Anyone ever un-bevel a bevel base mould?

[Lee W]

I have been reading in various places that the bevel base can increase the leading of a barrel. It makes sense to me.
I have been having a problem with leading in my 1911. The barrel is nice and shiny and slugs to .4505. The bullets are Saeco 067 225 grn tcbb .452 air dropped WW + enough tin for 2%, about 10-11 bhn. The lube is Rooster hvr which is a nice semi-soft lube fed through a new model Star. I use 4 grns WST and the oal is 1.2 which runs fine in my gun. I still get some leading, I would like even less.
Has anyone ever machined the bevel out of there mould? I would, but my lathe is pretty beat up and I am novice at machining.
Thanks

[beagle]

No reason the bevel base can't be removed. I've done many GC shanks and it's the same principle.

A mill's probably the best way to go on that. That's what we use on the GC shanks.

The nice part if you get a LITTLE heavy handed, the sizing die will forgive your sins.

Other than for using in automated loading machines, I've never seen the use for BB bullets. PITA!/beagle

[AnthonyB]

Lee, is your 1911 a Kimber? If so try sizing to .451 before you go to the trouble of removing the bevel. I seem to be in the minority when it comes to bevel base boolits - I like them in the 45 ACP because the bevel makes loading easier in my Dillon. It makes a real difference in the time required to crank out a few thousand rounds, and I can't tell a difference in accuracy at 25 yards or less. I don't like bevel bases in the magnums. Tony

[Lee W]

AnthonyB,
My 1911 is a Dan Wesson pointman. The barrel is a Kart easy fit. I used some .451 that came from a Lee six banger and the leading was really bad.
I am still thinking about going to a plain base. I just got a used 550 and I have not used a plain base bullet with it. I normally make sure the bullet is as straight as possible so I don't know If a plain base would slow me down.

[Willbird]

Personally I would try another lube, MrOliver77 and I bought boolits off this weird guy that sells boolits, them boolits would not lead too bad over 4.0 bullseye in my clark bbled 1911, but put in 5.0 grains and they leaded like all get out.

MrOliver leaded his 1917 from the forcing cone to the muzzle with them, other boolits with other lube are just fine in both guns as hard as you want to push them.

You could also try dropping the tin content to more like .5 to .7, tin helps leading form.

Veral Smith also says, and it makes sense that a bevel base boolit is more likely to have a perfect base where the BB joins the body because sprue plate lifting and such doesnt throw that out of square.

Just a few ideas.

Bill

[Buckshot]

.............I have never had leading issues with a BB just because it was a BB. I do NOT like an excessively pronounced one though, and can see no reason for it. My problem is when lube-sizing only. A 'Handloader' author did a multiple thousand round test with 2 bullet designs. A regular FB and a BB firing from a Ransom rest. There was a standard random distribution to prove one was not more accurate then the other.

In the course of testing no leading issues arose. To backup the test a good quantity of each was sent to the Speer ballistics lab to be shot in their underground range. Speer only knew they had 2 boolits but no knowledge as to which was who. Thier results also showed neither boolit as having an edge over the other.

OT, but the same thing was done testing a roll vs taper crimp. Obviously you could see which was which but there was no reason anyone would want to intentionally skew results. Again, no appreciable difference in accuracy. The taper crimp is the choice for auto's headspacing on the casemouth, and that was about the sum difference.

..................Buckshot

[bobthenailer]

hi i have 4 - 45 acp molds 3 bevel base & 1 flate base and i have never experinced any leading except at the leading edge of the forcing cone after firing many rounds with at least 5 different lubes and 8 different 45 acp with factory & custom barrels ,id look at sizing to different dia [larger]or possible fire lapping the barrel ! good luck bob

[bobthenailer]

i forgot to add this i have a mold that was a bevel base and was expertly machined down to a flat base, it makes perfect bullets but they dont start shooting well until they reach the 1200 fps mark ,i can do this with several powders but the velocity is allways in this range anythig below and they shoot terrible ive tried different alloys , air cool ,water drop & 357, 358, 359 sizing dia and checked the bases to make sure they are square, i have shot them out of 5 different 357 mags, revolvers, single shot pistol & rifle and so far i have not found the right combo , i never shot this bullet before this was done as thats the way i bought it however i have 6 other 357 mag moulds from 125 to 200 gr and they all shoot well at all velocties .i posted a few years ago if anyone used this mold a saeco 388 bb or 382 fb 158 gr swc but didnot get a reply