Does anyone still use hollow base bullets?

[Oreo]

I was curious if anyone uses a hollow base bullet in a modern gun. I'm thinking civil-war minie-ball style. As I understand it, the hollow base allowed the bullet to expand under pressure & seat into the rifling well. Has this practice been abandoned because of higher precision of modern tools?

[StrawHat]

I use a hollow base bullet in two cartridges.

Firat is the 38 Special. I have loaded at least ton of the 148 HBWC in that cartridge and shot a bunch more. When I was competing, it was all I used for about 10 years. Set the bullet over 2.8 grains of Bullseye.

The other cartridge in which I use a HB bullet is the 45-70.. I use a 405 grain HB (mine are cast in an NEI double cavity mold) over black powder.

Needless to say the 38 is a modern revolver cut to decent tolerances and the 45-70 runs the gamut from an 1878 trapdoor to a couple of Pedersoli rolling blocks, a Shaw barreled Mauser and other modern rifles.

Are there other loads as accurate that use plian based bullets? Sure, but those loads are still used despite the fun involved in casting HB bullets. Although, the 38 HBWC were purchased and I rarely use the 38 anymore. I don't even know if I have any HBWCs in the shop.

[Tom Herman]

The standard bullet is a 265 grain RN hollow base. It's an absolute pain to cast until you learn the secret (very hot mold & alloy).
The HB is regrettably a necessity due to the Webley mark VI's construction: You have a nominal .455 bullet being swaged to .448 in the forcing cone, and then it has to magically fluff back to .455 to go down the bore.... Thank God my Smith & Colt don't have that issue!
The RNHB bullet cast of 50/50 wheel weights to scrap lead works super in all my guns.

Happy Shootin'! -Tom

[44man]

We spent years competing with muzzle loaders and many of my friends had .58 muskets. Minie' balls of every description were tried, thin skirts, thick skirts, etc, with poor results. Some would not hold paper at 50 yd's.
I would lap the molds for a snug fit in the barrels so it took a good thumb push to start them. After that it was easy to clang a 200 meter ram.
What it proved to us is that even though the hollow base worked, fit was still important. Then the load must not exceed the point where the base flares out when the boolit leaves the muzzle.
I see nothing wrong with the hollow base but if you depend on it to make an under size boolit fit, you might be disappointed in accuracy.

[Boerrancher]

I shoot the HB 405 gr boolit out of my 45-70. I make dang sure that it is a good fit by sizing it to 459, then I load it over 70 grs of the Holy Black. For smokeless loads I don't use the HB boolit, unless I am running low pressure.

Best wishes from the Boer Ranch,

Joe

[beagle]

I'm lucky to have latched on to a lot of the "vintage" moulds of the hollow base persausion when they were available.

I use the 429422 in the .44 Mag and .44 Special. That works okay.

The 358431 works well in the .38 Special and .357 Mag and the 358395 does really well in light .38 Special loads......

But, it's not worth the trouble to go out and find a specific HB mould when PB moulds shoot just as well if you don't have aproblem with oversize chambers or bore.

See castpics/articles/Hollow Base Bullets./beagle

[Cap'n Morgan]

What it proved to us is that even though the hollow base worked, fit was still important.

Exactly!

Tried several different plugs design for my .58 Parker Hale to keep the rattling bullets from tumbling, but to no avail. Finally, I EDM'ed the mold to size, and the tumbling was gone.