CLOSED - MIHEC 300 Blackout 311-230 GRN hollow point 4C HP and 6C Solid

[Wansingct]

Hm, perhaps I wasn’t expanding the case mouth enough as I was getting some marks on the nose from the seating die which may have squished the body slightly. I’m using the separate Lee FCD for crimping but this is the first time I’ve used the Lee universal expander so there’s a good chance I’m not quite over the learning curve yet.

[wmb]

Longer pins would be great and I would be in for some also but I think for hunting the smaller pins would still work well.

Mihec, are you still interested in making some longer pins? If so, let me know when and how I can buy some. Thanks everyone for the hard work!

I would like to have some new pins if they will let me get results like this.

Would be in for buying longer pins as well.

I would like longer pins too. Please let us know if they become available for purchase.

I'm gonna go ahead and throw my name in the hat for some longer pins as well. Not sure where it stands with all that's going on around the world but just wanted to keep this on the back burner.

I'm adding my name to the longer-pin request list.

[fiveinone]

I would like the longer pin also

[glockky]

I’m in for longer pins also.

[Wansingct]

So, good news......looks like perhaps the bullets were getting squished a bit. Loaded up a dummy round with plenty of neck expansion to allow very easy seating to the crimp groove and the bullets went fully into battery, suggesting that the the bullets were squishing during seating due to me not expanding the cases enough.

[JimP]

So, good news......looks like perhaps the bullets were getting squished a bit. Loaded up a dummy round with plenty of neck expansion to allow very easy seating to the crimp groove and the bullets went fully into battery, suggesting that the the bullets were squishing during seating due to me not expanding the cases enough.

Excellent!

FWIW, I like to use NOE expanders (similar to a Lyman M die) that fit in the Lee universal expander die. They are stepped instead of tapered. You can be very precise in your expansion and they're not as sensitive to trim length variations. Just a thought.

[Wansingct]

Excellent!

FWIW, I like to use NOE expanders (similar to a Lyman M die) that fit in the Lee universal expander die. They are stepped instead of tapered. You can be very precise in your expansion and they're not as sensitive to trim length variations. Just a thought.

Good to know, thank you sir!

Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk

[bld451]

So... finally got around to working this situation over this weekend. Made a nose sizer that I use to bump the nose down a couple thousandths after the rounds are loaded, and made some pins... these are .500 deep from bullet nose with 10 degree included taper. There is enough at the end that you could go a bit deeper, but this is almost exactly twice the depth of the originals, and pretty close to the deep pins in my MP 311410 mold. Just getting started with some 50/50 +2% alloy and these puppies. Accuracy with the original pins was ok with the first load tested (11.5 gr 1680) We'll see. I'll apologize that results won't be likely for a little while but I'll post when I have 'em.

They seemed to have a narrower sweet spot when casting. I needed to run them hot and fast. 740 and a 1-2 count as sprues solidified. Pretty close to smearing sprues, but they seemed to drop fine with a little more tapping on the handle pin than usual. Might drop better with blued steel. I used stainless...

[Rescue1008]

Good to know, thank you sir!

Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk

How is your loading going? I just started with this mold today and I'm experiencing the same problems you were. I'm running soft alloy as well and when I was seating my Hornady stem was messing up the nose bad. It's reassuring to hear that by expanding the neck more you got it fixed. I have a NOE M type expander that should be here friday so between it and finding a good seating stem I'm hoping this solves my issue.

My bolt would not go into battery by like 1/2" or so. I really love this mold just hoping I can get it to fit my AR.

If anyone else has any other suggestions the barrel I'm running is an 8" cmmg.

[sutherpride59]

Yah you’re going to have to open the casing so that the bullet fits in pretty easy. I’m using a lee powder through expander for 357 mag with a 30 Luger expander and it works great. An m die might give more uniform neck tension though.

[Wansingct]

I used the Lee tapered expander and it worked well. I'm using a 10.5" no-name upper with feed ramps that probably need widened.

What worked for me was to expand the neck until the seating process didn't dork up the bullet nose and then crimping things back down. From what I'm seeing I think the stepped M die might be a better solution.

BLD451 - let me know if you'd like to sell some of those pins. I'm already running my pot at 850* to get halfway decent results on pure lead.

[mto7464]

When I PC these most will not chamber, due to the the nose running about .302. I test them in the chamber and muzzle of a spare BO barrel I have. Using HITEK takes care of this problem. Plus expanding the neck enough to start the boolit inproves chambering. I had a few that would chamber a little tight and think that maybe this long bullets is not in perfectly straight but it seems the spare barrel corrects that. I push them in and gently tap them out and try again and then they go right in. Not something I intended to do but it seems to work. Need to set those aside and test them for accuracy at the range. So far I like this mold. Function if really flawless as long as I do my part.

[bld451]

I used the Lee tapered expander and it worked well. I'm using a 10.5" no-name upper with feed ramps that probably need widened.

What worked for me was to expand the neck until the seating process didn't dork up the bullet nose and then crimping things back down. From what I'm seeing I think the stepped M die might be a better solution.

BLD451 - let me know if you'd like to sell some of those pins. I'm already running my pot at 850* to get halfway decent results on pure lead.

Yeah, the M die seems to be working well for people. Neck tension should be somewhere around .001". Problem with this situation is that with all the brands of loading equipment, no one brand has all the stuff. I made this powder thru die for my dillon because I didn't want to have a bunch of presses around. I have Dillon and RCBS. Of course the 30 carbine powder die works great for j-bullets but I'm sizing to .310 and a .305 neck was way too tight.

My star sizer was deforming the tips of my soft 247's and 235's for the 300, so I decided to push- thru, but again, I have RCBs, and didn't want to buy a lee sizer for every size, as I'd have about $300 ivested in them and have a bunch of stuff I didn't need (lube, catch cans,etc.) I ran across the Lee Breech lock system and thought that was pretty slick but again wanted to use what I had. The bushings are <10 each and easy to either open up on the lathe or lap out with emery cloth on a stick. I ended up making an adapter for the RCBS that accepts them.

Now I was sizing as intended.

You'll notice though that the bore ride section didn't get touched by the sizer. I was pretty late to the PC game, and of course, when pc'ed, they didn't fit, and it was just enough to prevent lockup in my AR.

No problem with uncoated.... perfect fit.

Now I either had to PC base only (PITA) or nose size. Crap... more equipment? Well since I had the Lee bushing adapter made, I tried to figure out how to nose size. Not much for ideas other than an in/out sizer. I read a post by 45 2.1 about nose sizing loaded rounds. I was crimping all my .308 stuff anyway so why not. Made this

Now I get this... the sized portion of the 235 is between my index and middle finger. Works great. Getting nice round holes, great feeding and acceptable-for-first-shots accuracy.

Getting a small lead ring between the end of my brass and end of chamber, so next steps are to try a variety of powders to see if that fixes it. If you aren't a tinkerer/ resourceful maker, this cast bullets stuff will force you to be if you don't want to just buy what's commercially available.

Each time I make a part, I consider whether I could sell them, but I'm confronted by ¹ prohibitive cost and time investment if I do them on my manual machines, and 2, is there enough demand to source them, market them and deal with orders at a reasonable price. The stuff I do is usually oddball or I'm disappointed with the options or quality of goods available.

This MP 235 is an excellent bullet. A couple of small changes would make it plug and play for powdercoaters but it would probably require a new cherry, and thus a new group buy. I'll hopefully have results on the longer pins soon, and with the NLG design, it would make sense to have the bullet nose drop at .297-.298. The wait would be tough, though...

[mto7464]

Whats your load? I have been using CFE black and Lil gun. 7 gr of Lil gun gets good operation threw a can with minimal blow back. Can't recal what I was using with the CFE black.

[Wansingct]

On the pc front, I’m wondering if going to a harder alloy would give you the clearance needed for pc’ing. Obviously soft lead is great for subsonic and shouldn’t need pc to function well but I sure wouldn’t blame folks for not wanting a bunch of bare lead just sitting around. Perhaps hotel instead of pc would be better. If memory serves (always a dicey proposition) I think hotel was thinner.

[mto7464]

Hotel? Hitek I guess auto corrected? I have been doing Hitek and while I was sizing them went ahead and lubed them too. Not too sure what you mean about going to a harder alloy. Lino will drop larger then straight lead.
Went to the range, using my rejects, since so far on two short casting sessions I have not gotten any good boolits, I got this group. Throw out the high and low one and would be darn good. I like this boolit, almost bailed on it twice since I knew PC'ing could be an issue so that is why I went with the lube groove to give me options. 50 yards, 7.0 g lilgun, 10 inch SBR suppressed, off my range bag with a 4 moa red dot. POA was the middle of the paper so maybe I could have done paper with a better target.

[sutherpride59]

Hotel? Hitek I guess auto corrected? I have been doing Hitek and while I was sizing them went ahead and lubed them too. Not too sure what you mean about going to a harder alloy. Lino will drop larger then straight lead.
Went to the range, using my rejects, since so far on two short casting sessions I have not gotten any good boolits, I got this group. Throw out the high and low one and would be darn good. I like this boolit, almost bailed on it twice since I knew PC'ing could be an issue so that is why I went with the lube groove to give me options. 50 yards, 7.0 g lilgun, 10 inch SBR suppressed, off my range bag with a 4 moa red dot. POA was the middle of the paper so maybe I could have done paper with a better target.

Did you try with the suppressor off? With mine I noticed I was having this round touch the baffles just enough to throw it off when the rounds were going to slow to stabilize.

[Wansingct]

Hotel? Hitek I guess auto corrected? I have been doing Hitek and while I was sizing them went ahead and lubed them too. Not too sure what you mean about going to a harder alloy. Lino will drop larger then straight lead.
Went to the range, using my rejects, since so far on two short casting sessions I have not gotten any good boolits, I got this group. Throw out the high and low one and would be darn good. I like this boolit, almost bailed on it twice since I knew PC'ing could be an issue so that is why I went with the lube groove to give me options. 50 yards, 7.0 g lilgun, 10 inch SBR suppressed, off my range bag with a 4 moa red dot. POA was the middle of the paper so maybe I could have done paper with a better target.

Ack, yes, hitek. And not sure why I thought harder bullets would come out smaller and not bigger. My limited casting experience is showing (only used pure for the couple things I'm casting: 45-70 slow hunting loads, 45 acp and 300 blk subsonic)

Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk

[Rescue1008]

So I played around with it some more and did a pound cast if my chamber. My throat is micing at .309 so that shouldn't be a problem. And the nose of the bullets are dropping at .300 so its looking like I'm just gonna have to take it easy on the seating. I did make a custom seating stem for them today using my hornady stem and some JB weld. I'm hoping that helps. I've also got to harden these up some. Right now they're testing around 5.5-5.7 BHN
I'm shooting for around 9-10.

[mto7464]

Nice thing about Lee dies is you can get a custom seating stem for about 8 bucks. I ordered two today, one for this and one for mp 9mm I also got. I also got the .310 expander that is for the 762x39 and I will take it down to about .308-9. Should make for better seating.

I doubt it was hitting a baffle, the holes are nice and clean, me thinks if it hit a baffle you would see some tumbling. Meant to chrony them this evening and got sidetracked. Kids and I got into a mean Monopoly game. My Senior 2020 daughter won again. I taught her to be ruthless. sucks for those kids of the class of 2020 but could be worse.