Hollow point that didn't work

[44man]

I have not been able to get the Lee boolit to shoot from my cap and ball Ruger. After reading of all the luck making some boolits shoot better by doing it and my own experience with great hollow points, I drilled a bunch of them on the lathe. They looked great and didn't deform when seating because my seater plug matches the nose.
On the average I would get 3 hits somewhere on paper but 3 would be completely missing. They were much worse then before.
The semi wadcutter I made shoots around 3" at 50 yd's. It is the same length as the Lee. Now I am going to drill some of them to see what happens.

[Bass Ackward]

On the average I would get 3 hits somewhere on paper but 3 would be completely missing. They were much worse then before.



44man,

I look at it as though you screwed up three times twice. The three you can't find simply went in the same hole as the three screw-ups. :grin:

Remember, the hollow point test is a test for stabilization. If your problem isn't stabilization, that's all it will tell you. My guess is you are probably too soft again. Take your foot off the gas. :grin:

[black44hawk]

I am interested in how you are drilling hollow points into these bullets. For example, how do you anchor the bullet during the process that won't deform it?

[Lloyd Smale]

make a jig to drill them when there already seated in your cylinder.

[felix]

Lloyd, an external block of something with a tight fitting cartridge hole would be better? ... felix

[Boomer Mikey]

Forster makes a universal hollow point tool for their case trimmer.

http://www.forsterproducts.com/Pages/trim_pointer.htm

You could do the same in a drill press with a fixture made to fit the bullet or a collet with a depth stop in a lathe.


Boomer :Fire:

[leftiye]

Stick 'em in a collet in yer lathe. All done!

[44man]

Thats what I did, I put them in the chuck with very light pressure, no marks on the sides at all and drilled them to the same depth with the drill chuck in the tailstock. Holes were perfect.
I tried water dropped WW metal too and the thing just won't group. Round balls make them look sick. Why the other boolit shoots so good is a mystery.
But like I have said many times, if the gun doesn't like a boolit, give it up. I gave a bunch to my friend to try in his Remington but it will be a long time before he shoots it. If it shoots for him, he will get a free mold.

[Lloyd Smale]

Only thing im thinking felix is the old armys pretty much deform bullets on seating as it is and id guess a hp would make it worse so if a guy allready had them seated before you drilled them it may prevent some damage.
Lloyd, an external block of something with a tight fitting cartridge hole would be better? ... felix

[44man]

I remove the cylinder and seat them on a tool I made. The punch matches the boolit nose and doesn't deform them at all. Even the punch for the new boolit I made was cut with the cherry I cut the mold with. I also have a punch for a round ball.
It sure is not the reason!

[Lloyd Smale]

Guess a guy never knows. I had mountain molds cut me a custom mold for the old army it was a two cavity that had one cavity a 230 swc and the other a 210 wfn that were cut to size for the old army and had one big lube grove. the wfn shot extreamly well and the swc fell on its face. ALways thought that if i did it again id have put a small bevel base on it to insure staight seating as that wrecks the accuracy of an old army faster then anything. What i ended up doing was bumping the bases in a 451 lee die but it was far from scientific as i never got into it heavy enough to do it with any consistancy. Ended up selling the gun and mold. I HATE CLEANING BLACK POWDER HANDGUNS!!!

[44man]

I hate to even think about it. I have been tempted to throw them in the dishwasher. I remove the grips and throw the whole thing in the laundry tub but still hate it. Thats why I hardly ever shoot the things.
We need a big ultra sonic cleaner filled with black powder solvent. Throw in the gun for a day or so and rinse and dry.
But then again, I hate cleaning any gun!

[felix]

That is the main reason I don't shoot BP. The cleaning. ... felix

[black44hawk]

Although not traditional hodgdon's "triple seven" is a clean way to enjoy muzzleloading. However, revolvers complicate things since the works must be cleaned also. I shoot triple seven in my 50 cal percussion rifle and clean up takes about as long as with smokeless guns. I might be alone in this sentiment, but I rather enjoy cleaning my guns.

[44man]

777 was not good in the Ruger, I tried it and all of the other powders. Pyrocrap shot good but would change point of impact so bad when the weather changed that I would shoot under deer one day and hit them the next. I proved that on the range. Powders that work fine in rifles, sometimes don't work in revolvers.