I've acquired a decent number of 429303s as well as a couple of copies (NOE and NEI). I find them to be excellent shooters, unique and fun to use and load, and they cut wadcutter-holes at extended ranges. I load mine with lighter loads of 4227 and find them to be super accurate, although a bit dirty.
However, the 35893 has long eluded me, the diminutive brother of the 429303.
If you are not familiar with the 35893, it is a 125 grain spire point gas checked mold with a crimp groove. I think having a PB would also be an interesting option: here is a picture of one of my 429303 copies with a PB.
This is a NOE 199gr PB design that is quite similar to the 429303. I think something very near to that could also be done with the 358 version.
What's the reason and purpose of this design? Mostly to be cool and interesting, but it's a superb penetrator too! A hard boolit or a pure lino one at a high speed could do some interesting things. My .44s with the spire point design will tear up mild steel that normally gets dented at most by heavier or rounder designs.
I think most who shoot the design will attest to the accuracy, and the very clean holes they punch in paper. Shooting light loads to relatively extended handgun distances with these is pretty easy with good accuracy, although for extreme accuracy or silhouette knockdown at very long range I think you would be best to look to a heavier boolit. It won't be replacing the -627s in your .357 maxes, for sure.
I may just be farting in the wind as I have no experience with honchoing or designing a boolit but I think it would be easy to get interest in this design. 35893s were milled by Lyman's alchemists out of pure blocks of unobtainium only procured after a ritual blood sacrifice in their machine shops, and as such they bring over $200 for examples on Ebay pretty regularly- it is a fairly well known design, but definitely not a common one. I've only seen one on this site ever, and it went for a large amount as well! The interest in this design is there, and I feel confident that it would be easy to get together a group of enthusiasts for a buy. The "gun shop rumor" that I don't actually believe is that Lyman stopped making the design because it penetrated body armor. I think that's hogwash, but I imagine that if any light .357 lead design was up to it, this would be.
The downsides are that it requires a different seating stem than what you likely have, but Lyman provided me one for the .44 design for cheap, and I saw a member here place a nut inside his sizing die to protect the point, which also would likely work just as well.
The other downside is some makers won't make designs that don't terminate in a flat meplat (that seems redundant). I don't know who or what design constraints are out there.
In further searching I believe a GB may have been run for this years ago... I hope 45 2.1 won't mind but I've taken the liberty of reposting the drawings he made. I do not know if said GB ever came to fruition, as it happened back in 2008 or so if it ever did happen based on the thread I found.
This is a PB version. Lyman's original design is a GC around 125gr.
Thank you for your interest and comments- I have never proposed or solicited interest in a design before, so let me know if there are any concerns we can aggregate and work towards or answer.
|
   
   
|
|
.
Originally Posted by Iowa Fox
