any device which has neither calibration STANDARD, nor DEFINED unit of measure: volume; length; weight, etc.
However, I do believe it measures something - perhaps Jerry is , "on to something." RG