hollow point size

[white eagle]

what is the performance differences between differing hollow point sizes and shapes ?????

[Edubya]

With softer lead they will both expand. Needless to say the wide mouth will expand further, faster. Therefore, at lower velocities a wide mouth will stop sooner and expand a good amount. Higher velocities require a harder lead but will expand more and will likely spread shrapnel upon impact with wide mouth HPs.
Try some of both out on a virgin target and make a comparison of the depth and the expansion.
I wouldn't want a wide mouth HP to use on a bear or boar, but a soft skinned coyote or deer might be ideal.

EW

[Centaur 1]

Imho based on recovered bullets. Some hollow points are too small to make any difference, and if a hollow point is too large the mushroomed "petals" can just break off from the bullet. That being said; alloy, jacket thickness, terminal velocity and the targets composition all play a factor in your results. A hollow point bullet that expands reliably at 200 yards from a 30-30 would likely blow up if you shot a deer with it at 10 yards with a .300 win mag. With pistol rounds usually bigger is better, some have holes that are so small that I don't see the advantage over a soft point.

[fredj338]

When Erik did a HP conv on a 45/270gr RCBS mold, we played w/ a bunch of diff designs. What I have found is a large, shallow HP works best acorss a wide vel range, Deep, wide HP work great @ low vel, under 850fps, but blows the nose off much above 900fps. The cup point, as I call it, will still expand @ the 850fps range, but not much, leaving 100% weight behind it. At say 1250fps, it expands nicely in 20-1 or 25-1 alloy & still hase a good 75% wt left.
So when I got my 44 Dev mold, I had him make me a cup point for it. It's agreat hunting bullet @ 1250fps, still holds together w/ that 75% or so retained wt & decent expansion. I also get a heavier bullet for add'l. penetration.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v703/fredj338/44-265.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v703/fredj338/44-272-1K.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v703/fredj338/44-272.jpg

[WHITETAIL]

fred, nice pics.:Fire:

[Blammer]

750 fps, 45 ACP, WW's air cooled, shot into water jugs at 10 feet.

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g81/blammer8mm/Cast%20boolits/45ACP/DSCN8032.jpg

[fredj338]

Blammer, I have the same results in wetpack w/ the 45Dev, but above 850fps, the nose blows completely off. One reason I went to 20-1 or 25-1 alloy for LHP.

fred, nice pics.
THANKS!

[Larry Gibson]

In .30, .31, 8mm and .35 cal rifles at 1800 to 2200 fps muzzle velocity either the standard Lyman size HP or the 1/8" Forster tool gives excellent performance with the correct alloys out to 200+ yards. However, the depth of HP that most Lyman HP stems gives is too much. The expansion petals break off way too soon. I found that, depending on alloy, a HP depth of 1/3 to 2/3 the length of the bullet nose will give excellent results in game.

Larry Gibson

[white eagle]

now please excuse my newby question but when you say 20-1 or 25-1 are you referring to lead to tin ratio ?
have any of you tried the hollow points with the soft point method of casting ?
soft pure up front followed by harder (usually w/w)in back
:lovebooli

[JIMinPHX]

HP diameter, depth & taper all make a huge difference in how the boolit will open up when it hits it's target. Alloy, speed & target type also make a big difference. If I had the time, I could probably spend 6-months just trying different variations of HP size before being able to give you a really good answer to your original question. To date, I've tried about 30 different variations on HP size & I am just scratching the surface. I'm putting the HP in the boolit with a drill jig, so I can vary size & depth pretty easily on just a few boolits at a time.

Yes, 20:1 is a lead:tin ratio. No, I haven't tried soft pointing yet.

[fredj338]

now please excuse my newby question but when you say 20-1 or 25-1 are you referring to lead to tin ratio ?
have any of you tried the hollow points with the soft point method of casting ?
soft pure up front followed by harder (usually w/w)in back
:lovebooli

Yes, lead to tin. The soft point method seems way too much work IMO, at elast for handgun. One can easily drive softer LHP @ 1300fps w/o leading.

[Lloyd Smale]

Ive fooled with alot of hp molds over the last couple years. Mostly in 44 mags and heavy 45 colt loads. Ive kind of come to the conclusion that if anything we get a bit carried away with hp size and especially dept. At mag velocitys most hps out of about any alloy will blow off there nose if the cavity is on the large side. It isnt a big consern when the dept isnt to deap as the fragments do alot of damage and theres enough bullet to keep penetrating simular to what a nos partition acts like. But when the cavity is wide and deap the bullet will just loose to much weight to penetrate reliably. Ive come full circle and for the most part use the smaller pins in my molds now. For some reason and i cant explain this one, i tend to get better accuracy with the smaller hp cavitys anyway.