So essentially, he was removing approximately 1/3 To 1/2 of the weight from a 147 grain bullet, without changing any of the other variables — powder charge, barrel length, rifling twist rate, etc. The velocity gain would have been impressive. The terminal effect on target would have been interesting, to say the least, assuming that there were no safety issues as AndyC has mentioned.MeMelYup wrote:I can remember my dad cutting 30.06 bullets when I was a kid in the early 1950's. He would go find WWI or WWII surplus. He had a jig that he would lay the bullet in and very carefully cut the tip off about half way between case and tip. He talked about when he was a kid in the 1920-1930 time frame that surplus bullets were a $1 a bag and that was what he used for hunting. His grandpa showed him how to cut the tip.
Some years ago, Remington used to offer in their "Express" line of ammo a load in both .308 and .30-'06 which pushed a saboted 55 grain Speer .223 bullet to tremendous velocities. Unfortunately, accuracy was abysmal, and the loads were eventually dropped from the line. I suspect that cutting off a significant chunk of a .308 diameter 147 grain bullet's mass would produce a similar effect.
I think that one has to accept that folks who did this kind stuff were experimenting, and all experimentation in firearm ammunition carries with it an element of danger. Whether or not their experiments push the technology forward, they do expand the knowledge of what works and what doesn't.