Boolits with NO wax grooves?

[phaux]

With all the high praise of these boolit coatings lately, I'm wanting to try casting some boolits with no wax grooves. In particular, for 30-06, 303brit, and 8mm mauser.

Who here has done this and what molds did you use?

Any increase in accuracy?

Any increase in leading? (while using powdercoating, hi-tek coating, or other coating)

[longbow]

Yeah... I just posted on this very subject here:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?249294-Home-made-mold

I find they work as well or even better than traditional lube groove designs.

Many years ago before the "custom" group buys for fat moulds the only way I could get decent accuracy from my .44 Marlin was with a smooth boolit from a home made mould. I bored it to cast 0.434" for my fat Marlin bore. Worked just fine.

Also, my most accurate boolit for my .303's comes from a smooth mould ~ 215 gr. smooth then lightly knurled and tumble lubed.

If you do not lube you will most likely experience leading. A thin coat of tumble lube seems to work okay but knurling does better for me. I also tend to load the .303's with COW filler which also helps reduce leading... in fact about eliminates leading if boolits are lubed. Some say COW alone will stop leading but it did not for me.

In straight sided cases like .44 you can use lube cookies like the BP guys do.

Another option is to make the mould a little undersize to allow for paper patching. I started paper patching using a home made smooth mould that cast 0.421" for my .44 Marlin. The smooth/knurled boolits worked about as well though and were less work.

I have no tried PC yet but these boolits are prime candidates if the mould is bored to cast a thou or two small then PC to size.

Oh, I do not normally size these smooth boolits, I bore and lap the moulds to cast the size I want.

Try it, you'll like it!

Longbow

[montana_charlie]

If you do not lube you will most likely experience leading.
I think the o/p wants to powder coat some slicks.
He just hasn't found the right forum section, yet.

CM

[Wayne S]

I think the o/p wants to powder coat some slicks.
He just hasn't found the right forum section, yet.

CMYep, and I can't see what the advantage is to increasing the bearing surface of a bullet in the lube area

[dilly]

I think I can help you out a bit. First off, take a look at the coatings and alternatives forum; there is a lot of good stuff for those interested over there.

Secondly, the slick sided molds do exist, are not super common and really aren't necessary. If you have a mold, and you'd like to try it powder coated, just coat it. The lube grooves won't hurt anything. The only caution I would give is that some bore riding molds have the nose diameter increase too much for easy chambering. There are workarounds, but if you have a design that doesn't bore ride, choosing that one might side step the issue altogether.

If you prefer slick sided molds, I guess I can understand that, but don't feel like that's a necessity.

[mdi]

With all the high praise of these boolit coatings lately, I'm wanting to try casting some boolits with no wax grooves. In particular, for 30-06, 303brit, and 8mm mauser.

Who here has done this and what molds did you use?

Any increase in accuracy?

Any increase in leading? (while using powdercoating, hi-tek coating, or other coating)

I'd like to know if anyone uses commercial molds for "grooveless" bullets. A mold specifically for paper patching?

[OuchHot!]

I did buy a grooveless mold for paper patching in .308. Honestly, it seemed like a good idea at the time but I wind up patching grooved boolits 99% of the time. It might be that a grooveless boolit might skid less when it spins up but you couldn't prove it by me.

[303Guy]

I've been thinking of a mold with small steps instead of a taper. The idea of the steps is to form sharp forward facing edges to grip the paper from a one piece mold. That won't help you much unless I make one for you but I'm not really set up yet. I could be but I still have a lot of inertia (and all of last years household projects to work on).