Split-tip full wadcutter?

[John in WI]

A few weeks ago I asked about "split tip" boolits for my .38--the kind where you install a piece of paper across the nose section in the mold before filling. I was using a Lee LSWC 158gr mold. I loaded them over 4.6gr Unique (according to Lyman, that should be 850fps+). With my harder alloy (mostly WW) they didn't do much against water jugs. Either they don't deform, or one (not both?!) of the pieces of tip break off.

I was pleased with the ones out of dead soft lead as most of them deformed pretty good, and one actually dog-earing perfectly in half.

I recently bought a Lee full wadcutter mold and was thinking of trying a similar thing. Maybe the wider meplat would exert more radial force on the boolit and open it up more reliably. (radial force--put on your hip boots, it might get deep :wink:)

It's a neat design and a good shooter. But there is only maybe 1/8-1/16" between the crimp groove and the very end of the bullet.

Is it ok to put the paper in the mold a little deeper than the crimp groove? Maybe between the crimp groove and the first lube groove? I guess I don't see any safety reasons why not, but I have all of 3 months experience in casting/reloading, so I thought I would ask.

[williamwaco]

A few weeks ago I asked about "split tip" boolits for my .38--the kind where you install a piece of paper across the nose section in the mold before filling. I was using a Lee LSWC 158gr mold. I loaded them over 4.6gr Unique (according to Lyman, that should be 850fps+). With my harder alloy (mostly WW) they didn't do much against water jugs. Either they don't deform, or one (not both?!) of the pieces of tip break off.

I was pleased with the ones out of dead soft lead as most of them deformed pretty good, and one actually dog-earing perfectly in half.

I recently bought a Lee full wadcutter mold and was thinking of trying a similar thing. Maybe the wider meplat would exert more radial force on the boolit and open it up more reliably. (radial force--put on your hip boots, it might get deep :wink:)

It's a neat design and a good shooter. But there is only maybe 1/8-1/16" between the crimp groove and the very end of the bullet.

Is it ok to put the paper in the mold a little deeper than the crimp groove? Maybe between the crimp groove and the first lube groove? I guess I don't see any safety reasons why not, but I have all of 3 months experience in casting/reloading, so I thought I would ask.


Never done it and I don't think you will get what you are looking for, BUT. I wouldn't hesitate for a second on any safety concerns if I wanted to try it.

I would recommend you hollow point it with the Forster Hollow Point tool. Hollow pointed AND split: now that would be interesting.


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[John in WI]

That would be an interesting boolit. If instead of a regular mushroom, the hollow point wedged the boolit open in to a V?

I need to get a case trimmer anyway, and those hollow point gizmos are a neat idea.

[DrCaveman]

Wow, I had visions of this. I was not confident enough to bring it up on this forum. I even took it another step forward, with four part fragmenting boolits.

My doubts were based on ballistic coefficient/wind drag issues. But a full wadcutter has pathetic BC and still shoots good to 15 yds+, so maybe my doubts are poorly founded. What's not to like about 4 parts of the boolit separating upon impact and yawing away?

Maybe silly, but also, maybe super effective with very low chance of over penetration.

[Wayne Smith]

Do you have access to the Lyman Cast Bullet book v3? I loaned mine out and never got it back, but there is an article in there about doing just this. I remember it addressing rifle boolits, I don't remember much about pistol boolits.

[John in WI]

There was an article in Handloader http://www.riflemagazine.com/magazine/PDF/hl260partial1.pdf that has an article on doing "split tips" with rifle bullets.
The only way I could get them to work at all at my much slower velocities was to use dead soft lead.

Dr.--the split tips I made from the SWCs are more accurate than I am out to at least 20 yards (it's a DAO revolver). I don't know if you could get them to purposely fragment? Maybe crank up the speed, and use a harder alloy that would crack rather than bend? I was hoping to keep them in one piece, and just increase in cross section.

Did you ever try and make any of the 4-way split-tips? What's easy about making a split tip with a mold is that the mold block align the piece of paper exactly down the middle of the bullet.

I might have to just cast up some of the full-wadcutter split tips and see how they do against some phone books.

[beagle]

Funny you should mention that. I have had a TP made with six grooves and an indexing feature for the HP cavity. So far, I've done .44 Mags, .44 Specials, .45 ACP and all of the .38/9mm family. They shoot awesome in the 9mm with a 358480HP and one of Pat Marlin's .35PB popcan checks.

The special TP is used during sizing and I "bump" the bullet about 1/16" inch. This gives a six pointed seration around the walls of the HP cavity.

Looks awesome from the front./beagle


Never done it and I don't think you will get what you are looking for, BUT. I wouldn't hesitate for a second on any safety concerns if I wanted to try it.

I would recommend you hollow point it with the Forster Hollow Point tool. Hollow pointed AND split: now that would be interesting.


.

[John in WI]

I saw something along those lines for jacketed bullets. There was a 4 or 6 pointed top die that would put really deep scores from the outside of the bullet about 2/3 of the way deep into the hollow. But I think those were designed to hold together on impact.

It seems that with a cast (especially hard cast) that it would tend to fragment? That would be a pretty effective round--if the chunks coming off had decent mass to them.