Casting Softnose Bullets From ANY Conventional Moulds

[sixshot]

I've been shooting softnose cast for about 6 years now & they really seem to be working great, we've taken deer, elk & 3 moose with them using sixguns, none were shot more than once. Wish I would have known about them when I handgun hunted in Africa.
I use the Ross Seyfried method but have a dipper in each hand at the same time, my small 380 case carries the pure lead & my regular dipper has the WW alloy, that I water quench . Pouring the WW alloy over the pure lead from 1/2" away doesn't cause me any concern about mixing. My mould is sitting level on a piece of steel plate between the 2 lead pots.
Keep the "seam" above the ogive on your slugs & you won't have any accuracy problems & you can't pull the 2 pieces apart, I've tried it. As Lloyd mentioned, if the nose shears off, big deal, the works already been done just like John Nosler designed his bullets.

Dick

[StrawHat]

I have followed this and other similar threads with interest. I originally used Nosler Partitons and when I graduated to larger bores, cast boolits. I tried various soft nose methods and eventually came to the conclusion that for my style of hunting and for the firearms I use, a bore diameter boolit is all that is necessary. A good hit with a 45 or 50 caliber boolit is all it takes. Now with my 405 WCF, I may have to try softpoints again!

[jhalcott]

You will be pleasantly surprised, I hope. They are cheaper than Noser partitions and about as effective. While I have NOT tried to magnumize them, I have managed some higher than 2400 fps loads. Most of these are Linotype based. A BIG problem is the soft noses deform in the sizing operation. I normally use a pointy bullet for soft nosing for the better ballistics. A flat nose works quite when cast from wheel weight or Lyman #2 alloy. The pointy soft nose can be used at some what longer range with LESS drop and wind effects. The lack of pointed bullet molds in .405 MAY be a hindrance to you.

[StrawHat]

... The lack of pointed bullet molds in .405 MAY be a hindrance to you...

Not so much, I prefer the blunter styles of boolits for hunting. 412262 is not a bad boolit for my uses. Currently casting it at 30/1 and it works well. I do not depend on expansion, just cutting a large caliber hole. I am just not sure if 40 if large enough!

[sixshot]

Use a flat top punch to size them & do it within a couple of hours of casting, they get quite hard after a while.

Dick

[jhalcott]

Strawhat, IF 40 cal holes from your 288 grain slug ain't enough, you are hunt the wrong critter! I've found the Lee push thru sizer to be a workable solution,but some times the gas checks hang up prior to sizing! Those SOFT noses will smash if run into a lubrisizer. My hope is to find a pointy mold that drops Lino at the correct diameter so sizing is eliminated.

[jhalcott]

Strawhat, I received your PM.but I am unable to figure how to reply on the PMs. Anyway , NO I do not have a .405 but have shot one years ago. I'm guessing that is YOUR varmint gun,like my 22'250 is to me! I've got to believe that BIG round nose of soft lead backed by a 200 grain body of wheel weight or Lyman #2 moving along at 2100 fps is a real killer! Perhaps on BOTH ends!

[Sonnypie]

"Perhaps on BOTH ends!"

Shooting High Power (30-06 since I was a kid,) I sure can relate to that statement.

I was wondering if anyone had tried simply dropping something like a buckshot in your mold cavity, and pouring your lead alloy over it encapsulating the buckshot in the nose of the boolit?
Just something I was pondering. Pure lead, nose-coning a harder alloy jacketing, in an easy to use "drop-in" form.

Thought I'd ask before firing up the furnace. (OK, plugging in the pot...)

[MT Gianni]

Yes to dropping buckshot. i have tried it and gotten poor adherence of the molten alloy to the PB shot. I have used 32 cal shot to make boolits as per BruceB's method.

[Sonnypie]

Yeah. I tried it today and it was awful.
I pinched the 00 buck out and remelted the 45's and re-ingoted it.

[StrawHat]

You could use the buckshot as a dose of pure lead but would need to heat the mold with the ball in it for better adhesion.

[BruceB]

From my very earliest experiments, I learned this:

ANY oxidation whatsoever on the "donor" soft-lead component is disastrous to the final product. The bullet will have ugly black patches and POOR ADHESION between the hard and soft sections. My first attempts used .490 round balls which had been cast years earlier. Yuck!

It's important to use metal which has not had an exposure to air for any length of time.

Casting NEW pure-lead buckshot or bullets for the softpoint will work.