softnose cast bullets in the 348

[jwhite]

today i decided to try softnose cast bullets again. My last attempt was with the 45-70 and it worked pretty well, i made the bullets having my father-inlaw help me and he would poor a measured amount of pure lead in and then i would immediatly follow up with wheel weight. this made a good bullet but had trouble with the sprue plate clogging with the first pour and then not getting good fill out with the WW so the reject rate was high. The bullets worked better than i ever thought, they mushroomed perfectly and in testing performed the same as the rem. 405 bullet. the difference between soft pointed bullets and plain bullets cast of the same alloy and fired into the same test medium was amazing. this morning i decided to try some out for my 348, a browning, i have been trying various cast bullet loads and did not have good luck with full power loads so i backed off the velocity and started to get some better results so i figured i would try soft pointing to get expansion at the lower speeds. this time around i did things a little different, i cast just some noses with pure lead by pouring in a measured amount into the mold with it held as level as possible, and then took the nose's and inserted them into a piece of 3/8" flat bar with a hole drilled in it to hold the bullet and then filed the base flat and square against the flat bar. then put the nose in the mold pushing it down with a pencil while closing the mold halfs to hold the nose in the proper position and then poured in the wheel weight, the resulting bullet came out great, better then the previous method i had tried. some were air cooled and then i water dropped some some as well. the few bullets i tried today worked really well even at reduced speeds, could not chronograph as the weather was really lousy here today but the load was 21gr of imr 4227 with a 195gr bullet. for the lack of anything better i shot them into some chunks of spruce, while not a realistic flesh test medium it does allow comparison between soft pointed bullets and non soft pointed bullets. the bullets work great retaining about 85% of their weight and expanding to .5 to .62, for comparison straight WW water dropped showed no expansion at all and a pure lead slug resulted in about .8 and a 200 grhornady fired at 2500fps was .60 and lost 50% of its weight. i can post pictures but not sure on how to do it, i still have the test bullets from the 45-70 experiment as well if people would be interested. sorry to be so long winded.
JW

[Urny]

Interesting report. How did you keep the mold hot between pours while you positioned the already cast nose, and do you plan to use this boolit for big game hunting? Don't know how to post pictures, but plenty of people do it, someone will chime in, I suspect.

[BABore]

The last time I poured some 358156 soft nose bullets I left the sprue plate open when pouring the pure lead in. A quick wipe then close the plate for the final pour. Worked out real well. I had the same problem with clogging the plate originally. I ended up running the pure lead at 900 F and the WW alloy at 750 F. I only floated the mold, in the WW alloy, for about 15 seconds after it had reached normal casting temp. The bullets had a very shiny nose and a frosty base. I tried hotter casting temps and longer soaking times, but I usually ended up with too much shrinkage or alloy admixture.

[jwhite]

I kept my pot as hot as possible, and would dip the mold into the pot after inserting the nose section for a few seconds to help heat things up a bit before pouring the remainder of the bullet. the idea of pouring with the sprue plate open then closing for the rest of the pour sounds good and i will have to give it a try. it might be time to splurge for a mountain mold soft point mold, been looking at them but cant decide what mold material, brass, aluminum, or iron, to get. also having trouble deciding on weight of the bullet, probally a 250gr. any input on them would be appreciated. I do plan on deer hunting with these bullets, but need to do some more load development, unfortunatly i have to return to work for three weeks and by the time i get home deer season will be in full swing.
JW

[Bass Ackward]

I kept my pot as hot as possible, and would dip the mold into the pot after inserting the nose section for a few seconds to help heat things up a bit before pouring the remainder of the bullet. the idea of pouring with the sprue plate open then closing for the rest of the pour sounds good and i will have to give it a try. it might be time to splurge for a mountain mold soft point mold, been looking at them but cant decide what mold material, brass, aluminum, or iron, to get. also having trouble deciding on weight of the bullet, probally a 250gr. any input on them would be appreciated. I do plan on deer hunting with these bullets, but need to do some more load development, unfortunatly i have to return to work for three weeks and by the time i get home deer season will be in full swing.
JW


JW,

I would think that the best mold material is the one that holds the most heat to give you the most time to work. So that is steel, then brass, and aluminum a distant last. And because it is best to center the nose in the cavity first, steel will resist scratching when hot better than aluminum. You want to make your noses large / long enough to handle with gloves on. (good luck, :grin: )