Got mold back from hollow point company.

[gun toting monkeyboy]

I finally got around to sending my Accurate Mold .38 mold off to Erik at hollowpointmold.com to have him convert it. I am very happy with the results. He sent along the pins to do both hollow points and regular solid bullets. The idea behind this mold was to replicate the Webley Mark III Manstopper bullets from the late 1800s in a .38 caliber round. While I could sort-of manage this by running hollow base wadcutters backwards, I had heard from several sources that you can blow through the base of those with a slightly hot load. Not often, but it seems to have happened to enough people to worry me. So I went with the gas check to prevent that. Here is the final result, after powder coating and sizing to .358". They weigh 138-140 grains with 20:1 alloy. The solid version weighs around 155-156 grains when I use hard cast range lead.

[tomme boy]

Eric does an amazing job on anything sent to him

[gun toting monkeyboy]

Eric does an amazing job on anything sent to him

Yes he does. I think this is the 5th or 6th mold he has done for me.

[sigep1764]

Can we see the mold and the work done to it?

[gun toting monkeyboy]

Sure. I will post that as soon as I get a chance.

[SSGOldfart]

Sure. I will post that as soon as I get a chance.

Great ideal,I'd like to see his work as well,smart thinking with the gas check too.

[GregLaROCHE]

What is the purpose of the hollow point? Accuracy or boolit expansion?

[fredj338]

ERik is a true craftsman, done several molds for me.
Way back in the day I used to load Speer 148grHBWC backwards for jackrabbit hunting. It doesnt take much vel to get them to double dia, maybe 900fps. I never blew thru one.

[Valley-Shooter]

Monkey Boy,
Can you post a pic of the mould?

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

[gun toting monkeyboy]

The purpose of the hollow point is expansion. Given that these bullets have the aerodynamics of your average brick, I wouldn't count on them being useful at anything more than pistol range. What a lot of the old timers would do, back before we had good jacketed hollow points, was to take a regular hollow-based wadcutter bullet, and seat it backwards, so you had a massive hollow point that would expand at the relatively low velocities they used to get out of snub-nosed revolvers. Remember, this was the era when cops still used 158 grain lead round-nosed bullets as a duty load. As I stated before, I wanted to kind of replicate that, but without the possibility of blowing the center out of the bullet. I have several older .38 S&W and .38 Special revolvers that have fixed sights, and don't like today's lighter jacketed bullets. So coming up with cast alternatives seemed like a good idea.

-Mb

[SSGOldfart]

I still load the 148 wc backwards for my 38spl.back up revolver.makes a great short range stopper. Just don't over drive it.

[AndyC]

Very cool indeed

[Dirtshooter]

Good lookin boolits!! I don't think those would feel real good if you got shot with one.

[gun toting monkeyboy]

Sorry, I had to wait until I got home and finished some projects. Okay, the top image is the inside. The bottom is what the base of the mold looks like from underneath. This modification is worlds ahead of the old style were you had a separate pin that you had to insert and remove with each casting. Don't get me wrong, the old style still works. I have several of those that I still use regularly. But this is so much easier and faster.

-Mb

[Valley-Shooter]

The pics of the mould look great. I wasn't expecting a single cavity mould.
I think I'd buy a double cavity if I were to have one made.
How long did it take Eric to do the hollow pointing?

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

[gun toting monkeyboy]

That was the first mold I ever ordered from Accurate Molds, and I was the first person to ask for that particular combination of features. He and I spent about 20 minutes on the phone hashing out what I wanted, he designed it, and sent me the drawings. I okayed it and he made the mold. At the time, Hollow Point was only converting single cavity molds, using the older, separate pin design. So that is what I went with. If I were going to order it today, I would go with a 2 cavity mold, and something about 10-15 grains heavier.