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MT2DAY
01-10-2015, 07:58 PM
I was thinking about hp moulds for awhile and I came to the thought of instead of paying more for hp mould and slowing production of casting I would drill the bullets that I want to hunt with. I put together a jig using two brass fittings that center the nose and the center of sized case so the hole is very centered and on axis. First brass fitting is a male 1/4NPT to male 1/4 barbed hose end, hole through the center is 3/16. Second fitting (44mag 41mag and 30-30 30-06)is a 1/4 to 1/4 NPT female coupler drilled out to 29/64(perfect fit for 44, 30-06), it just barely skims the tops of the threads. Next is a 3/16 drill bit. I first tried to cut the first 1/4 of the drill bit down to 1/8 but I found the lead would bunch up in the jig and make heat problems on the nose of the bullet.
SO what I did was use the jig to make enough of a pocket to find the center of the bullet, then I would swap bits to 1/8 (or what ever size you want) and then drill to depth wanted, being careful to find the center while holding the bullet base flat. For 357 I used another brass fitting male 1/4NPT to male 1/4 barbed hose end drilled with the inside drilled out to 3/8. I know it is not nuts perfect as a well machined mould but it is darn close.
Here are two pictures with 1/8 drill stuck in end of a 57 that shows how much it is out. Until I can square my bed better this may be as good as I will get.
http://mt2day.com/x/HP_TOOL03.JPG
http://mt2day.com/x/HP_TOOL05.JPG
http://mt2day.com/x/HP_TOOL10.JPG
picture with 1/8 drill stuck in end of a 57 that shows how much it is out. Until I can square my bed better this may be as good as I will get.
http://mt2day.com/x/HP_TOOL19.JPG

s mac
01-11-2015, 11:10 AM
Interesting technique, but I think I would feel better about drilling the hp before they are loaded. That's just me.

prs
01-11-2015, 11:56 AM
Sure is easy to just cast hollow points, but your creativity is admirable.

prs

JSnover
01-11-2015, 12:06 PM
I did something like that years ago with a .357 and it worked pretty well. It was cheaper than buying a HP mold (and a LOT cheaper than buying a lathe).
I wouldn't worry about the loaded cartridge. You can turn the drill by hand. By the time it gets through the boolit, the powder and into the case web you'll know something has gone wrong.

Kraschenbirn
01-11-2015, 12:17 PM
Kinda like the old DiGeorge (sp?) Hollowpoint tools that Herter's sold back in the day. I had a set of those at one time but, as I recall, results left something to be desired. Drilled boolits expanded nicely and might've been okay for 'up close and personal' but accuracy was inconsistent past 12-15 yards. I always suspected that drilled cavities positioned off the O.D. of loaded rounds could easily be an RCH off-center yielding out-of-balance boolits. Forster still makes a similar 'universal hollowpointer' attachment for their case trimmer and, from the product review, it may have the same kind of problems.

Bill

Super Sneaky Steve
01-11-2015, 10:16 PM
Casting HP's is easy, but with this technique you can HP any of your boolits. Each mould would be like two in one!

jeepyj
01-12-2015, 10:02 AM
Interesting post. Thank you for sharing.
Jeepyj

dragon813gt
01-12-2015, 10:07 AM
Interesting. If you have a Forster case trimmer they make a hollow point attachment for it.

wmitty
01-12-2015, 01:20 PM
MT2DAY

Excellent idea! I have been wondering about an easy way to hollowpoint some NOE 358009 280 grain boolits and this looks like it.

bangerjim
01-12-2015, 06:14 PM
I have drilled out about 100ea) 40 S&W's on my collet lathe. A collet is the only way to prevent damage to the boolit. I do not cast or shoot HP's at all, but wanted to try some. Takes a bit of time, as Pb is not that easy to drill.....soft and curly out of the drill. Constantly clearing the drill.

If I ever do want to shoot HP en-mass, I will DEFINITELY buy an HP mold!!!!!!

banger!

ipijohn
01-12-2015, 07:11 PM
I have drilled out about 100ea) 40 S&W's on my collet lathe. A collet is the only way to prevent damage to the boolit. I do not cast or shoot HP's at all, but wanted to try some. Takes a bit of time, as Pb is not that easy to drill.....soft and curly out of the drill. Constantly clearing the drill.

If I ever do want to shoot HP en-mass, I will DEFINITELY buy an HP mold!!!!!!


banger!


Not the ONLY way, I have had great success in low volume by wrapping a piece of soda can aluminum around the boolit in a 3 jaw chuck. But I'm with you, if more than a few I buy a HP mold. All I shoot, in non hunting pistol loads, is HP because they are so easy ESPC nose down on my bed of pop rivet fixtures.

Seeker
01-12-2015, 07:26 PM
Again, very interesting. How much weight did it remove from the bullet?

bangerjim
01-12-2015, 07:28 PM
Not the ONLY way, I have had great success in low volume by wrapping a piece of soda can aluminum around the boolit in a 3 jaw chuck. But I'm with you, if more than a few I buy a HP mold. All I shoot, in non hunting pistol loads, is HP because they are so easy ESPC nose down on my bed of pop rivet fixtures.


Sorry........I forgot to say "IMO".........everybody on here takes all comments waaaaaaay to seriously!!!!!!!! :groner:


If you want to take the time (even more valuable time consuming process) to wrap something around each and every boolit, more power to the user! Collets save lots of time in all my machine shops. No worry about jaw marks (I have 3 and 4 jaw scroll chucks and several 4 jaw indepentends for the 5 lathes I have) or slipage in the jaw. Soft lead tends to creep and gaul in a chuck, even with something wrapped around it. Woops.......did it again.......IMO!


banger

bangerjim
01-12-2015, 07:31 PM
Again, very interesting. How much weight did it remove from the bullet?
Totally depends on the alloy, the boolit, size of drill, and the depth you drill. Just play around with those factors and weigh the scrap left over or the B4 and after boolit. Use one of those drill stop devices on the drill to control the depth and make it repeatable.

Works for very small quantities of "playin' around" rounds!

Have fun!

banger

sprinkintime
01-12-2015, 07:33 PM
MT2Day, have you check the concentricty on the boolit after drilling? just wondering how close you are to center.
Sprink

bangerjim
01-12-2015, 07:45 PM
MT2Day, have you check the concentricty on the boolit after drilling? just wondering how close you are to center.
Sprink


My take.........

If you have quality tools the run-out should be almost zero. I use those stubby solid carbide circuit board drills with 135 degree cutting angle. They are short, do not wander or walk around. If you do not have those, you can use a standard stubby center drill to get 'ya started. Then change to the drill you have selected for hole size. And drill slowly. Drilling lead is unlike any other material you probably have ever drilled a hole in.

But you should really consider doing this in a metal lathe and not a drillpress or hand drill!

banger

ipijohn
01-12-2015, 08:35 PM
My take.........

If you have quality tools the run-out should be almost zero. I use those stubby solid carbide circuit board drills with 135 degree cutting angle. They are short, do not wander or walk around. If you do not have those, you can use a standard stubby center drill to get 'ya started. Then change to the drill you have selected for hole size. And drill slowly. Drilling lead is unlike any other material you probably have ever drilled a hole in.

But you should really consider doing this in a metal lathe and not a drillpress or hand drill!

banger



Yep lathe only because the spindle and the chuck get you the best concentricity OD to ID. I do use a stop on the drill to control depth.

ipijohn
01-12-2015, 08:40 PM
Sorry........I forgot to say "IMO".........everybody on here takes all comments waaaaaaay to seriously!!!!!!!! :groner:


If you want to take the time (even more valuable time consuming process) to wrap something around each and every boolit, more power to the user! Collets save lots of time in all my machine shops. No worry about jaw marks (I have 3 and 4 jaw scroll chucks and several 4 jaw indepentends for the 5 lathes I have) or slipage in the jaw. Soft lead tends to creep and gaul in a chuck, even with something wrapped around it. Woops.......did it again.......IMO!


banger


Most of us retired guys with machine shops in our basements don't have collet attachments on our lathes.

JSnover
01-12-2015, 09:11 PM
Most of us retired guys with machine shops in our basements don't have collet attachments on our lathes.
No problem. Make a split bushing from an appropriate piece of tubing.

bangerjim
01-12-2015, 09:28 PM
Most of us retired guys with machine shops in our basements don't have collet attachments on our lathes.

But you CAN! For very little $$........

You know.......depending on the run-out of your 3 jaw........you can use a standard hex collet holder and chuck it in your standard chuck. Just find the best position for min run-out and put a witness mark on the chuck and the collet block for repeat positioning. (BINGO....a poor man's collet chuck). I have "true-set" 3 and 4 jaw scroll chucks on my good lathe and they have as good or better accuracy than most collet chucks. You can easily make those too!!!! Really nice to take a piece of metal stock out and put it back in in ANY position and have it dead on......in a scroll chuck!!!!! My 3 jaw is 8" and the 4 jaw is 6".......hard to get stuff that large in 5C collets.

When pressed for time, I use the above collet block trick to save time un-mounting the standard chucks and mouning the 5C collet chuck.

You can buy a set of square and hex 5C collet blocks for very little money. Much cheaper than a Bison collet chuck.

"Where there's a will.....there's a way."

banger

ipijohn
01-12-2015, 09:48 PM
No problem. Make a split bushing from an appropriate piece of tubing.


Thats a good solution to.

ipijohn
01-12-2015, 09:58 PM
But you CAN! For very little $$........

You know.......depending on the run-out of your 3 jaw........you can use a standard hex collet holder and chuck it in your standard chuck. Just find the best position for min run-out and put a witness mark on the chuck and the collet block for repeat positioning. (BINGO....a poor man's collet chuck). I have "true-set" 3 and 4 jaw scroll chucks on my good lathe and they have as good or better accuracy than most collet chucks. You can easily make those too!!!! Really nice to take a piece of metal stock out and put it back in in ANY position and have it dead on......in a scroll chuck!!!!! My 3 jaw is 8" and the 4 jaw is 6".......hard to get stuff that large in 5C collets.

When pressed for time, I use the above collet block trick to save time un-mounting the standard chucks and mouning the 5C collet chuck.

You can buy a set of square and hex 5C collet blocks for very little money. Much cheaper than a Bison collet chuck.

"Where there's a will.....there's a way."

banger


PM sent.

MT Gianni
01-13-2015, 10:54 AM
Forester HP tool works as well. We had a member, Jim in AZ? that made a great tool to hp boolits with but it's no longer in production.

gpidaho
01-13-2015, 12:29 PM
I tried drilling some HPs with a RCBS Trimpro case trimmer. Just put a drill bit of the same size as the shank on a pilot in the cutting head. It works (didn't say great) It was near impossible to keep a true center. Would likely be just fine if fired in a belly gun but would, as others have said, be hard to count on accuracy past a very few feet. And as Banger says JMHO. GP

Bullwolf
01-13-2015, 08:09 PM
I've done the drill bit hollow point thing a time or two myself. In general though I prefer to use a flat nose boolit, vs the expansion and penetration gamble of a hollow point.

My method was to make a split wooden collet to hold the unloaded boolits with, and then drill the HP cavities on the drill press with a measured depth stop.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=52363&d=1304661284

I get a nice looking HP cavity by using two different size drill bits, and countersinking the HP cavity a tad with the larger size bit after, and then I clean things up some with a piece of fine steel wool.

As others have said, it can be difficult to get the holes perfectly centered, which is easily noticed by rolling a boolit on it's side. Go slowly, as lead is somewhat odd to drill into.

I've made a bunch of HP's that were pretty nice looking this way, and couple off center rejects which I simply re-melt later. For me they are just plinking toys. I wouldn't hunt with them, or shoot them into a specific medium expecting reliable expansion and penetration.

They will blow up a 1 gallon milk jug filled with water quite nicely though.

Doing this is an interesting work around with a non HP mould.



- Bullwolf

BenW
01-13-2015, 11:21 PM
To the OP, if you like the hollowpoints you drilled I'd recommend getting a HP mold. Mine came in today, and it's actually faster than non-hp. With my stock Lee 401-175, I have to tap the blocks to get the boolits to drop. With the HP version (from hollowpointmolds.com) of the same bullet, once I open the jaws the inset block slides out from the cavity and the boolits fall right off.

Yodogsandman
01-14-2015, 06:03 PM
I played with drilling some 6.5 Cruise Missile boolits, here's my 50 yard results. I only did 5 rounds. It's a lot of work just using a cheap drill press and a collet made from poly. Then just eyeballed to center them.

They can be drilled and made to shoot somewhat accurately.